‘Unrepentant ethnic champion’ — Fayose blasts Buhari over new NIA DG

Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment of Ahmed Abubakar as the new director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Abubakar was appointed as a replacement for Ayo Oke, former head of the intelligence agency, who was sacked on 30 October 2017, following the controversies trailing $43.5m found in an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos.

According to Fayose, the forefathers of Nigeria must be lamenting were they to see “what Buhari has turned the country into”.

Fayose, in a statement by Lere Olayinka, his spokesman, said while Lawal was replaced by Boss Mustapha, from Lawal’s Adamawa hometown, Buhari failed to pick Oke’s replacement from his state.

He described Abubakar’s appointment as evidence that Buhari is an “unrepentant sectional leader, who does not care about the feelings of people from other parts of the country”.

“Seeing what President Buhari has turned the country to, the forefathers of Nigeria, who laid the foundation of the country on equity, justice and fairness will be lamenting wherever they are now,” Fayose said.

“President Buhari has consistently demonstrated that he is an ethnic champion, a religious bigot and the number one promoter of disunity in Nigeria. This he has done again with the appointment of yet another northerner as the NIA director-general.

“Ambassador Ayo Oke was removed from office the same day Babachir Lawal was removed as secretary to the government of the federation.

“While Lawal’s replacement came from his home state, Oke’s replacement came from the north. That is unacceptable.”

Fayose asked if there was no one from the south qualified to head the agency.

He added that given Abubakar’s appointment, “all” of the country’s security chiefs are northerners.

“With the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the NIA Director General, all heads of security agencies are now northerners and the question is, is this what those who enshrined federal character in our constitution envisaged?” Fayose asked.

“The implication of what the president has done is that, when security council meeting is held today, apart from one or two insignificant people, those in the meeting will be people from one section of the country.

“Even para-military agencies are headed by people from President Buhari’s section of the country. This is unfair.

“Those who argued then that the president made the appointments on merit should come to the open to tell Nigerians, especially those from the south that there is no one that merited appointment as Director General of NIA.”