Why Senate Regects Magu Nomation Again

Nigerian Senate again rejected the nomination of the Acting EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for the second and final time.

The President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki while presiding at the plenary said with the rejection of Magu, he seizes to be Acting Chairman of the EFCC. Adding that President Muhamadu Buhari should nominate another head for the anti-graft agency.

A confirmed report has that the State Security Service has insisted the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, is not fit to head the anti-graft agency because he lacks integrity, a lawmaker has said.

Jonathan's NSA Houses in Abuja and Sokoto Under DSS Siege

The Operatives of the State Security Service, also called  have confirmed that the immediate past National Security Adviser, NSA, Sambo Dasuki, and all persons at his residence, are under house arrest. 

The two houses of the former NSA, one in Abuja and another in Sokoto, have been under siege by SSS operatives since Thursday.

It has been confirmed that among those inside the Abuja home of the former NSA is a retired Colonel, Bello Fadile, who worked as an aide to Mr. Sambo while he served as NSA. Premium Times reports that Mr. Fadile was visiting Mr. Sambo when the SSS personnel took over the property.

SSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, under fire for blaming APC for Nigeria bombings

The spokesperson of the department of state security service, DSS, Marily Orga has come under fire for her insinuating position that the Opposition party All Progressive Congress, APC  is responsible for the spate of bombing in the country.

Her statement during a Channels TV interview program, Ms Orga said any time there was an election and APC lose, bombing follows, adding that only when the party won, there was no bomb attacks.

According to her, Ït is not the first time security forces are been deployed for the election duties, we had provided security for election in Edo state and at the end of the election permit me to say, there was no bomb blast. We move to Ondo, the Labour Party won and there was bomb blast. We move to Anambra and APGA won ,there was bomb blast. We move to Ekiti, PDP won and there was bomb blast. And in Osun, we thank God  we were able to deploy appropriately. The results have come out and the APC has won and thank God there was no bomb blast."

Ekiti 2014: Nigerian military orders shoot at sight

The Nigerian military has ordered soldiers to shoot “whosoever is caught with any offensive weapons” in the buildup to the June 21 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State. This is as the military announced that it arrested three persons with a truck laden with out-dated election materials on Thursday in the state.

The run-up to the election has been characterised by violent clashes with the major political parties pointing accusing fingers at one another. Matters got to a head last Sunday when mobile police officers shot at the governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi, and his supporters during a rally in the state capital, Ado-Ekiti.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole orders demolition of kidnappers’ den in Benin

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on Wednesday ordered the demolition of a block of four flats identified as a hideout of kidnappers in the state, which he would supervise by himself.

Oshiomhole, who gave the directive when four suspected kidnappers were paraded before him by officers of the State Security service, SSS, in Benin, said that the den of kidnappers located along Sapele Road in Benin City would be destroyed according to the dictates of the law. “I am obliged to obey the directive of the law, which is that any property used for kidnapping has to be brought down.

Mid-Night Battle: Borno villagers foil Boko Haram attack, kill 200 insurgents, arrest 10

The residents of Rann, the headquarters of Kala-Balge local government area in north eastern part of Borno State  fought off invading Boko Haram gunmen in an early morning attack, killing at least 200 sect members with about 10 also caught alive, officials and locals from the area said

The insurgents had repeatedly attempted to attack Kalabalge, an agro-nomad community near the Cameroon borders, but failed to gain entry into the village on each attempt. Sources said the insurgents, numbering over 300 stormed Rann and adjoining villages around 4 am today but met resistance from the people who had knowledge of the impending attack

Faces of Nyanya Bomb Blast Suspects Arrested by the SSS

Suspected Boko Haram Members Ahmad Rufai Abubakar(left) Muhammadu Sani Ishaq Adamu Yusuf Yau Saidu and Anas Isah that masterminded April 14 El.Rufai bMotor Park Nyanya paraded yesterday by joint security at DSS headquarters in Abuja on Monday

The Department of State Security Service on May 12, 2014, Monday, declared the Nyanya Bomb Blast masterminds wanted.

The agency also announced a N25 million bounty on the suspects for any information that can lead to the arrest of the two that are at large.

Sanusi V FG: SSS ‘disappointed’ with Court judgment, vows to appeal

The Department of the State Security Service, SSS, has expressed its “disappointment and dissatisfaction” with Thursday’s judgment of the Federal High Court, Lagos, restraining it from further harassment of Lamido Sanusi, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.  In a statement in Abuja, Friday, the SSS said that it would appeal the judgment because it had acted under the law in detaining Mr. Sanusi and seizing his international passport.

“It is therefore necessary to state that in impounding the passport of Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Service acted in accordance with the law,”  Marilyn Ogar, the Spokesperson of the SSS said in the statement..

Senator Olubunmi Adetunmb - "President Jonathan: It is time to halt the fiddling"

“The President has spent a great part of the current year junketing across the globe with public funds in needless ventures that could have been handled by subordinates in government.”

