NBS claims DSS neither invited nor arrested Statistician-General

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has debunked media reports that Prince Adeniran Adeyemi, the Statistician-General of the Federation, was invited for questioning by the Department of State Services (DSS).

Rumours did the rounds that Adeyemi was called in by the DSS for interrogation over the methodology and data used in the report over the trillion paid by Nigerians as ransom to kidnappers in the last one year of The Bola Tinubu administration.

The Bureau through Ichedi Sunday, Head of Communications, said that at no time, did any personnel of the DSS visit the headquarters of the NBS, stressing that the reports that the Security Service stormed the office and arrested the Statistician-General, Mr Adeyemi was totally false and a figment of the imagination of the writers and some fifth columnists.

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Sunday specifically said; “I can authoritatively say that the reports were not true. I was with Adeyemi until late Wednesday night when the news broke out. There was no communication from the DSS whatsoever.

“I also spoke to him today (Thursday), and I can confirm that the DSS did not invite him for interrogation, nor did anyone from the DSS visit our office,” he said.

Sunday said that the explanation became necessary following some news reports that Adeyemi was arrested as a result of a contentious report over payments of ransom Nigeria that was released by the NBS, which noted that Nigerians paid a whooping N2.23 trillion as ransom between May 2023 and April 2024.

The stories claimed that the NBS published its Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey on December 17, which sparked widespread reactions.

However, the NBS, in less than 24 hours, refuted the stories, stressing that its website was hacked