Just in: Director General NIA Ahmed Rufai Abubakar tenders resignation letter

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

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

Abubakar told Newsmen that he tendered his letter of resignation to the President after the normal routine briefing which was accepted.

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

According to him 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.

I tended 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 President at a stretcher at a go .

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

“There are quite a number of reasons one will do that, some personal family issues, but nothing very serious, actually, and the friendship will continue. I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well, and I promise to remain seized with issues and the security situations of the country.

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 is 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 of many officers who can do this job and do it excellently well. Thank you.“