SOKAPU to DSS: Nothing must happen to Mailafia

The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union has warned against what it termed deliberate plot by the Department of State Services to coerce a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadia Mailafia, into silence over his radio interview comment.

SOKAPU also condemned a third invitation extended by the DSS to the ex-CBN official to be honoured on Monday.

Mailafia, a native of Southern Kaduna, had said he resigned as a directing staff at the prestigious National Institute of Police and Strategic Studies, Kuru in Jos, Plateau State because of the persistent attacks and killings of his kinsmen by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

A statement by the National President of the SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake, on Sunday in Kaduna, warned that nothing untoward must happen to their “illustrious son”.

The union said it smelt a rat that since the revelation by the former CBN chief, security operatives, especially the Department of State Services, had been on his trail.

The motive of the DSS, the SOKAPU said, was either to harass him or silence Mailafia over his comments.

The statement recalled that in the past, there had been prominent people who came up with similar disturbing disclosures, but no such invitation was ever extended to them for questioning.

“For instance, officials of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria had in many instances claimed responsibility over deadly attacks on communities, but the response from the security agencies has always remained an embarrassing silence,” it stated.

It added, “Amidst the bloodshed and waves of attack that rocked the country in June 2018, the National President of Miyetti Allah Kauta Hore, Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, declared in a media interview that Nigeria belongs to the Fulani.

“Reacting to Bodejo’s reckless and unguarded statement, the Northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria immediately called for his arrest and interrogation, but the DSS played the ostrich and never invited him for questioning till date.”