The Department of State Services, DSS, on Tuesday partially
returned some of its operatives who were withdrawn from the security team of
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
This followed a series of
interventions by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who expressed concern over the
growing tension in the polity.
Recall that we had reported that
half of the DSS operatives attached to the senate president’s office were
withdrawn on Sunday — the day police invited Saraki to answer questions over
the Offa bank robbery of April 5, 2018 in which 33 persons, including pregnant
women and 12 police officers.
However, we understand that the
operatives withdrawn from the speaker of the house of representatives, Yakubu
Dogara, are yet to return to their position.
Reacting to a report attributed
to the DSS denying withdrawing its operatives, a member of the house of reps revealed
that: “I can confirm to you that the DSS has withdrawn 50 percent of its
security details attached to the speaker. If they say they didn’t withdraw
them, the details that left were raptured?”
OSINBAJO INTERVENES
On Friday evening, Ibrahim Idris,
the inspector-general of police, had informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his
decision to invite Saraki for questioning as a “person of interest” in the
probe of the Offa heist.
On getting wind of this, Lawal
Shuaibu, deputy national chairman (north) of the All Progressives Congress
(APC), swiftly sought audience with Osinbajo.
Osinbajo had been due to meet
with the leadership of the nPDP bloc, to which Saraki and Dogara belong, on Monday.
Dogara was to lead a team of five
to discuss the grievances of the bloc who claimed to have been marginsalised
despite the role it played in helping APC win the 2015 presidential election.
After Shuaibu’s meeting,
Osinbajo, according to presidency sources, also met with Buhari and expressed
his worries that the efforts to reconcile the nPDP bloc might be compromised by
the unfolding developments.
Osinbajo then met with Idris and
Lawan Daura, the DSS director-general, on Monday over the unfolding political
crisis.
We understand that the police
were planning to also withdraw officers attached to Saraki, but the plan was
shelved after the meeting.
It was also resolved that while
Saraki is not above the law, he should be given the benefit of respect as the
nation’s number three citizen and allowed to respond to the allegations in
writing.
Osinbajo’s proposal was accepted
and police later announced that Saraki would no longer have to report
physically but should send a written response “within 48 hours”.
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