Bukola Saraki: A Senate President of many scandals.
One of The DEFENDER’s respondents said under condition of anonymity that, “In a situation where you have your Director-General of DSS, a major intelligence chief in the country where you hold sway as commander-in-chief, hobnobbing with a major enemy of your government that Saraki is, not only you are in danger but also the entire nation including all of us, is in danger. That is plus a former military head of state known to be far junior to you who, according to Sahara Reporters, has many of the bureau de change in the land. How would they allow your plan for strengthening the Naira work?
In one of its recent Editorial comments, The DEFENDER warned President Muhammadu Buhari against falling for a presidency/senate reconciliation arrangement that would compromise his anti-corruption war. That warning came on the heels of the conditions given by the Senate to accept the President’s reconciliation saying he must agree to stop the ongoing criminal and corruption trials against one of them, Senator Bukola Saraki and at the same time increase their allowances in the 2017 budget as done to the judiciary. These two formed part of the five conditions by the Senate to accept any reconciliation that would stop them fighting the Buhari’s government.
Not too long to the time of publication of that editorial comment a news came of an arrested DSS operative alleged to be part of a kidnap gang, who confessed that he was part of the security agents attached to the house of Senate President Bukola Saraki, who stole N310 million from huge sum of money brought by a bureau de change operator to the Senator’s Maitama home sometime in 2015.
Reacting to the reported confession of the arrested gang member, one of our respondents said that focus should not only be on who stole the N310 million but be extended to the ownership of the money, from where it was being brought and what that huge amount was meant to do in the house of Senator Bukola Saraki.
In a swift reaction, also, the DSS reportedly issued a statement saying the said amount did not belong to Bukola Saraki and, another DSS source was quoted to have also added that the said arrested DSS operative only mischievously dragged Saraki into it without Saraki having anything to do with.
It would recalled that the DSS up till the time of filing this report had no spokesman appointed by the Director-General, Lawal Daura.
The latest development kept lips wagging as pluses and minuses were done considering the involvement of DSS in how its reports had consistently contradicted President Muhammadu Buhari’s choice of Ibrahim Magu for confirmation by the Bukola Saraki’s Senate as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The same DSS has quickly come out to debunk what has become a public knowledge of the N310 million and its connection with Saraki. The revelation of further truth about the N310 million and its connection with Saraki has been given by Sahara Reporters’ latest report captioned, “why DSS tries hard to exonerate Saraki over N310m robbed by his security aides.”
Sahara Reporters reports that in a development that points to the ways in which high-level personal relationships are undermining Nigeria’s anti-corruption agenda, the Department of State Services (DSS) has again rushed to the media, using unnamed officers, to deny that Senate President Bukola Saraki was the owner of N310 million stolen by the senator’s security aides from an operator of a bureau de change who was moving the cash. Mr. Saraki has close personal friendships with Director General of the DSS, Lawal Musa Daura, as well as other politically influential people, including a former military head of state.
It reports further that a source at the DSS said he and other agents were surprised that Mr. Daura, who since taking office has refused to appoint an official spokesperson for the security outfit, would swiftly use unnamed officers to clear Mr. Saraki of ownership of the N310m stolen in November 2015.
One of the DSS agents involved in the robbery, and who used to be attached to Senator Saraki, had recently asserted that the stolen cash belonged to the senator. Mr. Saraki was apparently moving the funds for use in bribing judges shortly after his trial commenced at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in 2015, Sahara Reporters reported.
The report continued that an Abuja High Court recently granted bail to the accused DSS agent, named Abdulrasheed Maigari, after the accused agent agreed to drop his claim that the Director General of the DSS, Lawal Musa Daura, was aiding Saraki to subvert the cause of justice. Mr. Maigari recently contacted several media outlets seeking to tell the full story of the ownership of the money he was accused of robbing, claiming he participated in the heist out of “patriotism.”
“Shortly after Mr. Maigari began speaking to the media, the Nigerian police arrested him on allegations that he was involved in kidnapping.
“The DSS appears determined to erase the uncomfortable fact that Hassan Dantani Abubakar, the man ferrying the cash from the bureau de change to Mr. Saraki’s house, with police escort, has been Mr. Saraki’s “cash-moving” front for close to a decade, according to political and anti-corruption sources knowledgeable about their relationship.
