Civil society groups accused Daura of siphoning £3m voted to secure the release of Chibok and Dapchi girls

CIVIL society group the Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance (Cacobag) has ask the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe two foreign banks accounts linked to the former Department of State Services (DSS) director-general Lawal Daura.

Last week, Mr Daura was sacked by acting president Professor Yemi Osinbajo after he ordered DSS men to seal off the National Assembly. Following his sacking, Mr Daura has been placed under house arrest and is currently being investigated for corruption too as he did not allow his department's finances to be audited while he was heading it.

Cocabag has now written to the EFCC, asking it to probe two accounts linked to Mr Daura, pointing out that it is likely money set aside to secure the release of girls kidnapped by Boko Haram had found their way there. Cocabag chairman Alhaji Toyin Raheem, said they supported Mr Daura’s sacking, saying it would pave the way for the unravelling of allegations around the security chief.

Alhaji Raheem alleged that Mr Daura siphoned about £3m allegedly paid by the federal government to secure the release of some of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok and Dapchi towns in Borno and Yobe States. He claimed that this cash found its way into the two foreign bank accounts and is asking that the matter be investigated.

“We have been calling on the EFCC for some weeks now to unravel the mystery face behind a pseudo name used to operate two foreign accounts into which some part of over £3m allegedly paid by the federal government to secure the release of some of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok and Dapchi towns in Borno and Yobe States respectively has been traced to. We are glad to tell Nigerians that our formal petition with documentary evidence is now ready and will be submitted to the EFCC on Tuesday in Abuja so that the anti-graft agency can have a lead to work on in unravelling the link between Daura and the name Auwalu Kallamu.

“The information available to the group show that foreign investigators have been probing the alleged diversion of millions of euros by a Nigerian security chief using the pseudo name as part of payments to secure the release of some of the abducted girls,” Alhaji Raheem added.