by Chuks Oluigbo
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday dispelled reports of arrest of the Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeniran Adeyemi, by the Department of State Services (DSS).
NBS Head of Communications, Ichedi Sunday, in a statement said Adeyemi was never invited by DSS.
“I can authoritatively say the reports are not true. I was with the Statistician-General late last night when the news broke, and there was no call from the DSS,” Sunday said.
“Several platforms reached out to me, and I told them the information was false. I also spoke to him [Adeyemi] today. So, this is not true. I don’t know why such incorrect information is still being circulated,” he said.
The NBS clarification followed earlier reports that DSS operatives had invaded NBS office and arrested the CEO over the state-run statistical agency’s Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey released on Tuesday.
The reports by some online newspapers (not Nigeria News Source) claimed that a source within NBS had said President Bola Tinubu and the Minister of Finance, Atiku Bagudu, were not happy with the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey report because it was deemed to have embarrassed the government and the security agencies, especially in their fight against insecurity in the country.
The reports also quoted the same source as saying the NBS carried out the survey with funds approved by the government but, after the conclusion of the report, went ahead to publish it independently without reference to the security agencies and the supervisory finance minister.
Nigeria News Source had reported that the NBS report, a product of a survey, said Nigerians paid a total of N2.23 trillion in ransom in the one year period from May 2023 to April 2024.
Barely 24 hours after the report went viral, NBS claimed its website had been hacked.
In a statement posted on its official X handle on Wednesday night, the NBS urged the public to disregard any information or reports shared on its behalf from unofficial sources until the website was fully restored.
But not everyone believed the NBS.
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, questioned NBS claim that its website was hacked.
Atiku, in a statement signed by his media aide, Paul Ibe, described the reported hacking of the website as strange, especially because it was coming barely 24 hours after the release of a damning report about the escalation of kidnapping in the country.
Atiku said the reported hacking, the first in the history of the NBS, robbed the data emanating from the agency of integrity.
“The unprecedented claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been hacked is an unpleasant development that adds up to the bad tidings that have characterized the President Bola Tinubu administration,” Atiku said.
“The development, which is coming on the heels of the recent data published on the website of the @NBS_Nigeria on Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS), underscores the credibility crisis of the current administration.
“These are strange times in Nigeria, and it is hoped that the situation at hand is not an underhand attempt to pigeonhole the integrity of data majorly used for planning and development and research purposes.
“Subjecting data and statistics such as those harvested, analysed, and released by the NBS to sexing up or political considerations is counterproductive.
“That is why the claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics was hacked into, the very first time in its history, should be of concern to the fidelity of the stats it releases to the public.
“Moreover, the coincidence of this so-called hack coming only shortly after the release of damning stats on security is suspicious.
“We may be tempted to assume that every stats released by the Bureau is an outcome of a hack!” he said.
