Boko Haram Interview: Mailafia Out To Cause Mischief, Incite People - SSS

The State Security Service (SSS) has castigated former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia for claiming that a sitting governor of a northern state is the commander of Boko Haram in Nigeria.

Mailafia made the comments in an interview with Nigeria Info Fm station on Monday. He was later questioned by the SSS on Wednesday for several hours, while the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) imposed a N5m fine on the radio station for providing its platform to engage in hate speech.

Media and civil society groups have however condemned the N5M fine imposed on the station as a threat to freedom of speech.

In a statement on Friday, the spokesman of the SSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya suggested that Mailafia set out to make mischief and incite people considering that he had access to security agencies before divulging what the SSS described as fake news.

The agency, in the statement said, “Mailafiya, as a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and currently, a Directing Staff at Nigeria’s foremost Policy Research Institute, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, has unhindered access to government platforms.

“It is expected that he should be conversant with official information management protocols. But regrettably, he chose to cross the lines of decorum and conduct expected of a personality of his status.”

Afunanya said, “It is disappointing that he never took advantage of these to reach any of the security or related agencies to share the so called information at his disposal. This, he has agreed to be a grievous error on his part.

“It, however, suggests his mischief and determination to use the fake news he spewed to incite the people under his control.

“It is even more condemnable that Mailafiya, who had profusely apologized during his visit to the Service’s Plateau State Command for his ignoble statement, would, afterwards, announce to the world that he stood by his misguided eruption.”