[1] During the time of the military regime, and continuing through the Nigerian Second Republic, the NSO was accused of carrying out systematic and widespread human rights abuses, especially of those seen to be critical of the government.
[4] At the time, there were rumours making the rounds alleging that a former head of state General Yakubu Gowon had planned the coup form his hideout in exile.
The ringleader of the coup plotters was Lieutenant colonel Buka Suka Dimka, an in-law of Gowon and fellow member of the Angas ethnic group in Plateau State.
The external security and intelligence activities of the NSO were centred around Nigeria's rising profile as an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member and how this affected the interests of foreign powers in Nigeria, also the NSO helped articulate the Nigerian government's foreign policy as it concerned Africa in the anti-colonial and anti-apartheid struggle.
[8] In this role, the NSO maintained contact with various rebel leaders in the Frontline States of Southern Africa, the agency channeled funds to these individuals and groups and also provided them with arms and training.
A former special adviser to President Shehu Shagari on National Assembly matters, Tanko Yakasai remembered meeting two such operatives during his time in detention at the SSS headquarters during the Babangida regime.
One of the operatives was a messenger in the office of Dr. Joseph Wayas, the second republic senate president while the other worked as a personal assistant to Bello Maitama Yusuf, the minister of commerce in the Shagari administration.
[3] This intelligence coup weakened Nigeria's willingness to fight and forced it to the negotiation table; it was a great humiliation and the NSO had failed to stop it.
The coup plotters on their part asked that he dropped some ministers including his in-law, Umaru Dikko that they had alleged were corrupt but Shagari flatly refused.
Due to Umaru Shinkafi's sudden resignation, President Shagari immediately appointed Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi as the new NSO Director General (DG).
Unlike Shinkafi whose background was in the Nigeria police Rafindadi was an experienced intelligence officer with several foreign postings including the United kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Germany.
Surprisingly, Rafindadi was confirmed as DG NSO by the new regime even though Babangida had tipped the DMI boss Col. Aliyu Mohammed for the position.
[23] Rafindadi quickly settled down to his job as the DG of the NSO aware of the distrust the military had of him and his organisation and also of the fierce rivalry that existed between himself and his opposite in the DMI, Mohammed Gusau.
McBroom was detained alongside another businesswoman Dorothy Davies who was arrested on similar charges of attempting to negotiate the purchase of crude oil and gasoline without first obtaining an export license, they were initially held at an interrogation cell at NSO headquarters before being transferred to Kirikiri prison later on.
Davies was released and deported after 40 days in detention, McBroom was not that lucky she was held for nine months before she was finally arraigned before a four-man military panel on 30 November.
Of these, repression against journalists, opposition figures, government officials (the Foreign Ministry saw a purge of those considered "disloyal") and the a 25-month imprisonment of musician Fela Ransome-Kuti are especially remembered.
[28] In 1984, Rafindadi and the NSO were embrollied in controversy when the Emir of Gwandu (father of Buhari's ADC Major Mustapha Jokolo) and his entourage were allegedly allowed to clear 53 suitcases through customs on arrival from a foreign trip.
The actual culprit at the time was Dahiru Waziri, a friend of Rafindadi who had just returned with his family from a posting in Saudi Arabia to resume as the chief of protocol in the state house.
The fall out of the failed kidnap attempt was immense, it led to a diplomatic tit-tat game of sanctions and a souring of relations between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, the international condemnation of the criminal act further tarnished the image of the new regime.
[29] The military was not spared by the NSO either, the agency investigated Col. Aliyu Mohammed of the DMI and found him to be complicit in an import license racket, he was subsequently compulsorily retired from the army after six months in detention.
[32] During this period, Aliyu's friend and superior, Ibrahim Babangida also came under the scrutiny of the NSO, this arose because of a business dealing he and his brother in-law Sunny okogwu were involved in.
Rafindadi in his deposition to the Oputa Panel in November 2000 alleged that even before the NSO had commenced their investigations, Babangida brought a letter to the late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon, then chief of staff, Supreme Headquarters.
A contemporary account from the Supreme Military Council (SMC) meeting that deliberated on the case was given by Femi Segun, a protocol officer in the state house at the time.
[4] Rafindadi also used his position as DG NSO and a member of the SMC to initiate a purge of senior officers in the diplomatic service for no good reason, many lost their jobs and entitlements.
[16] The NSO was also not spared from Rafindadi's purges, some officers inherited from the Shinkafi era were summarily retired, an example was Peter Odukwe, the deputy director general of the agency.
[39] Rafindadi was ordered by the DMI to sign a letter authorising the transfer the funds into a holding account operated by the Nigerian government until the investigation into his affairs were concluded, the money was wired after much intrigue and was never returned to him.
Lawal Rafindadi fought unsuccessfully to get the money back through successive governments until his death on 29 November 2007 from heart related complications.
[40] Following the 1985 military coup that brought Ibrahim Babangida to power, the NSO was dissolved into three separate divisions per the provisions made in Decree 19: With the creation of the these services, former staff of the NSO were absorbed into these successor organisations; officers of the internal security directorate were inherited by the SSS while officers of the external intelligence directorate were absorbed by the NIA.
Bello Lafiaji, a former chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), who was also a former policeman and pioneer member of the NSO, was drafted into the new SSS as the first officer-in-charge of the Ajaokuta office.
[42] In 1986, barely four months after the establishment of the SSS, the director general of the agency Ismaila Gwarzo and his deputy Lieutenant Colonel Tunde Togun were indicted in the killing of the editor of the Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa by a Letter Bomb delivered to his home.