‘Nothing very serious’ – Ahmed Abubakar on why he resigned as DG NIA

The Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, has described the reason for his resignation as personal.

DAILY POST reports that Rufai tendered his resignation to President Bola Tinubu in Abuja on Saturday but no clear reasons was given for the decision.

Abubakar was appointed in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari. He was reappointed in December 2021.

In a brief chat with Abubakar, he said he simply visited the presidency to brief the president on security situation in the country and afterwards tendered his resignation.

“Its a routine thing, from time to time, I brief Mr President on situations in the country 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 at a stretcher at a go. So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professional as we are professionally dedicated to our country and to noble causes,” he stated.

Queried further to know his reasons, he said, “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.”

His resignation comes at a period when the security situation is still at a dire stage with kidnapping of innocent Nigerians for ransom still prevalent.