…as presidency announces replacement
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the redeployment of his Chief Security Officer (CSO), Bashir Abubakar and accepted a replacement.
Abubakar was the president’s CSO until this week when he was ordered to proceed on an immediate “strategic course” at a university in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
According to top presidential sources, he has seen been replaced by Idris Kassim Ahmed.
He is to be assisted by another Department of State Security Service (DSS) official, Abubakar Maikano.
Recall that Buhari had two months into his administration in July 2015 replaced his erstwhile CSO, Abdulrahman Mani, and requested the DSS to redeploy him out of the Presidential Villa.
The president thereafter appointed Abubakar as a replacement.
Until his appointment as CSO, Abubakar was an assistant director in the Bayelsa State command of the DSS.
Mr Ahmed, the new CSO, was deployed from the headquarters of the DSS.
Our sources, who are familiar with the development, said the removal of Abubakar was at the instance of the Director General of the DSS, Yusuf Bichi.
“The DG wrote and informed Mr President of the plans by the service to send the former CSO for further training at Argentina and it appears that request was granted because a replacement has already been named,” a source said.
Another source who asked not to be named because of the “sensitive nature of the matter” said those around the president have never been happy with the way the former CSO operated.
A source said those around Buhari do not like the “independent method of operation” of Abubakar.
“They may not have approached the president to complain officially but most of them do by their body language and they did so because they know the president easily knows everything going on around him even if he never showed it,” the source said.