…. accuses them of heating up the polity
. Warns cabal to shelve plan to shop for his successor
. Vows no service chief’ll be sacked for political reasons
SAM SEGUN-ADESOLA, Abuja
There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari has read the riot act to the power brokers in the Presidency over their alleged plan to shop for his successor in office, ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The Point learnt that President Buhari, who was riled by the recent activities of the power brokers in the Presidency, popularly referred to as the Aso Rock cabal, summoned the members of the group, many of who are said to be his aides and political allies, to a meeting last Thursday in Abuja, where he issued stern warnings to them to desist from their current political enterprise of attempting “to foist somebody” on the nation as his successor.
A reliable source in the Presidency said that the meeting was part of the President’s immediate response to inquiries about the recent activities of the power brokers in the villa and his efforts to rein them in.
The National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reliable Presidency sources said, had recently met with President Buhari to express his displeasure over the alleged plot by the Presidency cabal to frustrate his 2023 presidential ambition.
It was also gathered that Buhari, who had lately been inundated with phone calls from within and outside the country by various interests and world leaders to clarify his stand on the activities of the Presidency cabal, particularly concerning their alleged plan to shop for his successor, sternly warned the members of the group to stop heating up the polity, adding that he would not hesitate to sack and throw out from the villa anyone of them bent on ruffling feathers and causing trouble on the nation’s political turf.
President Buhari, it was reliably gathered, told the members of the cabal in clear terms that he had not asked anyone to embark on the process of searching for his successor as he had just begun a fresh four-year term in office.
The President, who was also said to have expressed serious concern about the backlash that could result from the recent actions of the cabal, was said to have further told them that anyone of them who refused to desist from the group’s current alleged moves to shop for his successor would be declared an “enemy and persona non grata” in the Presidential Villa.
Buhari was said to have noted that there are laid down procedure and processes for selecting a successor to the office of the nation’s president, warning the cabal to stop propping or bandying the name of anyone as the nation’s next president.
The President was also said to have warned the Presidency cabal to shelve their plans to influence or cause the sack of any of the nation’s security chiefs, stressing that he would resist such a move by anyone, especially since he still had confidence in the current top brass of the nation’s security agencies.
“The President told them at the meeting that he still has confidence in his security chiefs and that’s why he’s still retaining them. He then warned that anyone attempting to remove them for political reasons would be dealt with appropriately,” the Presidency source said.
Recall that two weeks ago, The Point had exclusively reported that the powerful cabal in the nation’s Presidency had begun deft moves to effectively checkmate the 2023 presidential ambition of the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and in his stead work for the emergence of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, as the country’s next president.
Also last week, The Point reported that in order to have a smooth sail in their alleged plan to make Kingibe the next president of Nigeria, the power brokers in the nation’s Presidency had secretly begun working on a plan to remove the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the Director General of the Department of State Service, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, from their current offices.
Impeccable Presidency sources had told The Point that the cabal was also planning to bring back the sacked director general of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, but this time as the country’s National Security Adviser to further consolidate their plan of a Northern presidential candidate, particularly Kingibe, taking over from Buhari in 2023.
Top Presidency sources had, however, told The Point that President Buhari might not be aware of the various moves being made by the powerful cabal in Aso Rock to remove the IGP and the DG DSS to clear the “hurdles” against their plan to install Kingibe as his successor.
The Point had also learnt that the cabal’s alleged plan to influence the sack of the current inspector general of police was to be predicated on claims that “he’s been too close to the President and may constitute a stumbling block to their agenda of having Kingibe as the nation’s next president in 2023.”
Impeccable Presidency sources had then also told The Point that the cabal planned to execute its plan of sacking the nation’s police chief and the current director general of the DSS, within the next three months during which they had allegedly planned to “make spurious and damaging allegations against the two top security officers before the President,” to whom, it was learnt, they had also planned to propose and sell names of their own candidates to replace the incumbent IGP and DSS DG.
Top Presidency sources had further told The Point that the cabal planned to author some “very damaging reports” on the IGP and the DG DSS with the ultimate objective of convincing the President to negatively view their continued stay in office and eventually declare them as “persona non grata” in his administration.
Within those three months, it was also learnt, the cabal had planned to influence the arrest, on trumped up charges, of some loyalists and supporters of Tinubu, to totally halt his 2023 presidential ambition.
