[2] He entered the Nigeria Police Force where he held a number of positions of increasing responsibility, retiring with a senior rank.
[4] In a case that attracted considerable media attention, Dele Giwa, editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine, was killed on 19 October 1986 by a parcel bomb.
Two days earlier SSS officials had summoned Giwa to their headquarters, where Colonel A. K. Togun accused him of planning a social revolution and of smuggling arms into the country.
[6] Gwarzo was National Security Advisor (NSA) for President Ernest Shonekan, who took office in August 1993, and then for General Sani Abacha from November 1993 onward.
[7] However, Gwarzo did ask for funds for a campaign to cultivate the friendship of East African countries and the OAU to garner support for Nigeria gaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
[13] For his personal benefit, Gwarzo persuaded Abacha to let him flood the market with US dollars to maintain a stable exchange rate.
On 30 September 1999 Nigeria asked the Swiss Federal Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering to freeze all the assets of the Abacha family, Gwarzo and others associated with the regime.
[23] President Olusegun Obasanjo issued an informal injunction restricting Gwarzo to his home town in Kano State to prevent alleged plots.
[11] In March 2011 the Arewa Consultative Forum called a meeting of retired security chiefs and generals from the North.
Some newspapers said the purpose was to mobilise support former military head of state Muhammadu Buhari, who was running for election as President on the Congress for Progressive Change platform.