Following media reports that Statistician-General of the Federation/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, was arrested by suspected operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), NBS finally came out to give its own side to the issue.
Reports on the arrest came amid the release by NBS of a controversial survey report on ransom payments to kidnappers and others by victim-families to the staggering tune of N2.23 trillion between May,2023-April, 2024.
The survey report was said to have irked the Presidency,dented its image and was interpreted as capable of impacting the fight against criminality and terrorism being waged by the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Within 24 hours of release of the survey report, the NBS website was hacked.
However, NBS Head of Communications, Ichedi Sunday, has reacted to media reports on his boss’s arrest, describing such as “not true.”
It was not possible to get a reaction from the DSS, however.
Sunday’s words: “I can authoritatively say the reports are not true.
“I was with the Statistics-General up until late last night yesterday when the news broke out and there was no call from the DSS… also spoke to him (Adeyemi) today.
“So this is not true. I don’t know why the wrong information is still being published.”
