Amidst controversies regarding his acquisition of multi-billion naira worth of properties in his home state of Kano, Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, has met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Daura, to seek tenure extension.
Buhari had on Friday left Abuja for Daura in Katsina State in what the Presidency described as a “private visit.”
It has been gathered that Idris, who clocked 60 years on November 25, 2020, reminded the President that his tenure had elapsed and solicited for tenure extension.
It was learnt that close aides of the Buhari had blocked the AGF from meeting the President in Abuja, making him to ‘follow the back door’ to meet him in Daura.
“The AGF secretly met with President Buhari in Daura to beg him for tenure extension. This was because people close to Buhari refused to allow him to see the President, that was why he followed the back door to go and meet him in Daura,” a source told reporters.
Idris had earlier engaged the services of highly placed persons including governors, senators and emirs to prevail on the President to give him an extension.
The move is against the civil service rules, which states that a career civil servant must disengage from service either after attaining 60 years of age or having worked for 35 years, whichever comes first.
It is also against a recent circular from the office of the Head of Service to all agencies of the Nigerian Government which says, “For the avoidance of doubt and to maintain discipline and integrity of the extant public service rule which prescribed 60 years of age or 35 years of service for mandatory retirement, should strictly be complied with.
“Accordingly, the following guidelines shall apply. (I) that career officer who takes up tenured appointment should at the point of taking up the appointment retire from service to ensure they run their term uninterrupted.
“(II) that career officers who have not retired from service before the commencement of their tenured appointment must leave office on the attainment of mandatory age/years of service for retirement and
“(iii) that career officer who is currently holding tenured appointment is required to retire from service with immediate effect and continue to run their term. Failure to do so would mean that they would vacate office on attaining the mandatory age or at the expiration of their term whichever comes first.”
However, knowledgeable sources in the OAGF and the Presidency informed Freelanews that Idris was doing everything within his capacity to manipulate the extant laws and regulations to remain in office.
“He is stopping at nothing to achieve his aim, which will eventually deny others in the system their career progression. The AGF is also speculated to be aspiring to become the next governor of Kano State in 2023, and he is believed to be mobilising a formidable financial war chest for that purpose,” a source said.
It had earlier been exposed how Idris acquired several properties worth billions of naira since being appointed by President Buhari as the administrative head of the treasury in June 2015.
A visit to Gezawa Commodity Market Limited and Gezawa Integrated Farms Limited owned by Idris lends credence to the allegations made by concerned citizens and some stakeholders on how and where the AGF got the money he used in acquiring the multi-billion naira firms, both in Kano through his direct family members.
The shareholdings of both firms indicate a spread of Idris family members on the official board.
There have also been questions about how the AGF bought ‘Sokoto Hotel’ in Kano with N500m cash.
Freelanews gathered that Idris upon acquiring the hotel ordered its immediate demolition to build a multi-billion naira shopping mall on the property.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