In the classic, Quo Vadis, a 1951 American epic film adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz’s classic 1896 masterpiece, Emperor Nero is said to have played the fiddle while Rome burned. 

The most contemporary parallel of that fable is perhaps the tenure of Nigerian president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. 
The allusion to the ancient Roman leader who according to legend played his fiddle while Rome burned may not be misplaced when juxtaposed with the disconcerting happenings in the polity especially in the security sector and the reaction of the Jonathan led administration.

Former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar described it as ‘mind-boggling’ in a recent interview. The killings at the headquarters of the State Security Service, SSS, a stone throw from the Presidential villa, as a result of an alleged jailbreak clearly shows the huge security challenges the present administration is currently facing.

Sanusi Finances Terrorism in Nigeria - FG, SSS

The embattled former CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been grossly accused by  Nigeria Federal Goverment and the Department of the State Security Service has been one of the major financiers of the dreaded Islamist group, Boko Haram.

The Insurgent group that has been threatening the peace of the country for the past five years, killing thousands of  innocent citizens.

BREAKING NEWS: Gunfire exchanges at Abuja SSS headquarters - Premium Times

Heavy gunfire around presidential villa, SSS Yellow House headquarters

There have been heavy gunfire exchanges around the vicinity of Nigeria’s presidential palace and the headquarters of the Department of State Services in the Asokoro District of  Abuja in the past one hour, security sources and residents of the area said.

The expansive headquarters of the State Security Service, popularly known as Yellow House, is almost adjacent one of the remote gates of the presidential villa.

Residents of the nearby Aso Drive Area said the gunshots were either coming out of the SSS headquarters or the presidential villa.

Breaking News: Federal Government orders cancellation of Immigration recruitment

The Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan Wednesday, directed the immediate cancellation of the immigration recruitment exercise which led to the death of more than twenty applicants and scores of others injured.

The presidential directive was given at today’s Federal Executive Council meeting where the president further directed that all those who lost their loved ones would have automatic slot for three applicants, one of whom must be a woman.

El-Rufai finally secures warrant of arrest from SSS

State Security Service, SSS, has finally secured a warrant of arrest for the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai, and has now launched a manhunt for him, the spokesperson for the agency has said. The armed operatives of the Service has again stormed a second house in Abuja believed to belong to the former minister in their desperate bid to arrest him.

They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first house in the Maitama District of the nation’s capital, but could not find him as he had reportedly gone to pick his children from school. They were said to have tried to force their way in to arrest the former minister.

In the latest siege on another property, also in the Maitama District, the operatives were said to have beaten up some private guards for refusing them entry.

The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, confirmed that the operatives visited Mr. El-Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied that anyone was beaten.

“I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told Premium Times on telephone. “We went to the first place, nobody was beaten up. How will we go to the second place and beat people up?”

She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant demanded by Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him to personally serve him the document.
“We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to come and make some explanations about the comments attributed to him.
“He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have now obtained that from a competent court and we are wondering why he is running.
“We want to serve it on him. Or is there any Nigerian that is above the law?
“The president has said his ambition is not worth any Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be making provocative statements?”

The manhunt for the former minister followed his refusal to honour an invitation from the SSS on Thursday.

He cited his pending suit against the Service over his detention in a hotel in Awka during the Anambra State Governorship last November 16 as the reason for refusing to honour the invitation.
Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of arrest before he could go to the SSS office.
The invitation of the APC chief was in connection with his remarks at a conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be violence if the 2015 general elections were not credible.

Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed that armed SSS officials stormed his home in Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the organization to compel him to report at their office without a valid warrant.

The statement said the former minister had on Thursday firmly told the Director General of SSS that he would be exercising his right not to go to the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him and offered to meet the SSS officials in his home or office.

“The armed invasion of his house is a clear indication that the SSS imagines itself as an agency immune from respecting fundamental rights, behaviour akin to a gathering of toughs before whom every citizen must quake,” the statement said.

“The SSS agents did not produce any warrant to back their invasion of his premises.
“The assault on El-Rufai’s house continues a sorry tradition of serial violation of his rights by the SSS which has arrested him at airports and hotels.

“The most recent was the action of the SSS in violating his right to freedom of movement in Awka during the Anambra elections. Without any just cause or formal charge, the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) had unlawfully detained El Rufai, the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the premises of Finotel Hotel, Akwa, Anambra State, from the 15th day of November, 2013 to the 16th day of November, 2013.”

The statement said during the period, Mr. El-Rufai was not only restricted to the hotel, he was denied access to his congregational prayer as a devout Muslim, and kept incommunicado without access to anyone and or the press.

It stated that in order to remedy the flagrant violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 35, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution, the former minister sued the SSS, seeking eight reliefs, including an injunction to restrain the SSS from further infringing on his fundamental right

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