Some directors of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have written to the House of Representatives Committee on Security and National Intelligence to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to drop Mr Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the new director-general of the agency.
Writing for and on behalf of Concerned Directors of National Intelligence Agency, they used pseudo names such as E. O. Olanrewaju, Nelson Obiakor and Ahmed Sarki to protect their real identities.
The directors, in an advertisement published in THISDAY Thursday, described Abubakar as a misfit and unqualified for the post of DG of NIA.
Since his appointment a few weeks ago by the president, various allegations have come to light over Abubakar’s nationality and competence to head NIA.
Although the presidency came out stoutly at the weekend to defend the new NIA boss, the directors, in their letter to the House committee, said Abubakar failed to merit elevation to the rank of director and had retired from the service (NIA), but has now been appointed to come and preside over people who are not only his seniors in rank, but who fit into the order of precedence.
They said since the inception of the agency 32 years ago, nobody below the rank of director had been appointed as head of NIA.
They warned that Abubakar’s appointment as DG would certainly set a dangerous precedent, with equally dangerous implications.
They threatened that should Abubakar go ahead with his plans to sack all the directors of the agency, the country should expect massive leaks of intelligence to hostile countries.
They told the lawmakers that the Clandestine Operations Unit of NIA had been ordered to manufacture and clone documents that could be used to defend Abubakar, who from all indications was facing a legitimacy crisis.
They urged the committee to, in the interest of national unity, the federal character principle as enshrined in the constitution, fairness, justice, or even for common sense, prevail on the president to drop Abubakar as DG of NIA in the face of the obvious odds against his appointment.
“Coupled with this fact, it is an aberration to thrust the headship of Nigeria’s most sensitive security and intelligence organisation in the hands of people from the same ethnic stock, state and even town.
“In a country of over 200 million people, we feel it was not only highly contemptuous but dangerous,” they added.
They said: “Already, the nation is in a precarious security condition, and further penetration by hostile intelligence services could portend an even greater danger.
“It is very unlikely that we will be insulated from penetration if we are treated as renegades after putting in our best for the country.”
The directors noted that they were aware that part of the new DG’s agenda was to retire those of them who were once his seniors, because he was unlikely to want to work with them.
“It is evident that he will pursue a vendetta mission, which he has already indicated in his very first address to us.
“While we wish to state that he is at liberty to go ahead with what we know he intends to do, we wish to point out the underlying dangers in a massive purge of senior officers of the agency, to the effect that, not only will the millions of dollars spent on training and retraining us be lost, we are also custodians of the country’s intelligence dossiers and may decide to use same for mischief,” they warned.
The directors maintained that since the federal government itself had admitted that Abubakar was born and bred in Chad, “while on the other hand he claimed to have been born in Nigeria; at least going by his records and his CV, suffice it to point out that there is an obvious contradiction”.
They therefore called on the House to thoroughly look into this seeming discrepancy.
Thisday
