Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) has received
orders to arrest Samuel Ogundipe, a journalist with Premium Times for
writing an exclusive report which exposed a rift between the National
Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to
President Muhammadu Buhari, sources familiar with the development told
SIGNAL on Saturday.
Ogundipe’s report detailed how Monguno
accused Kyari of undue and dangerous interference on matters bordering
on national security and subsequently fired a warning memo to all
service chiefs to desist from taking further directives from Kyari.
In
the letter first made public by Premium Times, Monguno said Kyari’s
directives to service chiefs were sometimes issued without the knowledge
much less approval of the president, a practice he said has added to
the government’s inability to contain insecurity.
The journalist
who is now very concerned about his saftety has gone into hiding having
received threats and information about being arrested by the DSS to
extract from him details of his source.
“My email account was
hacked yesterday. I have been told that they are looking for me to get
the source who leaked the letter to me”, the journalist told SIGNAL.
Ogundipe
is well known for breaking reports on matters of national security, one
of which led to his arrest and detention by the Nigerian Police in 2018
for refusing to reveal his source.
Former Chairman of Nigeria’s
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu also
confirmed the development in a tweet.
Source: THE SIGNAL