“Mr. Dantani Abubakar is also a cousin of former military Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar. The former military ruler, who ended military rule when he handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, is also known to own several bureaus de change. Some of the DSS agents assigned to Mr. Saraki told our correspondent that the senator and the former head of state are close friends. One agent said they had driven the senator several times at night to visit the ex-military dictator.
“The current DG of the DSS, Mr. Daura, is also chummy with Senator Saraki. Several DSS aides said Mr. Daura, who personally assigns the bulk of Senator Saraki’s security cover, met with the senator at an apartment in the Asokoro area of Abuja especially during the early days of Mr. Saraki’s trial. One source asserted that the purpose of the meetings was to assist Mr. Saraki in his covert operations to sabotage his trial,” Sahara Reporters said in a report that corroborated The DEFENDER’s fear of how the DSS headed by a man President Buhari trusts so much would be seen consisted standing on the side of a Senate that, by its body language, had declared war on the President that appointed him.
It would be recalled that wife of the President said her husband did not know most of the people he appointed into positions. It would also be recalled that so much had been said about cabals that had hijacked the President’s government and who would not allow his anti-corruption war to succeed.
But the presidency on Sunday vowed that no amount of criticisms or effort by anybody would stop the government’s anti-corruption war from continuing.
“With Saraki now obviously known to be in close relationship with two of such former military leaders, a former military president and one head of state and now with your own major intelligence security chief like that of DSS, Mr. President, how can you tell us that your personal security is guaranteed talk less that you can guarantee our own security as a people supporting your government at our own risks so fare? Do we now need any rocket science to know that Saraki actually meant his word when he said what many tried to deny on his behalf that he didn’t say that he would shut down the Buhari’s government in 72 hours? From all these revelations, Mr. President needs to speak to us before we lose our confidence in him,” the respondent said.
The latest revelation about the friendships existing between the Senate President Bukola Saraki, who was recently said to have uttered a statement that he would shut down the Buhari’s government in 72 hours, is making a lot of supporters of the Muhammadu Buhari-led Change Regime to be worried as to whether the President is actually ready to deal with the people they call the hawks militating against his good intention for the nation.
One of the The DEFENDER’s respondents said under condition of anonymity that, “In a situation where you have your Director-General of DSS, a major intelligence chief in the country where you hold sway as commander-in-chief, hobnobbing with a major enemy of your government that Saraki is, not only you are in danger but also the entire nation including all of us, is in danger. That is plus a former military head of state known to be far junior to you who, according to Sahara Reporters, has many of the bureau de change in the land. How would they allow your plan for strengthening the Naira work?
“With Saraki now obviously known to be in close relationship with two of such former military leaders, a former military president and one head of state and now with your own major intelligence security chief like that of DSS, Mr. President, how can you tell us that your personal security is guaranteed talk less that you can guarantee our own security as a people supporting your government at our own risks so fare? Do we now need any rocket science to know that Saraki actually meant his word when he said what many tried to deny on his behalf that he didn’t say that he would shut down the Buhari’s government in 72 hours? From all these revelations, Mr. President needs to speak to us before we lose our confidence in him,” the respondent said.
The cabal in the Villa?
Sahara Reporters in its October 27, 2016 report, it would be recalled, had stated that a cabal made up of high-level appointees in President Muhammadu Buhari’s office had struck a deal with Senate President Bukola Saraki to cease all forms of prosecution against him if he would agree to block the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mr. Saraki has had a series of legal losses in his bid to stop his multiple prosecutions for false asset declaration and money laundering. The senator’s latest legal misfortune came earlier on that date in October when a panel of the Court of Appeal dismissed his effort to stop his trial.
However, Mr. Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura, as well as the Attorney General of the Federal, Abubakar Malami, the Sahara Reporters stated further, were conspiring to frustrate Mr. Saraki’s prosecution.
Since his appointment as the EFCC’s acting chairman, Mr. Magu had faced unusual impediments from Mr. Kyari and other members of the cabal, all of them members of an inner circle within the Presidency.
