Sambo: DSS absolves agency from ex-VP’s house raid

The Department of State Services (DSS) said in Abuja on Friday that it did not take part in raiding the residence of former Vice-President Namadi Sambo in Kaduna on Wednesday.
It said it did not join officials of the police and that of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission that allegedly carried out the raid.
Our correspondent, who called the agency to find out whether there were incriminating items found at the residence of the former Vice-President, was told by the DSS that none of its personnel was involved in the raid.
A senior officer at the Public Relations Unit of the DSS, Mr. Nnana Nnochiri, who responded to our correspondent’s inquiry, said that officials of the agency were not part of the team.
He said, “We have carried out investigations to ascertain the identities of those that were involved in the raid.
“We have spoken with all our directors in Kaduna State and the states close to where the incident happened, but I can tell you that our officials were not part of it.
“Apart from this, we have also done our investigation to ascertain the agency or the agencies that went there; we found out that the DSS was not one of them.”
Security agents had on many occasions raided the home of the former Vice President, who left office on May 29, 2015.
It will be recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had carried out a search of one of Sambo’s houses in Abuja in 2016.
The raid was said to be connected to Sambo’s alleged link to some cash disbursements in the build-up to the 2015 general elections, but he had denied the allegations.
Vital documents were said to have been recovered from his property located at the Central Business District, Abuja, but the former Vice-President was neither arrested nor charged.
The spokesman for the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, had also told The PUNCH on Wednesday that the EFCC had nothing to do with the fresh raid on the former Vice-President’s Kaduna property.
He, nevertheless, did not say if Sambo was still under investigation.
The EFCC had, on February 1, 2016, raided an office complex in Abuja belonging to the former Vice-President.
The PUNCH had, on February 2, 2016, reported that the EFCC operatives raided the office complex, which is not far from the National Defence College along Herbert Macaulay Way, Abuja. – Punch.