Rumble in the Presidency

The nomination and final selection of the former Kaduna State Governor, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, as the Vice President is causing rumbles in the Presidency.

Saturday Punch learnt authoritatively on Friday that some top officials of the presidency who did not support the appointment of Sambo had started thinking about disengaging from service.

Our correspondent was told that among the officials is a top security chief whose name was among those who were mentioned in the media as being in the forefront to clinch the nation‘s number two post before President Goodluck Jonathan surprisingly settled for Sambo. It was gathered on Friday that the top security chief might have resigned his position as the fallout of the intrigues that followed the jostle for the position of vice president.

Alhaji Namadi Sambo

The security chief was said to have resigned because of the refusal of the President to appoint him into the number two office. He was said to have recently accepted to return to the Presidency in the belief that it would boost his chances of realising his ambition to run for the office of the President in the 2011 general election when it became obvious that the late President Umaru Yar‘Adua would not make a second term in office.

It was revealed that the retired military officer had hoped to be appointed as vice president, which would have put him on a better pedestal to vie for the Presidency later.

But with Sambo‘s appointment, the top security officer felt that he had been schemed out of the power calculus for the race. 

However, efforts made on Friday to get official reaction to the speculation that the security chief had resigned or had expressed his dissatisfaction with the turn of events in the Presidency were unsuccessful.

A source said that the security chief was also not happy with the appointment of a deputy for him recently; a development that was said not to have gone down well with him. 

But the source could not state if President Jonathan had taken a position on the disaffection among some presidency officials who felt disappointed with the emergence of Sambo as the vice president. 

Repeated telephone calls made to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Ima Niboro, on Thursday and Friday, to react to a report that a top security chief in the Presidency was planning to resign, were not answered.

Source: http://www.punchng.com