Sahara Reporters’ investigations had reported since October 27, 2016 revealed that Mr. Magu got on the bad side of the president’s Chief of Staff when he refused to drop investigations against Sahara Energy, a company in which Mr. Kyari has a substantial interest. Mr. Magu reportedly also incurred the anger of the Chief of Staff when he refused to accept a deal to free Jide Omokore, a businessman with ties to former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke.
The DEFENDER, having gathered all these together, can report that even those in the Senate who are threatening to shut down the Buhari’s government “if the cabals in the Aso Rock Villa push me to the wall” have reason to say so.
According to one of our major respondents, “Ole l’onmese ole nto…only a thief can trace the footsteps of thief. If Saraki has said that he would shut down Buhari’s government if the cabal in his Aso Rock push him to the wall, he does not necessarily mean to shut down by fiat which he has no power to do. What he is saying is that, he will make revelations about the crop of people that Mr. President has surrounded himself with who, like the corrupt Senators themselves, are militating against his anti-corruption war in the country. Is that not going to be capable of shutting down the Buhari’s government?” He asked.
According to one of our major respondents, “Ole l’onmese ole nto…only a thief can trace the footsteps of thief. If Saraki has said that he would shut down Buhari’s government if the cabal in his Aso Rock push him to the wall, he does not necessarily mean to shut down by fiat which he has no power to do. What he is saying is that, he will make revelations about the crop of people that Mr. President has surrounded himself with who, like the corrupt Senators themselves, are militating against his anti-corruption war in the country. Is that not going to be capable of shutting down the Buhari’s government?” He asked.
…Sahara Reporters’s long report continues
Regarding Mr. Dantani Abubakar, from whom Mr. Maigari and other security agents snatched N310 million, a legal expert wondered why the DSS and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had never focused on the obvious money-laundering dimension of the case. “It is incontrovertible that the movement of such a huge amount of money from First Bank was in violation of Nigeria’s extant laws,” said the lawyer.
Curiously, Mr. Dantani Abubakar, who told SaharaReporters that he was out of the country when the robbery took place, was the same persona named by the EFCC in its latest report detailing how Mr. Saraki and his fronts arranged to hijack N3.5 billion out of the N554 billion Paris Club loan refund released by President Muhammadu Buhari. The EFCC exposed how Mr. Saraki, through the help of Robert Mbonu, a former Managing Director of Societe Generale Bank, laundered hundreds of millions of naira through Mr. Dantani Abubakar’s bureau de change in Abuja and elsewhere.
When SaharaReporters first revealed in an exclusive report that Mr. Saraki owned the cash stolen by members of his security detail, the senator denied ever knowing who Dantani Abubakar was. He accused this website of writing a false report.
However, Senator Saraki’s security aides involved in the drama asserted that they robbed the senator’s bureau de change money launderer on November 20, 2015 and stole N310 million that was being transported to the senator. They detailed how they snatched the cash from the bureau de change operator at 5 Nana Close, Maitama in Abuja.
Tracked down by SaharaReporters and speaking anonymously, some of Mr. Saraki’s aides, who are currently on the run, said the senator was in the habit of warehousing large volumes of cash, mainly for use to bribe judges, investigators, and prosecutors in order to scuttle his trial by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for false assets declaration.
The N310 million heist, first reported by SaharaReporters, featured five officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) led by Mr. Abdulrasheed Maigari, the most senior of the DSS officers attached to Senator Saraki. Mr. Maigari hails from Dungo local government area of Taraba State. The other DSS officers involved in the theft were Ibbi George from Adamawa State, Patrick Ishaya from Plateau State, Peter Okoye from Delta State, and Solomon Yunusa from Kogi State. Other participants included four other aides of Mr. Saraki and five serving military officers led by one Captain Hassan Mshelia.
The aides at large revealed to a correspondent of SaharaReporters that Senator Saraki often used a house, 18 Lake Chad Crescent, Abuja, as a warehouse for illegally acquired money. They said huge stashes of cash from First Bank Plc. branch located at Coomasie House in Abuja were often stored in the house. The aides added that the funds were then moved on behalf of the Senate President for use in a variety of special “political assignments” ordered by Mr. Saraki.
