The Nigerian Defence Headquarters has said that a former Commodore of the Nigerian Navy Kunle Olawunmi was only invited, contrary to reports that he was declared wanted.
Spokesperson for the Nigeria Defence Benjamin Sawyerr confirmed to The ICIR that Olawunmi was invited by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over his interview on Channels Television Breakfast show, Sunrise Daily.
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Sawyerr said Olawunmi was only called to avail the DIA with some of the information he spoke about during his interview.
“Nigerian Armed forces and its agencies could not arrest him, it’s just in a bid to get more information from him about what he said he knows.
“It is the military police that carries out arrest, the DIA don’t carry out arrests. Somebody from the DIA who is in charge of counter terrorism only called to ask him to come over so we can hear from him, so that he could aid us in the fight against terrorism, but he switched off his phone after the call,” Sawyerr told The ICIR.
The defence spokesperson also said it was not true that Olawunmi was asked to come to the DIA with his international passport, though he did not rule out the possibility of it.
“It is not true that he was asked to bring his international passport to the DIA. If he was asked to bring his international passport, maybe it could be to corroborate the things he said, like his trip to the US.
“The military is like a family. If he has anything that could assist us to further fight insurgency and terrorism, we invited him to come and give us. We respect our senior officer, that is why the chief of army staff (COAS) is going around the country to have a conversation with them (retired military officers),” Sawyer told The ICIR.
Olawunmi had, on Tuesday, said sponsors of terrorist groups were currently holding positions in the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Department of State Services was aware.
Olawunmi also said he had interrogated and found a high-ranking member of Buhari’s government culpable of involvement with Boko Haram in 2007/2008.
The former Navy commodore further said that the Nigerian government was not ready to fight insurgency because it had failed to prosecute the arrested 400 persons suspected to be sponsors of Boko Haram.
The ICIR contacted the DSS over Olawunmi’s statement but the agency’s spokesperson Peter Afunanya failed to respond.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via labolade@icirnigeria.org, on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94