Yesterday, the news broke that President Buhari sacked his Chief Security Officer-CSO, and many wondered why. Now, The Cable is reporting that the sack was as a result of the CSO divulging the President’s itinerary to embattled petroleum minister Deziani. Read below:
President Muhammadu Buhari has fired Abdulrahman Mani, his chief security officer (CSO), over what insiders described as “shady deals” in fixing appointments and for “undermining” the president.
Presidency sources told TheCable that Mani committed various misdemeanours, “chief among which was a recent discovery that he was actually the one who leaked Buhari’s itinerary to Diezani Alison-Madueke when he travelled to London in May”.
Alison-Madueke, then minister of petroleum resources, had surprisingly travelled on the same British Airways flight with Buhari, sitting in the same cabin and right behind the then president-elect. The former minister normally flew private jets in and outside the country and her presence on the flight was not considered a coincidence.
It was alleged that she wanted to curry the favour of Buhari following a series of allegations of corruption against her, although her aides denied the claim, maintaining that she was on a private trip for her son’s graduation.
“Investigations also revealed that Mani has been actively undermining the president, working against every value the president upholds and conducting himself in such a manner as to suggest that he is out to pull down the president,” the source told TheCable.
Mani was appointed Buhari’s CSO after the presidential election in March, although he had been organising security for Buhari since 2011.
Buhari also fired Widi Liman, his administrative officer, who was said to be hand-in-gloves with Mani in turning securing appointments with the president into a “business venture”. Bashir Abubakar is the new CSO to the president while Mani has been redeployed to Ebonyi state.
Abubakar was until now an assistant director in the Bayelsa state command of the Department of State Service (DSS). Liman, who is yet to be replaced, was a close aide to governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai, while he was FCT minister. He has been transferred to Oyo state command of the DSS.
