Niger Delta Avengers: DSS set to interrogate Jonathan’s cousin, former NIMASA boss

– The Department of State Services (DSS) is making efforts to unravel the origin of militant group, Niger Delta Avengers

– The DSS is reportedly considering questioning some associates of former President Goodluck Jonathan

– Top of the list are Jonathan’s cousin, Robert Azibola and his former aide, Waripamowei Dudafa

A source has told Leadership newspaper that the agency is mulling the idea of questioning some associates of former President Goodluck Jonathan to probe their alleged links with the Niger Delta Avengers.

Many of Former president Goodluck Jonathan former aides and associates are in detention due to fraud charges leveled against them by the EFCC

The source said former presidential aide, Waripamowei Dudafa, and Jonathan’s cousin, Robert Azibola, would be invited by the DSS within the week to explain if they have any connections with the militant group.

Also to be invited is the former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi.

Interestingly, the trio are currently facing fraud charges with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

READ ALSO: Buhari makes another move, READ what he is doing to appease Niger Delta Avengers

EFCC slammed two separate charges in two different courts on Apkobolokemi.  Akpobolokemi is facing a 40 count charge of fraud and money laundering for the sum of N34.5billion in one of the charges, filed at the Federal High Court.

In the second, which was filed at the Lagos State High Court, he is accused of stealing another N600m.

Dudafa alongside Jonathan’s ex Aide-de-Camp, Col. Ojogbane Adegbe, were accused of giving N10bn to delegates at the presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  in December 2014, in which Jonathan emerged as the winner.

He was arrested at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos a month ago. 

A top security source on Thursday, June 2 said some close associates of Goodluck Jonathan are suspected of being behind the on-going crisis in the Niger Delta region. Azibola was named as one of those under watch.

Dudafa and Azibola are yet to be charged to court weeks after their arrest and detention. Their legal representatives have petitioned relevant agencies over the ordeal of their clients.

But the source confided said the inability of the EFCC to effect the bail of Dudafa and Azibola was as a result of an ongoing searchlight on the duo.

His words: ‘‘The issue of their bail or not is beyond the EFCC. Remember that once national security is involved, nothing will be left unturned to unravel whatever that needed to be exposed.

“As a body, we have been inundated with reports that the trio of Akpobolokemi, Dudafa and Azibola were at the Yenagoa meeting in January 2015 where some ex-militants vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan lost the presidential election.

‘‘What are we seeing today? Is it not violence and renewed militancy? So we are going to find out the links they have with the so-called avengers before the issue of their bail could come up because we won’t compromise national security under any guise.

‘‘We were not merely playing to the gallery when we said officials of the past administration were possible sponsors. We have just started and why we can mention names to be quizzed is because they are already in our custody and we can’t mention others under surveillance so as not to jeopardize investigation.”

READ ALSO: MASSOB unveiled as major Niger Delta Avengers supporter

Meanwhile, the federal government of Nigeria has begun an investigation into the possibility that some foreign nations may be backing Niger Delta Avengers.

The intelligence arm of the military and other security agencies were said to have launched an investigation into the source of supply of the sophisticated arms at the disposal of the militant group.

In a related development, the south south zone of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has blamed the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for the current attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region.

The party said the attacks were sponsored to derail President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

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