Former lawmaker says Buhari is under pressure from his relatives to reinstate Lawal Daura

SECOND Republic lawmaker Junaid Mohammed has alleged that some of President Muhammadu Buhari's relatives are pressurising him to reinstate the sacked director-general of the Department of Security Services (DSS) Lawal Daura.

Earlier this month, acting president Professor Osinbajo dismissed Mr Daura after he got men of the DSS to invade the National Assembly and since his sacking, he has been placed under house arrest and is being investigated for corruption too. Professor Osinbajo asked the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Ibrahim Magu, to probe funds given to the DSS, which Mr Daura refused to give account for.

While in office, Mr Daura prevented Mr Magu and his agency from investigating or arresting top security chiefs suspected to have been involved in large scale cash movements. All this happened while President Buhari was away on holiday in the UK and following his return to Nigeria yesterday, the president has written to the National Assembly, informing it that he has resumed duty.

However, Mr Mohammed claimed that President Buhari’s kinsmen want Mr Daura reinstated, demanding also that the national security adviser, retired Major General Babagana Monguno, be fired. According to the former lawmaker, the intrigues surrounding the sack and alleged move to reinstate Mr Daura was an indication of how incompetent the presidency is.

Mr Mohammed said: “There is an ethnic attempt by those who are related to Buhari, who are from Daura, who must be related to Lawan Daura, who now want Buhari to reverse himself and virtually bring back Lawan Daura and then sack the national security adviser who was supposed to be Lawan Daura’s boss but who he never respected and who he was not even in speaking terms with. You can see that the whole thing now is becoming a typical Nigerian football game where everybody kicks it the way he likes.

“What happened was very unfortunate and whichever side you want to blame or give credit to, it has really reduced our country, our democracy to that of a banana republic and since the event happened, there has been no statement, except the one which came from the office of the acting president, denying any involvement in what happened. Now, this Lawan Daura has been arrested and all the noise about searches being conducted in his house or houses either in Abuja or other places.

He added that since the event happened and the dismissal and arrest of Mr Daura, there has been no statement from President Buhari himself, only guesswork. According to Mr Mohammed, there is also the spin that what Professor Osinbajo did was done with the knowledge and blessings of President Buhari.

"As far as I am concerned, the event itself has been a great disservice to this country and as I said, it has reduced us to the place of a banana republic which is very, very unfortunate. This democracy has cost us so much in terms of money, in terms of labour, in terms of political argumentation for it to be seen to be threatened this way by a gangster and a few of his servicemen holding huge Israeli guns, it is really unfortunate and it speaks volumes about the kind of government we are running and the kind of leadership we have.

“It speaks volumes about the incompetence and the irresponsibility of this presidency, the ruling party and the main opposition party and all seems to be a bloody mess. If you recall, like I told you before the elections and thereafter, that there is no difference between the ruling All Progressives Congress and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which are in fact two sides of the same coin," Mr Mohammed added.