UPDATED: Retired Commodore Olawunni Arrives DIA Headquarters With Femi Falana

Retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi has arrived the headquarters of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) with fiery human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN)

BIGPENNGR reports that Commodore Olawunni was invited to DIA’s headquarters, according to officials over an interview he granted on alleged Islamization and Boko Haram sponsors in government last week.

His counsel, Falana told newsmen after the meeting that the invitation was “just a  friendly chat”.

The spokesperson of the Defence headquarters also said that Olawunmi was only invited to shed more light on information he provided on Channel television on tackling terrorism.

The senior DIA officer who pleaded anonymity had told PRNigeria that since the television interview, some senior retired and serving military officers have raised concern over the comment of Olawunmi.

“The DIA had no intention was so ever to invite him until when other retired senior and serving officers, especially of the intelligence corps advised that he could assist the security service with vital information for counter-terrorism.

“The invitation was not even formal. It was a phone call by an officer that he knows. We have no reason whatsoever to declare him wanted when he knows how the system operates.”

The Director Defence Information (DDI), Major General Benjamin Sawyerr confirmed that the informal invitation was harmless.

Sawyerr said: “As a result of the information coming from intelligence circle, an officer in DIA invited retired Commodore Olawunmi to come over so that he can help with information that can assist in the fight against insurgency and terrorism. The DIA officer asked him to come on Tuesday so that he can even meet with the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), Major General Samuel Adebayo. That was all.

“There was no letter or any formal invitation. It was an informal phone call. He just switched off his phone and started calling some media houses that he had been declared wanted.

“You are aware that the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor has been going on tours of geopolitical zones to meet with retired military officers to come up with information and ideas on how to tackle the myriad of security challenges in the country

“While we can not blame Commodore Olawunmi for not attending the South-west zone of the interactive sessions with the retired officer, he went on air in the public domain through a television channel with what he himself portrayed as sensitive classified information.

“If the military wanted to arrest somebody, it is the military police that do that. They wont even send any signal before one could be picked up…. He could have been arrested the day or days after he made the broadcast since the system have what it takes to arrest anyone on its radar. He was not declared wanted and there isn’t any reason for his arrest as it is now,” General Swayer concluded.

BIGPENNGR had last Wednesday reported that Olawunmi spoke when he featured on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast programme.

He had condemned Tuesday’s attack by bloodthirsty bandits on the Kaduna campus of Nigeria’s foremost military university, the Nigerian Defence Academy, where two military officers were killed and another kidnapped.

The Professor of Global Security Studies had said, “It is an aberration; you don’t attack the Nigerian Defence Academy and get away with it. In 2017, I carried out an investigation by the Minister of Defence that wanted me to check what was going on with the training and the security there (NDA). I remember I spent about a week in the NDA with the commandant and the staff but something struck me: every Friday, the gate of NDA is thrown open and everybody has access to pray in the mosque.

“On Fridays, you are going to see the same thing happening across all military formations in the country. If you go to Defence Headquarters, I served at the Defence Headquarters as the Deputy Director, Defence Administration, between 2015 and 2017, throughout my two years at Defence Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there but every Friday, the gate of the Defence Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Juma’at.

“That is the time the terrorists have the time to profile our security environment. It has always been the case. I have served the military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problem is religion and socio-cultural.”

Olawunmi had added that he was a member of the Intelligence Brief at the Defence Headquarters during the leadership of the then Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abayomi Olonisakin (retd.).

The intelligence expert said he told the then CDS that the centre of gravity of the Boko Haram insurgency ravaging the North-East and spreading to other parts of Nigeria was the sponsor.

“I told General Olonisakin then that the centre of this problem cannot be solved the same way we solved the problem of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta problem was solved during (Ex-President Umaru) Yar’adua basically by me and I told them that we can’t use that same template for Boko Haram.

“I told General Olonisakin to look at the centre of gravity of the problem. I was made a member of the committee in 2016-2017 including former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru that died.

“I told them that the centre of gravity of Boko Haram in Nigeria is the sponsors of the programme. It was beyond us because the job we needed to do was kinetic but we cannot resolve the issues of sponsors of Boko Haram that were in Buhari’s government that we know them. That was why we couldn’t pursue that aspect that could have resolved the issue because we need to arrest people.

“Recently, 400 people were gathered as sponsors of Boko Haram, why is it that the Buhari government has refused to try them? Why can’t this government bring them to trial if not that they are partisan and part of the charade that is going on?

“You remember this Boko Haram issue started in 2012 and I was in the military intelligence at that time. We arrested those people. My organisation conducted interrogation and they (suspects) mentioned names. I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people that are presently in government that I know that the boys that we arrested mentioned. Some of them are governors now, some of them are in the Senate, some of them are in Aso Rock.

“Why should a government decide to cause this kind of embarrassment and insecurity to the sense of what happened yesterday (Tuesday at the NDA)?”

Olawunmi had also said that the Department of State Services had tremendous information on terrorists but they could not do anything except by the body language of the Commander-In-Chief.