President Buhari Orders DSS To Hand Over Judges' Cases To EFCC

President Muhammadu Buhari is not happy with the Department of State Security Service and has ordered the agency to hand over the case of judges it arrested to the EFCC.

President Muhammadu Buhari

 

President Muhammadu Buhari, reportedly ordered the Department of State Security to hand over the cases of Judges it is handling to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission as he is unhappy with the work of the DSS after a team of lawyers reviewed the evidence gathered from the agency’s recent raid on judges suspected of corruption, according to a report by SaharaReporters.

 

The decision, it is believed became pertinent following the delay in filing charges against the judges, and the shoddiness of the performance of DSS gave some of the judges the opportunity to start recanting their statements and twisting the facts of their cases.

 

After weeks of reviewing the evidence assembled by DSS, as well as the statements made by the judges involved, the president is said to be unsatisfied with the conduct of the investigation as he wants it to be handled more professionally.  

 

The report further stated that the President, as well as the office of the Vice President which also reviewed the cases, decided that multi-agency collaboration was needed to strengthen the cases before they go to court.

 

The DSS was initially mandated to work with the EFCC to do thorough investigations before a raid was carried out, but sources told SaharaReporters that due to intra-agency rivalry, the DSS refused to hand over case information to the EFCC and hid their plans from the anti-corruption agency, preferring to work with the Nigeria police. 

 

Police officers invited on the raid, in turn, leaked the plans to the judges involved.  In the case of Rivers State, for instance, the police tipped off the state Governor, Nyeson Wike, who then mobilized, with the support of the state Commissioner of Police, to personally stop the arrest of a federal judge. 

 

Another reason adduced for the action of the DSS was said to be the desire by the Director-General of the agency, Lawal Daura, to warm himself into the heart of the President.

 

President Buhari has now ordered him to work with the EFCC and ensure that future investigations are properly done.