NASS Siege: How Osinbajo Threatened To Resign If Daura Wasn’t Sacked

Fresh revelations into why the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo ordered the sacking of Lawal Daura, Director General of the Department of State Services, emerged on Wednesday.

Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, said his principal was duly consulted prior to the sacking of the DSS DG.

ORIENTAL TIMES also learnt that the sack of Daura by the Acting President may have been the culmination of past grievances within the presidency.

Osinbajo, a legal luminary was said to have been very angry when he learnt of the blockade of the premises of the National Assembly.

While he had described the unauthorised takeover of NASS complex as a gross violation of constitutional order and the rule of law, he was also said to have threatened that either Daura gets sacked with immediate effect or he resigns as Vice President.

It was also believed that the action may have been carried out as a face saving measure for the ruling All Progressive Congress.

Adesina confirmed that President Buhari was clearly in the picture when he responded to questions from State House correspondents, shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo.

His words, “What we will like to say for the umpteenth time is that the presidency is one. Whenever the President is proceeding on vacation he transmit power to the Vice President, who then become the Acting President. On this occasion he also did that.

“So the Acting President has all the powers of a President. Now it’s a matter then of decency and we know that the Acting President is a decent man, there is no tussle for power, there is no tough battle between him and the President.

“When something like what happened yesterday happen, there will be unanimity. There is no way there won’t be unanimity on that kind of decision. It’s not something that will be discussed with the press but know that there was unanimity in the decision”.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting started on an unusual note as most of the ministers who stayed away on flimsy excuses were seated before 10am.

The meeting which is coming barely few days after the President proceeded on vacation to London, started one hour behind the normal schedule. Buhari usually declares the meeting open by 11am.

Prior to now, when Osinbajo presides over the meeting, most of the ministers stay away on the grounds that they had other engagements to attend to.

But the story was slightly different on Wednesday as over twenty-three ministers were in the Council Chamber by 10a.m when the meeting started.

Osinbajo wielded the big stick on Tuesday when he ordered the terminating of appointment of the DSS boss, Daura.

Daura who has since been replaced by Matthew Seiyefa was sacked for ordering a siege on the National Assembly without prior permission from the Presidency.