…challenges invitation by police to appear in Abuja
Former deputy of Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailafia, says he resigned from the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in protest against ongoing killings of his kinsmen in Southern Kaduna.
Mailafia has been grilled twice by the Jos, Plateau State office of the Department of State Services over comments he made recently on a radio station that repentant Bandits told him that a serving Northern Governor was a commander of the terrorist group.
The former CBN deputy governor had said among other claims 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.’
But Mailafia said on Monday, “I have resigned from NIPPS.
“Nobody asked me or pressurised me to resign. I did it on my own.
“I decided that I cannot continue working, with all my good conscience, when my people are continually being killed and genocide is being committed against my people.
“That was the reason I gave, and the management has accepted my resignation.
“I gave them one month’s notice from 18th August to 18th September, when the resignation will take off properly.
“And my resignation is for the best interest of everybody.”
Mailafia has also challenged the invitation by the Nigeria Police Force to appear at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
His lawyer, Yakubu Bawa, told newsmen in Jos, Platuea State that the service of the letter of invitation on Mailafia by the Police, through the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police Force Criminal Investigation Department, was strange and alien to the extant laws and procedure.
He said it was necessary to state that the case the Police had invited his client for cannot be unconnected with that which the DSS had grilled him for twice.
He explained that it is important to note that the DSS is the only statutory body empowered by law to investigate alleged crime against internal security and not the Nigeria Police Force.
Bawa said that Section 3(a) of the Security Agency Act clearly stipulates this position and in consonance with the said provision, the DSS had assumed investigation into the matter.