“We cannot, therefore, trust such a man to head the security apparatus that is very vital for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, in which President Buhari will still be a candidate,” a source said.”
Loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari have begun moves to take control of the Department of State Services ahead of the 2019 general elections, The PUNCH learnt on Sunday.
It was gathered that the loyalists, who were working in tandem with a cabal in the Presidency, had already given the acting DG of the Service, Mr Mathew Seiyefa, a signal that he might not be in office during the conduct of the general elections next year by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Seiyefa, who is due for retirement in July 2019, hails from Bayelsa State.
Buhari’s loyalists are believed not to be comfortable with him, having hailed from a state where the President is not very popular.
Besides, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who Buhari defeated in the bitterly contested 2015 presidential election, hails from the same state.
“We cannot, therefore, trust such a man to head the security apparatus that is very vital for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, in which President Buhari will still be a candidate,” a source said.
One of our correspondents gathered that since the appointment of the acting DG, there had been serious gang-up against him by a cabal in the Presidential Villa.
It was learnt that members of the cabal had yet to get over the shocking removal of the erstwhile DG of the Service, Mr Lawal Daura, by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) while acting as the President in Muhammadu Buhari’s absence.
Daura is from Katsina State, the home state of President Buhari.
Osinbajo had asked Daura to hand over to the most senior officer in the agency when he (Daura) was sacked on August 7 for deploying operatives of the agency to block the National Assembly.
The sacking was said to have come to those close to Buhari as a shock.
Members of the cabal, which is allegedly headed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Abba Kyari, have remained unrelenting in their determination to have a say in who heads the agency.
The source added that Seiyefa had been asked by Kyari to also reverse all the appointments he made when he assumed office.
A security source said, “Since the appointment of the acting DG, there have been serious gang-up against him by the cabal in the Villa.
“The chief of staff has ordered the Acting DG to reverse all the appointments, warning him to stop further postings.
“The most unfortunate, ugly and unethical development that occurred was the instruction by the Chief of Staff to the President to the DG to bring the lists of all the postings and appointments he has done since his assumption of duty. It is causing serious rumbles in the office now.
“Some officers have been grumbling over interference by politicians in the workings of the agency.”
Those that the DG has been directed to bring back to the headquarters are the agency’s former Director of Operations, Mr Bassey Eteng.
Eteng was recently transferred to the Institute of Security Studies, Bwari, Abuja, where the incumbent DG once served as the director before he was appointed to take over from Daura.
Also, another Director, Grace Kentebe, who was transferred out of the headquarters of the agency, had been asked to be returned to the Yellow House, as the office of the DSS is popularly called.
It was also learnt that Kyari frowned on the posting of another officer from Kebbi State to serve as the Chief of Staff to Seiyefa.
It was also gathered that there were some aggrieved members of the agency, who were currently working at the Villa using their contacts within the corridors of power to help the cabal achieve its aim.
The officers are said to be using the Chief Security Officer to Buhari, Bashir Abubakar, to actualise their plans.
Those serving officers, four in number (names withheld) and who are involved in the game plan are said to be in the assistant directorate cadre.
A security source at the Presidency said, “There are some aggrieved elements in my office that are bent on removing him and bring in another person.”