The sources said cash was regularly moved from the bank and the house on Lake Chad Crescent to Mr. Saraki’s mansion at 5 Nana Close in Maitama, from which lawyers, as well as judges and their designated representatives, are paid cash to obstruct justice.
According to our sources, Mr. Saraki often used five of his official security aides, supported by five soldiers usually chosen by Paul Ibok, his Chief Security Officer, to move the funds. The aides disclosed to SaharaReporters that, between October and November 2015, there were three cash movements to No. 5 Nana Close.
They said the cash was usually received by Mr. Saraki’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Peter Makanjuola, who also has the duty of distributing it to judicial officers with whom various deals had been struck regarding ways to scuttle the Senate President’s trial. Last week, the EFCC questioned Mr. Makanjuola over his role in laundering some of Mr. Saraki’s alleged loot of the Paris Club refunds.
Senator Saraki’s former aides disclosed one instance in which the senator arranged to deliver N550 million to Justice Alfa Belgore, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). They added that the cash was to enable the former CJN to carry out an illicit assignment of obstructing justice on behalf of Mr. Saraki. On another occasion, DSS officers and soldiers attached to the senator transported N370 million to a venue.
Two of the security agents wanted for the snatching of N310 million told SaharaReporters that the Senate President had 23 DSS operatives attached to him. The senator’s DSS security team, they said, were split into teams A and B, with members of both teams taking turns to provide security for Senator Saraki who lives in an eight-bedroom official residence. The building, known as “White House,” shares a wall with the official residence of the Inspector-General of Police.
Our sources said that, having observed the unrestricted movement of large sums to Senator Saraki’s home, some of his DSS aides also developed an appetite for cash. On November 20, 2015, an aide to Mr. Saraki directed the leader of Team A, Ibrahim Shariff, to call Mr. Maigari, who had been off duty, to return to work for a “special assignment.” On his return, Mr. Maigari was told to join four colleagues and five soldiers to go meet one Ibrahim Kabir, a First Bank employee, to pick up money for the Senate President. They said Mr. Kabir happens to be the account officer for Hassan Dantani Abubakar, Mr. Saraki’s favorite bureau de change operator. One longtime associate stated that Mr. Saraki had been using Mr. Dandani Abubakar to launder funds since the senator’s days as the governor of Kwara State.
Our sources said that, with the increasing scrutiny on him, Senator Saraki had decided against using the DSS officers attached to him to escort cash movement. Instead, the senator asked the management of the bureau de change to make their own arrangement for security escorts to move the cash to Senator Saraki’s home.
However, with their own growing hunger for money, members of Senator Saraki’s security detail had hatched a plot to corner the cash. And they recruited other colleagues as well as Captain Mshelia. Dressed in military fatigue, the security agents positioned themselves near the senator’s home and ambushed the vehicle in which the bureau de change operator was conveying the cash. SaharaReporters learnt that the security officers told those moving the cash that they were under arrest for money laundering. The police officers hired as escorts by the bureau de change operator had to leave the scene when the DSS men showed their identification tags, which gave the impression that they were on legal duty.
Once the policemen left, the DSS officers, including those attached to Mr. Saraki, told the bureau de change operator that they knew of the destination of the cash and that moving huge sums of cash outside the banking system was illegal. The DSS officers then demanded N350 million in order to allow the vehicle to proceed. After a period of haggling, the officers settled for N310 million.
When Mr. Dantani Abubakar was informed of the heist, he reportedly phoned Senator Saraki, according to one security source. Devastated by the development, Mr. Saraki instructed him never to mention his name in connection with the cash. Unaware that those who carried out the theft included members of his security detail, Mr. Saraki thought he was safe from being exposed.
Shortly after SaharaReporters reported the heist, disclosing that the cash belonged to Mr. Saraki, the senator’s spokesman, Yusuf Olaniyonu, issued a statement denying the senator’s ownership of the stolen money. “We want to say categorically that Dr. Saraki is not the owner of the stolen money. He does not know the owner who is said to be a bureau de change operator. The police that investigated the robbery incident and the SSS, which issued a statement on it, can confirm that there is no link between the Senate President with the ownership of the money,” Mr. Olaniyonu claimed in a statement at the time.
