Sources close to the security forces have confirmed the reasons why staff of the Department of State Security (DSS) jubilated when they heard of the sack of immediate-past Director General, Lawal Musa Daura.
Recall that Daura was sacked by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday after he ordered masked and heavily-armed DSS agents to blockade the National Assembly Complex allegedly without official authorisation.
He has since been replaced by Matthew Seiyefa.
It was gathered that Daura assumed extraordinary powers immediately he assumed office and that he ensured that all Directors at the National Headquarters of the service were made to queue up to pay homage to him daily.
A source said, “To add salt to injury, you cannot even go and ease yourself because, once he sighted you in the CCTV that you have left, you are in soup.”
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Before Daura, Directors at the Headquarters of the service were allocated a Prado SUV and a Peugeot 508 as official cars and one Toyota Hilux as utility car.
It was also gathered that Daura reduced the monthly subvention of the Directors by as much as 70 per cent under the pretext that there was no money.
The former DG DSS was also said to have stopped the welfare of all DSS staff even though it was said that he approved US dollars to sponsor some trips abroad.
Many of the operatives were allegedly denied their allowances usually paid for operational deployments.
A source said that in 2017, the former DG DSS allegedly sponsored 32 persons, including “some of his wives and grandchildren to the USA with some of them getting as much as $10,000 for adults and others got $5,000 as PTA.
“Training programmes and other official benefits were stopped. Even overseas training which are to be sponsored by the foreign institutions suffered because of lack of interest to treat files. Most at times, the event must have been concluded months after, before he would see the file and he was always proud to write ‘belated, file away,” a source stated.
But sources said that despite the claim of paucity of funds, the man was said to have placed his children and grandchildren and their spouses on monthly allowances of about N200,000 monthly.
The source further said: “The wives and grown up children were collecting petrol voucher for 100 litres per week, whereas operational vehicles are not properly fuelled, except those on standby for special operations like the operation at the National Assembly.”
“Officials of the DSS were told that Dangote Group donated vehicles just like the company did to the Police but that the embattled ex-DG converted the vehicles to personal use.
“Each wife goes around in convoy with details. In fact, the third wife who is based in Kano is nursing the ambition to contest for House of Reps in Kano.”
He was also said to have diverted trailer loads of rice donated by Dangote to Kano so that the said wife would use it as political gift to would-be constituents.
Further details indicated that even Daura’s neighbours in Gwarimpa, Abuja and Katsina did not enjoy him as some of them were said to have jubilated over his removal because of his oppressive conducts.
A source in the know said: “When a transformer serving his house in Daura got burnt, the neighborhood was all looking for his help for replacement.
“Daura however bought a smaller transformer that will serve only his house and connected same without minding what became the fate of his neighbours.”
His neighbours in Gwarimpa lamented that since he became DG DSS it has remained difficult to see him for any help.