A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, says labour leader Joe Ajaero is under investigation for alleged terrorism financing and related offences and is not supposed to leave Nigeria.

“There is an ongoing investigation, he (Ajaero) cannot leave the country,” Amachree said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday. “Let him remain in the country whilst investigations are going on.”

“For terrorism financing which he (Ajaero) has been accused of, and which is under investigation, he cannot leave the country. Even if he is leaving the country, where is he going?

“Remember, the main man (Andrew Wynne) that was suspected of financing terrorism is his tenant and I don’t think Ajaero is going to go to London without talking to that person because he is in London running his mouth,” Amachree said.

The ex-DSS director said the person of Ajaero is different from the office of the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which he currently occupies. He said Ajaero is being investigated on a personal note and not as NLC boss.

Amachree said Ajaero must have been on the watch list of security agencies for him to be stopped and picked up at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Monday morning.

‘Not Above The Law’

The former DSS director alleged that the labour leader could have fled Nigeria like wanted Binance executive Nadeem Anjarwalla if allowed to travel to the United Kingdom on Monday.

“Joe Ajaero has a terrorism case to answer and he is not above the law,” he said, adding that the intelligence agencies in Nigeria should be doing everything to repatriate Wynne from Britain to Nigeria.

The secret police arrested Ajaero on Monday morning and released him around midnight.

The labour leader was on his way to the United Kingdom on Monday for a Trade Union Congress (TUC) event when he was arrested at Abuja airport.

The labour leader said though he was detained by the DSS, some police officers also came around to grill him at the DSS office in Abuja over the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests that took place in August.

Ajaero said he was quizzed over alleged terrorism financing involving Wynne, who has been declared wanted by the police. Both Ajaero and Wynne denied all the allegations levelled against them by security agencies. (Courtesy, excluding headline, Channels TV)

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