However, Mr. Olaniyonu’s claim that Senator Saraki did not know the operator of the BDC has been debunked by the latest EFCC report sent to President Muhammad Buhari on Mr. Saraki’s theft of N3.5 billion from the Paris Club loan refund .
When the issue first broke, Mr. Olaniyonu also told SaharaReporters that the police had issued a statement on the matter. But when SaharaReporters demanded where to find the said police statement, he directed us to a report in ThisDay newspaper, claiming it contained the police statement.
However, the newspaper merely quoted Wilson Inalegwu, Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, as saying: “In the course of the investigation, we were able to get the names and identities of some of them (the suspects). Unfortunately, two of the DSS operatives are attached to the Senate President.”
Every step of the way, Mr. Saraki made valiant efforts, abetted by the DG of the DSS, to prevent the money from being linked to him. Mr. Dantani Abubakar said the robbery took place at 5 Nana Close, off Mississippi Road in Maitama. He also claimed that the robbers dropped off his employees on the outskirts of Abuja.
His version of events, however, was disputed by Mr. Saraki’s DSS aides, who told this online newspaper that there was no need to have treated the staff of the bureau de change roughly, as there was no resistance from Mr. Dantani Abubakar’s “boys.” After taking the cash, the aides said, they left for Mr. Maigari’s house in Keffi, Nasarawa State, where they shared the loot before returning to work at Mr. Saraki’s home.
During our earlier investigations, Mr. Dantani Abubakar confirmed to SaharaReporters that he is a nephew of General Abdulsalami Abubakar (ret.). Some of Mr. Saraki’s DSS aides disclosed that the senator frequently called on the ex-head of state at his Lake Chad Crescent mansion.
Six days after the theft, both Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi were arrested around 8:30 pm, as they prepared to accompany Senator Saraki to see President Muhammadu Buhari. After their arrest, Mr. Saraki’s other aides detained in relation to the heist, requested to see the DSS Director-General, Mr. Daura, to explain why they conspired to steal the money. Mr. Daura declined the request, but sent a DSS officer to tell them that the matter would be resolved internally. He sent firm instructions through the officer that the arrested officers could make statements, but they must ensure that such statements did not link the stolen cash to Mr. Saraki in any way. Two of the detained officers said they wrote choreographed statements dictated to them by investigators as they’d hoped for a soft landing.
Mr. Daura’s friendship with Senator Saraki has dictated extraordinary efforts by the DSS to distance the senator from a scandal that has the Senate President’s fingerprints all over it. Some of Mr. Saraki’s aides still on the run disclosed that, on at least four occasions, the DG of the DSS secretly met with the senator after the latter’s corruption trial had begun at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. The first of the clandestine meetings took place at Barcelona Apartments in Abuja. On two other occasions, Mr. Daura and Senator Saraki met at night at the Senate President’s official residence. SaharaReporters has constantly reported that the DSS boss, Mr. Daura, was providing strategic support to the Senate President to help him frustrate his trial.
A statement issued by the DSS on December 6, 2015, was carefully tweaked to give the public the misleading impression that the stolen cash belonged to Mr. Abubakar, owner of the bureau de change. The statement also failed to provide details of the purported robbery and avoided mentioning that the DSS officials involved were attached to the Senate President. Signed by a shadowy Tony Opuiyo, the DSS statement said: “The Department of State Services (DSS) wishes to inform the general public that the Service has arrested two (2) out of five (5) of its staff involved in the robbery and sharing, on November 20th, 2015, of the sum of three hundred and ten million naira (N310m) belonging to a Bureau De Change operator in Abuja. While three (3) of the DSS staff are now at large, the Military Authorities have commenced a detailed investigation of five (5) of its personnel involved in the crime.” It added that preliminary investigations revealed that Mr. Maigari conspired with four colleagues to steal the money.
Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi were detained at Kuje Prison. Mr. Saraki’s security aides who remain on the run told SaharaReporters that five soldiers are also in detention at Kuje Prison in connection with the theft. In April 2016, the police charged the soldiers to court for robbery. Curiously, the soldiers are being tried separately from the DSS officers because the DSS refused to hand over Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi to the police for prosecution, claiming the DSS did not trust the police. However, the sources said the real motive was Mr. Daura’s determination to handle the prosecution internally to ensure that Mr. Saraki’s connection to the stolen funds is suppressed from the trial.
