Buhari Panics Over Coup Reports, Appoints New Chief Security Officers

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, June 23, 2016 named police officers, Abdulkarim Dauda and Kayode Sikiru Akande as the chief security officer to the president and the officer in charge of presidential movement respectively.

Both officers were also promoted from the position of assistant commissioner of police to deputy commissioner of police. The development is coming on the heels of reports that top military officers in President Buhari’s government are planning to overthrow the President.

Sources privy to the development told Signal, an online newspaper, that while the appointment of a new chief security officer for the president may have long been overdue, President Buhari’s concern about the threat of a possible military coup has forced him to rejig his personal security apparatus at the presidential villa.

“The issue of a new chief security officer for the president has lingered for some time now. But, I can tell you that Thursday’s announcement is a swift and panic reaction to the news of a possible military coup which the president is not taking lightly,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

“You know he is a retired military general. Anything that relates to his personal security, he doesn’t joke with it. He actually gets paranoid with it.”

In July 2015, President Buhari fired his chief security officer, Abdulrahman Mani, an operative of Nigeria’s secret police who had been assigned to protect him since 2011. Mani was alleged to have been involved in “shady deals” in fixing appointments and was allegedly “undermining” the president.