Finally, Army Spy Chief eased out of service after probing misconduct of officers in 2015

Brigadier General Abubakar Sadeeq Hanafi Sa’ad, a former Director of Military Intelligence (DMI), was among the Army Generals that were ‘arbitrarily’ sacked by the Nigerian Army in 2016 and technically eased out of the service recently, despite interventions of Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami.

PRNigeria reports that 16 affected military generals have reached their run out dates of service this year and cannot be reinstated into the military even after the resolutions of the National Assembly (NASS) and several courts ordered their reinstatements which were flagrantly ignored by the Nigerian Army.

The affected military generals were among the 38 Army Officers that were compulsorily retired on 9 June 2016 without any cogent reason. Meanwhile, there are 22 other affected officers that can still be reinstated as they still have active years to serve.

A top military source told PRNigeria that General Sa’ad might have taken the wrong decision by setting up a panel to probe misconducts of some military officers during 2014-15 elections.

The officer said: “General Sa’ad was one of our finest military intelligence officers. As DMI, he handled the case of one Captain AS Koli, who returned from self-exile after the Ekiti election saga in 2015.

“He set up a Board of Investigation (BOI) to probe Koli’s going on AWOL as well as all issues related to the military’s conduct in the Ekiti and Osun elections of 2014.

“The BOI submitted its report which he reviewed and made eight recommendations, all of which were accepted by then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai. Among them was a recommendation for the Army Headquarters to set up a BOI to investigate all alleged unprofessional conduct by army officers in Ekiti, Osun and all other states around the country.

“This BOI was set up under the chairmanship of Major General Oyebade. Thus, he was pivotal to the setting up of the Oyebade Panel that sat at 1 Division, Kaduna.

“Gen Sa’ad emerged first in order of merit in his course promotion board to Major General in 2015. His course mates included late Army Chief, Gen Ibrahim Attahiru.

“Instead of being promoted, his name was removed from the promotion list at the Army Council before it could be confirmed in December 2015 while he was still the DMI.

“After the removal of his name from the promotion list, he was removed as DMI and posted to Defence Headquarters (DHQ) before he was compulsorily retired without any charge of wrongdoing five month later!

“General Sa’ad, who was Nigeria’s Defence Attaché in Bamako at the height of the Malian crisis, won the country’s highest medal of honour for his military roles in resolving the Malian crisis as he had concurrent accreditation to Senegal, Gambia, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Cape Verde,” the source added.

General Sa’ad held many sensitive positions and won several awards before his military career was truncated. He was Adjutant of the Nigeria Defence Academy, Kaduna; Commander of the 118 Counter-Intelligence Command; Deputy Chief of Staff at the Headquarters Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps, Commander of 81 Division Intelligence Group, Deputy Director Policy and Plans, Defence Intelligence Agency, Defence Attache to Mali and Director of Military Intelligence (DMI).

He has Master’s Degrees in Global Security as well as another on National Security and War Studies. He won many awards during his military career, including Best Overall Army Student Junior Division Staff Course and Mali’s national honour, Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mali. (PRNigeria)