*As arrested DSS official confesses
*’We took the Saraki’s money because we knew it was govt money’
Some of the respondents have called for investigation into how Saraki got the N310 million being brought into his residence but which was stolen by those security agents in his house, what the huge amount was meant for in his house and that focus should not only be on who stole the money from Saraki but also on who owned the money and where it was being brought from to the Senate President’s house.
Almost two years after the N310 million stolen from the Maitama, Abuja house of Senate President Bukola Saraki has continued to be treated as figment of some people’s imagination, the truth appears to have begun to come in the open.
This came as a 35-year-old kidnap suspect now with the police revealed that he was part of the security men attached to Saraki’s house, who stole the N310 million from the house of Senate President, Bukola Saraki in 2015.
The man, Abdulrasheed Maigari, is in police net for another crime. He was among the kidnap gang that has been terrorising Abuja for some time now.
Maigari is a graduate of political science from Ado Bayero University, Kano and was enlisted into the Department of State Service (DSS) as a Senior Intelligence Officer in 2011.
He was later posted to the Maitama residence of the Senate President in 2015 and late that year he said that three vehicles had brought in some money into the compound of the Senate President and knowing that it was government money which he said could have been appropriated they decided to rob the drivers who brought the money about 1 am.
He said that the Army Captain in charge of the security of the place ordered their action and that they ended up stealing up to N310 million which they shared and that his share was N30 million.
He said: “I served in operations department at Gombe and Osun commands of the DSS before my dismissal in 2015. Before I was dismissed, I was posted to the home of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki in Maitama and in November 2015, I can’t recall the exact date, three vehicles brought in the N310 million into the compound and the Army Captain who was on ground that day ordered that we should take the money away because he suspected the money was government money which could have been wrongly appropriated and could, therefore, be taken.
“We were four DSS operatives and four army officers involved and we drove the three cars to a house in Suleja where the money was shared. I got N30 million and I bought a car and took it to Kaduna State where I hid the rest of my share. I came back to Abuja, but on November 28, 2015, I was asked to report at DSS Headquarters and when I got there, I was interrogated over the theft and detained for five months, dismissed and charged to court.
“I was remanded in Kuje Prison, where I eventually fell ill after seven months. I was very sick and granted bail by the court on health grounds.”
Maigari was among those who kidnapped Alhaji Isa Ozi Salami last month and were arrested after their leader had collected N2.8 million and was spoiling for more money when luck ran out on them and the police swooped on them four days ago.
Sources from Saraki’s camp had made this incident of N310 million look like figment of some people’s imaginations when it broke like rumour in 2015. They denied that the Senate President had nothing to do with the money and that there was no such incident of money of that largeness stolen from the house of their principal. What was kept for almost two years is not in the open, our reporter has found out.
The same Senate President had continued to be “probed” and cleared – by his own loyalist ethics and privileges committee of the Senate – of several criminal and corruption allegations against him which are now rubbing on the integrity of the Senate as a vital institution of the Nigerian government.
Commenting on the report of N310 million now more publicly revealing as stolen from Saraki’s house, some of the respondents have called for investigation into how Saraki got the N310 million being brought into his residence but which was stolen by those security agents in his house, what the huge amount was meant for in his house and that focus should not only be on who stole the money from Saraki but also on who owned the money and where it was being brought from to the Senate President’s house.
