At the 7th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Impact and Integrity Awards (GFIIA), former Deputy Director of Defence Administration at the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (retd.), has been honoured with an award.
Olawuni, who was among the different Nigerians nominated for the award, won the Gani Fawehinmi Integrity Award for the Most Valuable Whistle-Blower Award category.
The award was organised by the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), which was held at Shoregate Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos State.
It would be recalled that in 2021, retired Commodore Olawunmi made headlines in the news media when he openly challenged former President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that the State Security Services had information on persons sponsoring the dreaded Boko Haram and terrorism generally but refused to act due to lack of presidential support.
He was thereafter in August 2021 declared wanted.
A top source had told SaharaReporters that the former Navy commander following his being declared wanted visited the agency’s office in company with his lawyers – Femi Falana (SAN) and Abubakar Marshall.
The Defence Intelligence Agency had declared Olawunmi wanted for exposing in an interview how former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration refused to probe high profile politicians whom Boko Haram terrorists named as their sponsors.
The DIA had asked Olawunmi to come to its headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday with his international passport, which was to be seized. The agency, however, made a U-turn when the plot was exposed.
The Defence Intelligence Agency is the primary military intelligence agency of Nigeria.
A top source had said at the time, “The agency has declared retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi wanted for spilling the beans over Boko Haram sponsors in the Buhari regime. They asked him to come with his international passport on Tuesday to the DIA office in Abuja.”
He had condemned the 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 investigated by the Minister of Defence who 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 (CDS), 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 could not 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 needed 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 an interrogation and they (the suspects) mentioned names. I can’t come on air and start mentioning names of people who 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.
The presentation of the award was made by a Strategic Communication Specialist based in London, Dr Sina Odugbemi at the well-attended event.
Olawunmi is now an Associate Professor of Global Counter Terrorism at Chrisland University, Abeokuta.
Olawunmi was adjudged to embody the values of impact and integrity championed by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
