…to ensure Kingibe’s emergence as Buhari’s successor
. Moves to bring back sacked ex-DSS boss, Daura, as NSA
. Reserves VP slot for S/East
. Recruits Ambode in anti-Tinubu crusade, promises to make him SGF
. Mischief makers are at work- former Lagos gov’s spokesman
SAM SEGUN-ADESOLA, Abuja
In order to have a smooth sail in their alleged plan to make the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, the next President of Nigeria, the power brokers in the nation’s Presidency have 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, The Point has learnt.
According to impeccable Presidency sources, the cabal is 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.
Daura served as DG DSS from July 2, 2015 until August 7, 2018, when his appointment was terminated by the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for sending masked operatives of the secret agency to the National Assembly. The National Assembly’s blockade by the DSS operatives was widely condemned as an assault on the nation’s fledgling democracy. Daura was appointed the DSS boss following the dismissal of the agency’s former DG, Ita Ekpeyong, on July 2, 2015 by President Buhari. Following Daura’s sack by Osinbajo, the National Human Rights Commission through its Executive Secretary, Anthony Ojukwu, accused the former DSS DG of abuse of office.
The NHRC had then also lamented that Daura secretly detained Nigerians illegally and also tortured many innocent people, calling for a review of all cases of alleged unlawful detentions and human rights abuses during the tenure of the sacked DSS boss.
However, the decision of the cabal to sack both the incumbent IGP and the current DSS boss, it was reliably gathered, is part of a large scale plan by the powerful Presidency cabal to seize control of the nation’s security apparatus to enable them to have a free hand in achieving their objective of having Kingibe as President Buhari’s successor in 2023.
The cabal, it was also learnt, plans to give the vice president’s slot to the South East to assuage the feelings of the entire southern part of the country, which may feel aggrieved over the planned retention of the Presidency by the North in 2023.
Reliable Presidency sources also told The Point that the Aso Rock cabal had succeeded in securing the support of the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, in its bid to stop the 2023 presidential ambition of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ambode, it was learnt, had already agreed to the scheming by the Aso Rock cabal to frustrate Tinubu’s plan to succeed Buhari. The former Lagos governor, impeccable sources said, was confronted by the agents of the cabal with two options of either staying aloof and suffer more harassments in the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or cooperate with the Aso Rock power brokers by releasing documents in his possession indicting the APC national leader and eventually getting rewarded with the top position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation under a Kingibe-led Federal Government. Ambode was said to have settled for the second option and may soon begin to release the ‘indicting documents’ on Tinubu.
But spokesman to the former Lagos governor, Habib Aruna, dismissed the claims in a terse reply to a text message earlier sent to him by our correspondent on Sunday, saying, “Please, who is this? And why can’t you get your story and source right before falling for mischief makers.”
EFCC operatives had recently made an unsuccessful attempt to raid two houses in Epe and Ikoyi belonging to the former Lagos governor. The anti-graft agency had earlier announced the freezing of three banks accounts linked to Ambode, which were allegedly used in the diversion of N9.9billion in September 2018.
Recall that The Point had last week exclusively reported that the powerful cabal in the nation’s Presidency may have finally begun deft moves to effectively checkmate the 2023 presidential ambition of Tinubu and in his stead work for Kingibe’s emergence as the country’s next president in 2023.
Top Presidency sources, however, told The Point that President Buhari may not be aware of the various moves currently 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 learnt that the cabal’s alleged plan to influence the sack of the current inspector general of police is 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 told The Point that the cabal plans 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 have 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 told The Point that the cabal plans 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 has planned to influence the arrest, on trumped up charges, of some loyalists and supporters of the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to totally halt his 2023 presidential ambition.
The Point gathered that the cabal’s plan to install Kingibe as Buhari’s successor in 2023 began immediately after the 2019 general elections. The plan then, it was said, also included a plan to replace both the IGP and the DG DSS.
It was also learnt that when Buhari got wind of the cabal’s plan to change the security chiefs, he was angry with his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who he was said to have vowed not to work with any longer. The President was said to have then told Kyari to prepare to go to any foreign country of his choice as Nigeria’s ambassador, as he could no longer condone his excesses as his chief of staff.
Incensed by Kyari’s antics, Buhari, it was learnt, contacted Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly to replace Kyari as his chief of staff. But Bakare, who was said to have requested the leadership of his church for a four-year leave of absence and had even been cleared by the DSS, was eventually “blocked” by the cabal from having further access to Buhari. The cabal, it was learnt, manoeuvred and moved in to break the communication between Bakare and Buhari, making it impossible for the President to conclude his plan to make the pastor his new COS.
It was under this circumstances that the cabal was said to have ensured the return of Kyari to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa as Buhari’s COS.
