Adegboyega Fasasi, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President Bola Tinubu, has refused to leave the Aso Rock Villa despite being redeployed by the Department of State Services (DSS) Director General, Tosin Ajayi, since October 20.

Sources within the Presidency revealed that Fasasi has the backing of influential people and state governors who allegedly paid him to ensure regular access to Tinubu.

However, other officials in the Villa accuse Fasasi of receiving bribes to control access to the President.

Fasasi was replaced by Rasheed Atanda Lawal, a deputy director of the SSS, who is currently enrolled in a fellowship course at the National Institute for Security Studies.

“There is a lot of pressure by governors and influential people from whom he has collected money to keep him, saying that he has to be there. We can confirm from Villa that the CSO refused to leave,” Sahara Reporters quoted one of the sources as saying.

“He’s accused of shaking down people to visit Tinubu. The logic of those supporting his stay is weird. They claim that if he leaves, they will have to bribe the new person afresh to have access to Tinubu,” the source further revealed.

“Some powerful people are backing Fasasi and are negotiating to let him leave in December,” another source corroborated.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that President Tinubu approved Fasasi’s removal, citing the need for him to attend a “strategic course”, which is a common pretext for replacing top security officials close to the president.

Lawal was reportedly due for promotion to Director in July 2023. However, his advancement was delayed by the former administration, allegedly because he was not favoured by the previous Director General.

In March 2019 a similar scenario happened when the then-President Muhammadu Buhari approved the redeployment of his Chief Security Officer, Bashir Abubakar, replacing him with Idris Ahmed.

It is reported that the Director General of the SSS at the time, Yusuf Bichi, convinced the president that Mr. Bashir should attend a “strategic course” at a university in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which led to his replacement.