Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders’ Forum urge Buhari to resist plans to bring Daura back

NIGERIA'S Southern and Middle-Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF) has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to resist an ongoing plot by some members of his kitchen cabinet to reinstate the sacked director-general of the Department of State Security Lawal Daura.

Last month, while President Buhari was away on holiday, acting president Professor Yemi Osinbajo dismissed Mr Daura after he got men of the DSS to invade the National Assembly. Since his sacking, Mr Daura has been placed under house arrest and is being investigated for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Following his removal, Matthew Seyeifa, the most senior civil servant in the DSS has been appointed as its acting head but apparently, those close to the president are not happy with the development. Like President Buhari, Mr Daura is from Daura town in Katsina State and according to SMBLF leaders, their kinsmen want the sacking reversed.

After holding a meeting yesterday, the SMBLF leaders alleged that the plot to reinstate Mr Daura is being led by Abba Kyari, the chief of staff in the presidency. In a statement co-signed by Yinka Odumakin (South-West), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-South), Professor Chigozie Ogbu (South-East) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the urged President Buhari to stand up to Mr Kyari and his cabal.

SMBLF leaders stated that it would have ignored the reported plan to remove Mr Seyeifa but for the clannishness, sectional proclivity and exclusive handling of the security architecture of the country by President Buhari over the last three years. According to them, President Buhari’s refusal to speak on the removal of the Mr Daura since he returned from holiday in London confirms the speculation that he was not happy with the removal.

The said: “He (Buhari) had defied all protestations from all well-meaning Nigerians in making appointments into all key and sensitive security positions in sectional and kith-and-kin affairs in a very insensitive and you-can-do-your-worse-manner that until the recent sacking of Lawal Daura, 16 out of 17 service chiefs were from his corner of the country. Also, the president has not commented on the sack of the former director-general of the DSS since he returned from his London vacation confirms the speculation that he was not happy with Mr Daura’s removal.

“The president should prevail on Kyari and stop him from removing Seyeifa as there would be consequences if the southwest and south-south regions were marginalised in the DSS leadership hierarchy. The rest of the country has lived with the insensitivity of Mr President in handling the security architecture in the last three years with equanimity.

Their statement ended with the warning: “It may be necessary not to overstretch it by removing the acting director-general and stopping the professional reorganisation in the DSS because it is not in tandem with the ethnic domination script of Mr President. It may turn out the proverbial last straw.”