The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has released Ike Ekpeyong, former director general of the Directorate of State Services, DSS. Ekpeyong was taken away from his Abuja residence on Thursday and driven to the EFCC headquarters for questioning.
Part of the reasons the Commission wanted him was to investigate the alleged loss of about N17 billion, being reminder of the N20 billion released to the Service ahead of the 2015 general elections.
There are reports that Ekpeyong left some money in the accounts of the Service, the whereabouts of which could perhaps be explained by Lawal Daura, Ekpeyong’s successor. The former frustrated an earlier attempt by the EFCC to arrest Ekpeyong over the issue. The Commission was able to move against Ekpeyong on Thursday because Daura was no longer at the helm of affairs at the DSS. He was sacked last Tuesday, on the instructions of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, following an unauthorized lockdown of the National Assembly complex in Abuja by the DSS. That action drew National and international condemnation. It, like some acts of the human rights violations of the past, put the service and the country in a bad light.