Ambassador Ayo OkeThe Director General of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ayo Oke, staged what looked like a hide-and-seek drama with members of the Presidential press corps at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja today, Wednesday.
The Director General, whose suspension from office, along with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal by President Muhammadu Buhari, was announced earlier in the day, had arrived at the gate of the Aso Villa to answer to a summon by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
As he was alighting from his Toyoto Landcruiser Jeep with registration no KSF 309 DH, the journalists surged forward to capture him with their cameras but, the Director General quickly turned his face towards the car, dodging the cameras. This was even as his security aides were frantically busy cordoning off the stubborn cameramen away from their boss.
Seeing that they could not stop the cameramen and other journalists from having a feast on the Director General, they led him by the shoulder to a corner of the Villa behind an electric poll where he hid himself for a few seconds, even as the journalists pursued him to the place, making him transparently uncomfortable.
The frightened NIA boss ran again into his car and drove towards the inner presidential parking lot, but was turned back by the Presidential security personnel, even as the journalists intensified the pursuit of him
In that confused state of affair, the embattled Director General was hurriedly driven out of the Aso Rock, with cameramen still pursuing his car, taking shots after shots.
Also, the SGF, Babachir David Lawal, who was attending a meeting with Vice President Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, at the time of the announcement of his suspension, emerged from the meeting looking confused.
When the news men asked him whether he was aware of his suspension, he asked: “by who?
When he was told that he was suspended a while ago by the presidency, he asked again: “who is the Presidency?” [myad]
