From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Department of State Services (DSS), has arrested one Kennedy Tabukoi, for allegedly leading a fake Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI).
Tabuoki, was said to have been arrested for using his fake group to blackmail highly placed government officials and extort them of huge sums of money and contracts.
DSS sources, hinted that Tabukoi usually targets top government officials who he blackmails and ask for huge amounts of money from them. If they fail to pay, he would then resort to mobilizing unsuspecting members of Civil Society Organizations(CSO), to lead a protest against the particular government official.
It was gathered that One of such protest marches held on Thursday morning at the National Assembly gate, where Tabukoi led several groups to protest against what he claimed were moves by the federal lawmakers to stall a probe of the petroleum sector.
However unknown to Tabukoi, security operatives had been on his trail after certain officials of government reported the several attempts he made to allegedly blackmail them into parting with huge sums of money and contracts, “or risk being embarrassed.”
A top security source said, “That man Tabukoi had been boasting to friends and members of his syndicate that, as a Niger Deltan activist, he would use his NGO to deal with any government official who didn’t do his bidding.
“Unknown to him, it was the same people he had been intimidating with claims of how much he would make from top government officials in Abuja that tipped off the DSS that he had no NGO, and that he was merely using impersonation to blackmail such government officials.”
The source added, “When we invited Tabukoi, he didn’t waste time in corroborating the claims of his so-called friends. He said he was aware that several Niger Deltans made money from activism, reason he was in the process of raising money to register his own NGO.”