The embattled former Director General of Department of State Services (DSS) Lawal Daura have been released with his international passport seized.
Recall that the acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday ordered the immediate sack of the top spy chief after ordering the deployment of masked DSS operatives to lay siege to the National Assembly.
Intelligence report has it that Daura was released on Wednesday evening from a guest house run by the DSS in Gwarimpa area of Abuja where he had been placed on house arrest since dismissal on Tuesday.
The presidency said the deployment of the DSS officials to the National Assembly was unauthorised.
The presence of masked DSS agents who prevented federal lawmakers and staff members from entering the parliament drew nationwide outrage on Tuesday morning. By afternoon, the acting president, apparently incensed by the images of the ensued fracas being beamed across the world, ordered Daura’s instant dismissal from service.
He was also asked to be remanded in custody, following allegations he might have committed some of the gravest heist and betrayal in Nigeria’s national security history.
He was initially reportedly taken to the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad facility in Guzape neighbourhood, Abuja, where he spent time answering questions for his highly controversial tenure at the secret police.
Later on, he was moved to one of the numerous guests houses run by DSS around the Federal Capital Territory. Specifically, he was detained at a building in Gwarinpa, a massive residential community filling the northwestern corridor of the capital, security sources informed of the matter said.
“He was given his phones and released to go,” a source said. “But his international passport was taken from him.”
It was not immediately clear where Daura is currently putting up, but security sources said he would not be able to go under the radar given the intensity of surveillance already placed on him.
His two known telephone lines were still switched as at the moment this story was ready for publication. The DSS has not had a spokesperson since September 2015, shortly after Mr Daura took over, despite demands by media advocates.
The police did not return requests for comments about when Daura was handed over to the DSS and other details surrounding his interrogation.
