The Department of State Services says the Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, is not in its custody.
Spokesperson for DSS, Peter Afunnaya, made this known in a text message sent to The newsmen on Wednesday.
“He (Mbaka) is not with the DSS, please,” Afunnaya wrote in response to an inquiry by our correspondent.
Controversy trailed the whereabouts of the fiery cleric on Wednesday with a reported protest in Enugu State over Mbaka’s alleged arrest by yet-to-be-identified security operative.
When officials of the Diocese of Enugu, to which Fr. Mbaka belongs, were contacted, some of them said he was not missing while others said they cannot confirm his whereabouts.
It was earlier reported that Mbaka and the Presidency recently had a face off over the security challenges in the country.
Mbaka, who supported the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), during the 2015 and 2019 elections recently made a U-turn, asking Buhari to resign or be impeached for not doing enough to tackle widespread insecurity in the country.
But the Presidency opened a can of worms thereafter, saying Mbaka has suddenly become a critic because Buhari refused to offer contracts to his allies.
Reacting to the accusation, Mbaka admitted that he led three security experts to the President to proffer solutions to the insecurity ravaging the country even as he said that those people were not known to him