Representatives of the detained DSS operatives said the DSS first charged them to court in April 2016, after media reports revealed that the money stolen belonged to Mr. Saraki. They were charged to court after the DSS discovered they were planning to demand their freedom through the filing of a fundamental rights enforcement suit before an Abuja High Court.
Late last month, Justice Othman Musa of the Federal Capital Territory Court in Jabi, Abuja, granted bail to the two detained DSS operatives. A senior DSS sources claimed that the DSS was negotiating with Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi to end their prosecution if they would cease any further disclosures on Mr. Saraki’s ownership of the stolen funds. “They [the suspects] have been engaged in a conversation. The DSS will pay up their salaries up to date and ease them out of the service and quietly withdraw the robbery charge against them if they can keep quiet and stop talking to SaharaReporters about the case,” said the source.
A relative of one of the DSS suspects told SaharaReporters that the judge, while granting them bail, warned the suspects “to be careful and to watch their backs.” However, a few weeks after they were granted bail, the police arrested Mr. Maigari regarding an alleged case of kidnapping. News of his arrest emerged in a press statement issued by a police spokesman, Moshood Jimoh. Curiously, Mr. Jimoh served as Chief Security Officer (CSO) to Mr. Saraki during the senator’s tenure as Kwara State governor. Mr. Maigari’s arrest came as he approached media outlets to tell the full story of the N310 heist. When the opportunity presented itself while in police custody, Maigari revealed to Vanguard newspaper that he was the DSS officer that led the robbery gang that took Saraki’s N310million.
Representatives of the DSS suspects said they recently discovered that Sunday Agaba, a man who took part in the stealing of Senator Saraki’s N310 million, and who was described as a bureau de change operator, is actually a retired Army officer. The police shot Mr. Agaba as they arrested him.
After SaharaReporters first reported the theft of N310 million, Mr. Maigari and Mr. Ibbi were removed from the underground cell at the DSS where they had been kept and allowed for the first time to meet with their respective families. It was during such interactions that the detained DSS operatives realized that they had been branded armed robbers. They vowed to give a full account of the heist if they were prosecuted along with the soldiers.
SaharaReporters learnt that Mr. Dantani Abubakar was listed as a witness in the case. However, during cross-examination, he claimed he was forced to come for the trial. When SaharaReporters contacted Mr. Abubakar shortly before this report was written, he claimed to have a hazy recollection of what went on with the bullion van on the day of the incident. However, he insisted that the stolen money belonged to him.
According to the accused DSS operatives, the stolen money was recovered from them in full. However, the DSS told the court that it recovered only N96 million.
Justice Abubakar Umar of Federal Capital Territory High Court 8, Abuja, withdrew from presiding over the trial of Captain Mshelia and others, citing undue pressure from unnamed persons. Captain Mshelia and his gang members remain in prison custody at Kuje.
As SaharaReporters reported in the past, the theft of Senator Saraki’s N310 million was not the only time the senator’s laundering of hordes of cash had tempted his aides to steal from him. A group of aides at his house in Ilorin last year stole cash worth N110 million from his bedroom in Kwara State.
Since Mr. Buhari came to office in 2015 and Mr. Daura became the DSS boss, the security agency has been involved in shielding Mr. Saraki and other politically powerful money launderers from exposure and investigation. Under Mr. Daura’s directive, the DSS wrote scathing reports to the Nigerian Senate in order to stop the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of the EFCC. In its reports to the Senate, the DSS claimed that one Stanley Lawson a former NNPC official, who assisted former Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke to launder funds of $25 million used to purchase Port Harcourt-based Meridien Hotel, was helping the government.
Mr. Daura and President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, were reportedly key in facilitating the trouble-free return of former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, into Nigeria after the ex-governor served out a 13-year jail sentence in the UK for money laundering. In fact, Mr. Daura gleefully told the press that he met with Mr. Ibori to welcome him to his fatherland after UK authorities sent the disgraced Mr. Ibori back to Nigeria. A DSS source said Mr. Daura approved some security agents to serve former Governor Ibori as his official protection since the ex-governor’s return.
