DSS Apprehends Fake CSO Leader, Tabukoi

Linus Aleke in Abuja

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have apprehended one Kennedy Tabukoi who uses unregistered civil society organisation, code-named ‘Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI)’ to blackmail high profile officials of government with a view to exploiting them financially.
A highly placed source at the DSS told THISDAY that when such government officials fail to meet Tabukoi’s demands, he would resort to organising other unsuspecting groups to lead protest marches against the government official.

“One of such protest marches held 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,” the source said.
Another source within the service also confirmed that Tabukoi was picked up on Thursday during a discrete operations. He averred that security operatives had been on his trail after some officials of government reported the several attempts he had made to allegedly blackmail them into parting with huge sums of money and contracts, or risk being embarrassed.

According to him, “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 fails to 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 further disclosed.

He revealed that when the service invited Tabukoi for questioning, he didn’t waste time to corroborate 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.