SECURITY MEN STOP ALIERO FROM SAUDI TRIP

Plain-clothes security men on Wednesday stopped former FCT Minister Mohammed Adamu Aliero from travelling out of the country for lack of security clearance.

Aliero was on board a Max Air flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in Kano at about 4pm when yet-to-be-indentified security personnel asked him to deboard.

A source who was on the aircraft told Daily Trust yesterday that the security men told Aliero that he did not have clearance to travel out of the country.

The former minister initially declined to deboard, delaying the flight for about an hour, the source said. It was not clear last night which security agency was responsible for aborting Aliero's trip, though people on board the plane said the operation appeared to be conducted by men of the State Security Services (SSS).

But the assistant director of operations for the SSS in Kano, simply identified as Mr. Abdullahi, denied that men of the service were involved. In April, former minister of health Babatunde Osotimehin was similarly stopped from travelling abroad on the grounds that he first had to get security clearance from the EFCC.

Asked if the anti-corruption commission was behind Aliero's ordeal, spokesman for the EFCC in Kano Gbenga Aroyahun said the Kano office was not involved.

Public relations officer for the Nigeria Immigration Service Ahmed Kanoma also said he was not aware of the incident and that men of the service could not have been responsible for stopping Aliero.

Attempts to get Aliero's comments failed last night as his spokesman Abdullahi Zuru could not be reached by telephone. It could also not be confirmed if he had got the required clearance to proceed on his trip.