Operatives of the Department of State Security have arrested and detained the owner of Public Alerts Security Systems, George Uboh, who reportedly attempted to blackmail the Federal Government into awarding him a multi-billion job to recover over N1.9 trillion hidden away in some banks in the country. Uboh, according to findings was arrested on Tuesday after stern-looking operatives had raided his office and homes in Maitama in Abuja in search of sensitive documents relating to the short-lived recovery contract job he was handed by the Federal Government.

 The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, gave Uboh the job of recovering the huge sum of money, after he had convinced the AGF that he had already sighted and tracked down the money in 13 banks. Strangely, Mr. Uboh reportedly expanded his brief shortly after getting a Federal Government letter of authority by going ahead to harass all banks in Nigeria and prominent Nigerian leaders and industry players to turn in their secret bank details to him. On realising that Uboh had violated the terms of his brief, the AGF summarily terminated the contract, saying that the job was given to Uboh in error.

The withdrawal, according to Malami followed new information that Uboh had been jailed by a court in the United States and recently in Abuja for fraud-related issues. The AGF also wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari detailing the reasons why he cancelled Uboh’s recovery job, which would have fetched him at least 5 percent of the recovered amount.

 But Uboh has not taken the termination of the job lightly, accusing the AGF of standing on the way of fighting corruption. Before his arrest last Tuesday, he had appeared on a prime time television programme and poured invectives on the Federal Government for ending the job offer abruptly while still claiming to be fighting corruption. It was learnt that the DSS would likely charge him to court for sundry criminal offences relating to the expansion of his brief to extort money from Nigerians. He had boasted that he had already traced N324 billion within the 27 days that he was allowed to work but mocked the AFG for not allowing him to go after the affected banks and individuals to recover the amount.