Former Deputy Governor of Central Bank and the Presidential Candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2019 election, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, has been released “unconditionally” from the custody of the Department of State Security (DSS) Plateau State headquarters in Jos.
Dr Mailafia was released after undergoing interrogation at the State office, following the perfection of his bail conditions as directed by the DSS national headquarters, Abuja.
Though he was “released unconditionally,” prominent Christian Evangelical leader, Reverend Gideon Parra-Mallam stood surety for him.
Dr Mailafia had alleged that repentant Boko Haram terrorists told him that a Northern Governor is a Commander of Boko Haram and that there is a plan by the terrorists to ignite a civil war in 2022.
His crowd of supporters had amassed outside the DSS State office all through the day with placards, demanding his release
He had earlier arrived through the access of the Jos Correctional Centre in company of some Leaders from Southern Kaduna, Church Leaders and Lawyers.
After his release, Dr Mailafia addressed a large crowd of his supporters and journalists outside the DSS Office, Jos, flanked by his wife, Mrs Margaret Vou Mailafia and his lawyers – Oius Akubu (SAN) and Barrister Yakubu Bawa.
Meanwhile, the National Broadcasting Commission is poised to penalise the Nigeria Info radio station where the interview with Dr Mailaifa was conducted and aired.
Sources said that the Commission is considering labelling Mailaifa’s statement as hate speech and sanction the station under the recently unveiled Reviewed Broadcasting Code which raised the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to 5 million Naira.
Mailaifa, on Monday during one of the station’s programmes called Morning CrossFire, he was asked, among other questions, if the government was unwilling to protect the people of Southern Kaduna, to which he replied that some residents believed the government was sponsoring the killers.
He then added: “Some of us also have our intelligence networks. I have met with some of the bandits; we have met with some of their high commanders – one or two who have repented – they have sat down with us not once, not twice.
“They told us that one of the northern governors is the commander of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Boko Haram and the bandits are one and the same. They have a sophisticated network. During this lockdown their planes were moving up and down as if there was no lockdown. They were moving ammunition, moving money, and distributing them across different parts of the country.”
He also said that Boko Haram had already infiltrated Southern Nigeria, adding that their plan was to spark a second civil war.
Zonal Coordinator of the NBC, Chibuike Ogwumike, said the radio station breached the NBC code of conduct.
But he declined comments on the type of sanction to be meted out on the station, saying only the director-general of the commission could talk about it.
However, our reporter obtained a letter signed by Ogwumike and addressed to broadcast stations, saying the NBC monitoring team had recently observed a breach of its code.
The NBC said it expected broadcasters to show professionalism in the handling of programmes, saying, “The recourse to abusing, denigrating and insulting the President, Governors, MPs and other leaders does not show us as cultured people.”
Though the letter was dated August 3, most of the stations reportedly received it between Tuesday and Wednesday, this week.