Ayo Oke, former director-general
of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and his wife are no longer in the
country.
TheCable reports that Oke, who was to be arraigned
along with his wife by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on
Friday, left the country last week.
He is said to be in a European
country “for medical reasons”.
There are speculations that he
may not be around for the arraignment.
In April 2017, EFCC said it had
discovered $43 million, £27,000 and N23 million stashed in a flat in Ikoyi
after a tip-off from a whistle blower.
Following reports that the monies
belonged to the NIA, we subsequently reported that the agency had
collected $289,202,382 in cash for special operations from the account of the
National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) at the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) in February 2015.
NIA said the funds were part of
“covert intelligence operations” but there was public outcry that it was a case
of looting.
A three-man panel headed by
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo indicted Oke and recommended his dismissal, which
was effected in October same year.
On January 20, 2019, Osinbajo
said criminal allegations would be filed against Oke and Babachir Lawal, former
secretary to the government of the federation, following a directive from
President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sources in the intelligence
community revealed that subjecting Oke to open trial might compromise the
nation’s security operations.
“Most of the projects financed by
NIA from the funds are aimed at gathering intelligence and these things are
usually done through cash transactions. Government might have succumbed to
public sentiments to treat it as a crime, but there will be dire consequences
for the nation’s security operations,” an NIA operative said.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com