Some Directors of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have petitioned the House of Representatives Committee on Security and National Intelligence to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to drop the new Director-General of the agency, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
Writing using pseudo names such as E. O. Olanrewaju, Nelson Obiakor and Ahmed Sarki to protect their real identities, the Directors, in an advertisement published in a newspaper, for and on behalf of Concerned Directors of the Agency, described Abubakar as a misfit insisting that he is unqualified for the post of DG of the Agency having retired from the Agency 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.
The Directors, in their letter to the House committee, said Abubakar failed to merit elevation to the rank of Director alerting the nation to what they described as “an imminent threat to the cohesion for which the NIA has been known, as this is the first time a Director-General was picked from the rank below that of a director”.
They said since the inception of the agency 32 years ago, nobody below the rank of Director had been appointed as head of the NIA warning that Abubakar’s appointment as DG would certainly set a dangerous precedent, with equally dangerous implications.
The Directors alleged that the Clandestine Operations Unit of the 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.
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 warning that the country should expect massive leaks of intelligence to hostile countries if that happens.
“It is evident that he will pursue a vendetta mission, which he has already indicated in his very first address to us,” they wrote.
“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.
“In the event that Ahmed Rufai Abubakar finds it difficult to work with those of us who are still in service and who have better credentials, the choice left to the authorities is to revert to the status quo and allow a serving director who understands the dynamics to continue.
“Having failed promotion examinations to the directorship rank, which we can attest to, we make bold to state that it amounts to administrative suicide to allow a practical misfit take over the agency and later mortgage same to his paymasters, who have ulterior motives.
“As insiders, we are in a position to state that the process of vetting in respect of the new NIA DG negates conventional practice, as nobody has visited Chad where he claims to have grown up and schooled to probe into his differential associates, or even his likely espionage roles.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that Rufai Abubakar’s links with Chad, a country with likely rival interest with Nigeria, makes Rufai suspect and not fit to head the country’s elite intelligence agency. It is necessary for us to alert that the issue of likely doubtful loyalty, is a serious issue in intelligence corridors.
“Where a person’s nationality or that of his spouse becomes unclear, thorough vetting from the cradle becomes even more demanding. In this case, it is very dangerous that the vetting process has been compromised, which is an ominous danger to the nation’s security.”
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