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 Ashiwaju.org that Mani
committed various misdemeanor, “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, former minister of petroleum
resources, had surprisingly traveled 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 Ashiwaju.org.
Mani was appointed as President 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.