The presidency yesterday, has described as untrue, retirement allegation against the new Director-General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.
In a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President (Media and Publicity), Femi Adesina, the presidency said a lot of misinformation, and outright falsehood have attended the announcement of Abubakar adding that some of such unfounded stories include that the new DG had retired from the services of NIA as an Assistant Director, because he failed promotion examinations twice.
Part of the statement reads; “others claim he is married to a Moroccan, and so cannot hold such sensitive security position, while others say he was born and bred in Chad, and he holds dual nationality.
“All these have been widely disseminated on the social, and some mainstream media with the formal assumption of office by Mr Abubakar.”
While setting the record straight, the presidency said the new NIA DG retired from Foreign Service as Deputy Director (not Assistant Director) and three times during his career, had won Merit Award for competence and meritorious service.
It added that failing promotion examination can only exist in the fecund minds of fiction writers adding that Abubakar’s last position was as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs/International Affairs where again he quietly proved himself.
The presidency further claimed Abubakar’s parents hailed from Katsina State, and had settled in Chad at a point in their lifetime. The new DG did his primary school in Ndjamena (then Fort-Lamy), but returned to Nigeria for his secondary and University education and that he never at any time held Chadian nationality.
According to the statement, his only wife hails from Katsina State and the new DG was said to have been appointed because he had worked closely with President Muhammadu Buhari in the past two years.
