The purported cold war between President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Security Adviser, NSA, Babagana Monguno, and the Director General, DG, Department of State Security Services, DSS, Lawal Daura, has festered to a point that it has begun to have serious implications on the nation’s national security, Presidential sources have confirmed.
Emerging report revealed that the battle for supremacy between the two officials, has led to these security lapses among the Security Chiefs.
According to Premium Times, the cold war started last August, when Buhari directed the NSA to set up a committee, to probe military procurement from 2007 to 2015.
Multiple security sources revealed that, as Nigeria’s secret police, it was taken for granted that the DSS would be represented in the committee. However, at the point of choosing members of the panel, Mr. Monguno expelled the DSS representative.
The NSA, said that he wanted the panel, made up of mainly retired military officers and a representative from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to be close, to remove the possibility of leakage of information about the committee’s work.
“The DG of the DSS found that insulting,” the source said. “According to him it was rude to claim that an agency in charge of intelligence gathering and other serious confidential security issues for the entire country is not considered worthy of keeping information about a committee. From then the relationship between both men deteriorated and has not recovered,’’ the official said.
It was also learnt that the relationship between the two men was further strained, following the arrest of Mohammed Umar, a member of the presidential arms panel. Mr Umar was arrested by the DSS.
According to a source, Monguno, who is a close ally of the retired Air Commodore, was furious about the manner in which the DSS raided Umar’s house, before detaining him.
Monguno, repeatedly complained to security officials close to him, that he disliked the way Daura carried himself, as if he was the NSA.
Monguno, also complained that Daura appropriated the job traditionally assigned to the office of the NSA, sources said.
“The NSA is complaining the DG of the DSS is over-reaching himself and performing his duties,” a source told Premium Times.
The duties of the NSA include, the coordination of departments of internal security, and counter-terrorism operations and lawful interceptions.
That means that security agencies, including the DSS are supposed to report to the NSA and regularly brief him on intelligence gathered and take directives from him.
However, since both men no longer see eye to eye, the DSS stopped briefing the office of the NSA and hardly takes directives from that office, sources further revealed.
Daura, according to those sources, however, argued that the NSA was never available for his work.
He said Monguno was in the habit for travelling around the world with President Buhari, leaving a vacuum in the co-ordination of national security.
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