The Department of State Services has detained a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sheriff Rabiu, over an alleged N80m property dispute with a former governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako (retd.)
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Rabiu, who was the Chief Security Officer to Nyako, was arrested on Thursday by the DSS over a petition allegedly filed by the former governor over a property worth N80m.
Our correspondent gathered that the suspect was arrested by plain-cloth security men on Thursday, who took him to the DSS headquarters.
It was learnt that the former governor had initially dragged Rabiu before the police for appropriating the property, allegedly bought on behalf of Sebore Farms, a company owned by the former governor, while he was CSO to the governor.
He allegedly refused to release the title deeds of the property to Nyako.
Rabiu’s lawyer, Gabriel Adikwu, who spoke to journalists on Friday, lamented that the DSS, acting on a different complaint, on Thursday, summoned and detained his client.
He said the DSS had continued to hold him captive since then.
Adikwu expressed concern about Rabiu’s safety in DSS detention despite entreaties for his conditional release.
He said, “The desperation by Nyako to use the DSS painted a picture of a sinister plot.
“Is it that they don’t trust the police to do justice in the matter? Or, they believe that being a former police assistant commissioner, they may not get the kind of cooperation they want.
“The only thing I can say is that the motive behind the detention of my client only proves there is a sinister plot against my client because the former governor feared he could reprise him and spew out a lot of shady things that happened under his watch.”
Adikwu called the ordeal of his client ‘a show of power and its abuse’.
Efforts to hear from the DSS were unsuccessful, as officers contacted advised our correspondent to wait till Monday.
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