As he prepared to exit office as Nigeria’s 15th Head of State, President Muhammadu Buhari had a major issue to resolve: the case of Nigeria’s former chief spymaster, Ayodele Oke, the former top gun of the country’s intelligence community.
Six years ago, Mr Oke became the butt of a controversy around the security lodging of $43 million, 27 thousand pounds, and N23 million, belonging to the National Intelligence Agency [NIA], at an Osborne Road apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, leading to his removal as NIA chief and a prosecutorial process to determine his culpability in the case.
The case also led to a major interagency crisis, resulting, at some points, in operatives of the NIA and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, prosecutors of the case, dramatically drawing guns at each other, and causing embarrassing diplomatic show offs at the Asokoro District of the Federal Capital Territory which houses the residence of the NIA Director General.
