My comments were hearsay, I have no evidence, embattled Mailafia changes tune

Former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Obadiah Mailafia, said on Monday he would have put his claim on Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East part of the country in a “better language.”

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election had been questioned twice by the Department of State Services (DSS) for linking a serving governor with the terror group that had killed thousands and displaced over one million others in Nigeria’s North-East since 2011.

He was grilled again on the matter by the DSS at its Jos, Plateau State, office on Monday.

The ex-CBN official later addressed his supporters after he was released by the agency at 2:55 p.m.

Mailafia told the supporters he only advised the government to address the killing of innocent people in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.

He said: “I had a routine appearance with the Department State Security, Plateau state command. “I am very pleased that I was treated very professionally. There was no harassment or intimidation.

READ ALSO: DSS releases Mailafia

“Over a month ago when I gave a radio interview, based on what I heard. If I had my way there are few things I would say differently, but I spoke on the spur of the moments, and I believed that it was a matter of greater urgency to make a wake-up call to what is happening.

“I didn’t really mean to say that the government was part and parcel of the killings, I implied that they could do better because thousands are dying, innocent women and children, elderly, and youths.

“But if I have my way I would have put it in better language, and I have no way of corroborating some of these things, I heard it and I could have follow them into their camps to confirm because I might not come back to tell the story, so that is the reality.

“I have indicated that I have reason to believe that my life has been in danger. I have no conclusive proof but I get threat, I get calls. Where I was staying, on Thursday, I saw some strange people at the gate trying to break in. I jumped the fence and escaped because I don’t know who they are.”

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