The Department of State Services (DSS) has described Australian Boko Haram hostage negotiator, Dr Steven Davis as “a self-styled and self-appointed negotiator.”
The security agency denied being the source of the information credited to the Australian.
Deputy Director, DSS Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, nevertheless said the body was investigating Davis claims and has invited former Governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff to answer some questions bordering on the fresh allegations linking him with the sponsorship of the sect.
The department however absolved the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika of being financier of the deadly Boko Haram, as alleged by Davis, saying it would be wicked of anyone to link him with the sect.
Davis had listed Sheriff and Ihejirika as Boko Haram sponsors.
Ogar, spoke in Abuja while parading the alleged co-mastermind of the Nyanya blast, Sadiq Ogwuche, along with other suspects, Ahmed Abubakar, Muhammad Ishaq, Yau Saidu, Anas Isah and Adamu Yusuf.
While dismissing the allegations by Davis on Azubuike Ihejirika, the DSS spokesperson said, it was “uncharitable for Nigerians to reward someone who laid down his life, to associate him with the sponsorship of the sect.”
She said it was through the doggedness of the military under Ihejirika that insurgents were dislodged from the major cities like Okene, Kano to the Sambisa forest and that “it is wicked of anyone to link him to the sponsorship of the sect.”
On the former Borno State governor, Ogar said, “Sheriff has been invited twice and he has been invited again (over his alleged sponsorship of Boko Haram). Investigation is ongoing to review every aspect of Davies allegations.”
She also noted that contrary to claims by Davies that the CBN official who handled the funding of Boko Haram, is an uncle to three of those arrested in connection with the Nyanya bombings, none of the six suspects in the agency’s custody was related to another.
“In other words, none is a cousin or nephew to any other and only two suspects namely Yau Saidu and Anas Isah have ever lived together at the makeshift clinic called ‘Kishi Clinic’ operated by Rufai Tsiga, a co-mastermind of the bomb blast who is still at large,” she explained.
She added that further interrogation of suspects indicated that none lived with or has any relationship with any staff of the CBN, noting that the clarification was necessary to correct the erroneous impression in the media.
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