NIA DG Abubakar resigns from Tinubu administration

The Director General National Intelligence Agency NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, has  tendered his resignation letter  to President Bola Tinubu.

The NIA DG tendered his resignation letter on Saturday.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed him in 2018 and gave him an extension in office in December 2021.

Abubakar told State House Correspondent that he tendered his resignation to the President after routine briefing, adding that the President accepted his resignation.

He thanked the President for the opportunity given to him and the encouragement he received from him.

He said that the resignation could be personal and not definitely because of serious matters noting that ‘friendship will continue.’

“It’s a routine thing, from time to time to brief Mr. Presidnet on situations and today is no exception. After the briefing today, actually I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation.

“I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for a period, for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare, by the way, to serve, to have the opportunity to serve two Presidents.

So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professionally as we are professionally dedicated to our country and to noble causes.”

When asked about the President’s reaction to his decision to resign, he said. “I think, it is not for me to say this. Probably I’ll be breaching  a protocol, but maybe the NSA and or Mr. President himself will say it.

“But what I can tell you is that I’m very, very grateful for the opportunity that the President gave me, actually to serve the country and his leadership, the encouragement I got, the confidence he had in me and in my service, the opportunity to listen to me, to read briefing notes and advices and so on.

“I think this for me, is, everything and I have had the opportunity  to mentor officers and staff for all the period I have been DG. This is the seventh year by the way to  mentor officers and staff for all the period that I’ve been DG.

“This is the seventh year, by the way, and the opportunity to mentor younger officers to come up, and now we have a lot officers who can do this job and do it excellently well. Thank you.“