The Department of State Services (DSS) on Wednesday grilled a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia, for about seven hours over his allegation that a governor from the North is the leader of Boko Haram.
Obadiah made the allegation during an online radio station interview which was circulated on the internet as well as social media, saying that his claim was from ‘credible’ repentant bandits and their leaders.
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Among other claims made by the former CBN deputy governor was that during the lockdown, the insurgents were moving and distributing arms and ammunition across the country, and that their planes were moving up and down as if there was no lockdown.
The interview prompted the DSS to invite him to appear in their Jos office Wednesday afternoon.
Mailafia arrived at the DSS office with his lawyers, wife, family members, friends, and many Middle Belt pressure groups which vowed not to leave the DSS premises until Mailafia was released.
They also revealed that other Middle Belt groups were on their way to Jos from across the states.
Meanwhile, it was only Obadiah and his lawyers that were allowed into the DSS office, while the rest of the crowd remained outside.
Addressing the crowd outside, Mailafia’s wife, Margaret Mailafia, said her husband did nothing wrong, but rather made his research on the security situation of the country.
She said the DSS and other security agencies should not see her husband as a criminal, but as a friend of the nation.
Later, the media were allowed inside to speak with him, and in his address, he said he was a peace-loving patriot who was ready to lay his life for the nation.
He said the interview was actually a 55 minutes clip and that for anyone to fully understand the context of what he said in that interview, the full clip must be listened to.
He said he was pained by the killings taking place in Zamfara, Katsina, southern Kaduna, among other places, and that he was privy to some sensitive information which all statesmen were privy to as a result of their public roles.
According to him, he and the DSS had an extensive discussion, and that he was nicely treated.
He was released at about 7pm and he then addressed his sympathisers before they dispersed.
His lawyer, Yakubu Bawa, said they were not told to report back for any further interrogation.
