Operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), have arrested the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran in his office yesterday.
According to Dailyledger.ng.com, the arrest was in connection to the latest Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report released by the Bureau on Tuesday.
The NBS released survey revealed that Nigerians paid a total of N2.23tn as ransom over 12 months between May 2023 and April 2024.
According to the survey, this sum was paid by households affected by kidnapping incidents, highlighting the growing threat posed by criminal activities in the country.
It added that, an estimated 51.89 million crime incidents were recorded across Nigerian households in the reference period.
The survey showed that the North-West region had the highest incidence of crime, with 14.4 million cases reported, followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million incidents.
But a senior official at the Bureau, who pleaded anonymity revealed that Mr Adeniran was arrested by the operatives of the DSS, Wednesday morning in his office , less than 24 hours after the release of the report.
“As we speak, the CEO is still in DSS custody, the operatives invaded our headquarters, took away our computers and the crime survey documents and also arrested Mr Adeniran on Wednesday”, the source said.
“The CEO added about N2bn to our 2024 budget for the new Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report, and we got govt approval for the funds but after the conclusion of the report, which took a bout seven months, instead of liaising with the security agencies and the supervisory finance minister, Atiku Bagudu – the CEO went on to publish the report independently.
“We were told the President and the Minister were not happy with the report because the survey was deemed to have embarrassed the govt and the security agencies especially in their fight against insecurity in the country.
“After the publication of the report, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu summoned a meeting with the Finance Minister and some top security officials in the country and afterwards there was an instruction to shut down the website and then the DSS raided our office and arrested Mr Adeniran”, the source added.
Recall, NBS had announced that its official website has been compromised by unidentified hackers.
The Bureau disclosed this in a statement posted on the bureau’s official X (formerly Twitter) account Wednesday night.
The NBS urged the public to disregard any information or reports shared on its behalf from unofficial sources until the website is fully restored.
All efforts to reach the spokesperson of the NBS proved abortive as text messages and calls were not responded to as at the time of filing this report.
The NBS is the principal agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of statistical data in Nigeria.