News analysis: Daura and removal of the untouchable

In the Nigeria security community, he was considered as a lord. Since his appointment on July 2, 2015, by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura has acted like a man on a mission.

But, his mission in office has been very unclear as many of his actions is believed by many to be against the Presidency that appointed him and that he reports to.

Among his many controversial actions is the re-arrest of former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki on December 29, 2015, after he was granted a court bail. Dasuki has since not been released despite several court orders.

The continued detention of the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, after a military attack on his house in Zaria, Kaduna State in December, 2015, despite several court orders is another case in point.

In July 2016, a journalist, Jones Abiri, was arrested and detained without trial. Abiri has only recently been arraigned, two years after his disappearance. His mother initiated a controversial plea that shocked the country.

In the wee hours of October 8, 2016, the DSS under Daura invaded homes of judges accused of corruption. None of the judges has so far been found guilty in court.

In April 2017, the DSS was alleged to be involved in staff recruitment that was greeted with controversy over claims of lopsidedness

On June 22, this year, the DSS raided the home of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe after his arrest on allegations of gun-running and sponsoring Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).

One case that really brought the cativities of the DSS under Daura to negative limelight was the March 2017 security report the DSS sent to the Senate, when it was about to screen the Acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, discrediting him and detailing corruption allegations as reason why he is unfit for confirmation as substantive chairman.

That action came as a shock to Nigerians who wondered why the Daura-led DSS will send such report to the Senate instead of the Presidency that both the EFCC and the DSS report to.

That DSS report against the Acting EFCC chairman is one reason why Magu has remained in acting capacity and many wondered why the Presidency has left him in the position despite the outright disregard to his employer.

Perhaps his action on Tuesday of sending his hooded operatives to lay a siege on the National Assembly, without clearing from the Presidency, considering that the legislature is another arm of the same government, many have seen as one disregard too many.

When the news broke in the early hours of Tuesday morning, many had thought that it was a deliberate act by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government just as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had alleged that the President’s holiday abroad was part of a plot to destabilise the National Assembly.

However, the action of the Acting President, obviously in consultation with the President has put a lie to that assumption.

Many had also assumed that the action whether authorised by the President or not will not attract any consequences. This is because Daura is close to President Buhari and also from his home state of Katsina, so nobody believed that anything can happen to him.

But the event of Tuesday which had painted the nation before the world on a negative note, put a lie to that, as the action of Osinbajo was a saving grace, because it will go a long way to prove that indeed President Buhari is in-charge of the government against the thinking of many.