Why petition against NIA Director suffered setback — Sources

A petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against the Director of Administration of Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency, Alhaji Ismail Yusuf, may have been authored by a faceless individual, just as it has been found to be frivolous and written with intent to cause mischief, investigations have revealed.
It was discovered that the petitioner’s claim to being a former staffer of the NIA is false.
A copy of the petition purportedly sent to the EFCC on November 17, 2019 by one Aliu Ismail Oguche, the source said contained allegations that were not only frivolous, but unsubstantiated and a pointer to sinister motives.
For instance, in the document, the NIA Director was alleged to have claimed to hail from Seyawa tribe, Bauchi State instead of Kogi as his home state.
Investigations however, revealed that the Director actually hails from Kogi State and has never claimed any other state in the course of his 32 years of service with the Agency.
A source knowledgeable about the matter told our Correspondent that Yusuf’s entire personal history, including his state of origin, is well known in the NIA and has never been in doubt.
It was learnt that the Director of Administration joined the service of the Agency as an indigene of Benue State until the section of the state he hails from was carved out to form the present day Kogi State in 1991.
Similarly, contrary to the claim that the Director may have corruptly enriched himself and built an hotel in Abuja, investigations showed that in the course of his 32 years’ career, the Director served abroad at different times for cumulative period of 12 years.
The property, referred to in the anonymous petition, which is actually, a bungalow, was indeed a personal residence of the Director and had served as the family house which was later converted to commercial use when it was unoccupied while he was on foreign posting with his family.
A source said: “The family owns a small business, which includes a bakery and a guest house operated by members of the family.
“The Director is not directly involved in these commercial concerns.”
On the allegation that the Director General of the NIA was aware of the “hotel” purportedly owned by his staff and had visited, it was also found to be false.
It was also learnt that the Bureau de Change alleged to be owned by the NIA Director does not exist.
No such business was found to be associated with the Director or the guest house being run by members of his family.
A source said the fact that the petitioner did not mention the name of the Bureau de Change and where it operates in his petition was proof that his allegation was false.
Also the petitioner did not state his actual physical address, neither did he include his real telephone number or email contacts as required by relevant agencies in petitions of this nature, a development that was said to have cast more doubts on the petitioner’s true identity and “a pointer to malicious intent”.
The source added: “The so-called petition is the handiwork of mischief makers, whose motive is not clear, but certainly obnoxious. In essence, the allegations are baseless and should be disregarded in its entirety.”