The Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, has tendered his resignation.

Abubakar, who was appointed to the position by former President Muhammadu Buhari seven years ago, tendered his resignation after meeting President Bola Tinubu, on Saturday.

Speaking after the meeting, the former NIA Boss thanked the President for the opportunity to serve the country.

He disclosed that his meeting with the President was a routine one, adding that, “This is a routine meeting, from time to time we brief Mr President on the situations and today is no exception. After the briefing today, I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation.

“I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership, for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare, by the way, to have the opportunity to serve two President at a stretch. So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professional as professionally dedicated to our country and to noble causes.”

Abubakar who refused to give the reason for his resignation said, “There are quite a number of reasons for one to do that, some personal, family issues, but nothing very serious, actually, and the friendship will continue. I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well, and I promise to remain with the issues and the security situations of the country.

“This is the seventh year and the opportunity to mentor younger officers to come up, and now we have a lot of many officers who can do this job.”

In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Abubakar as NIA boss and extended his stay in December 2021.

The 71-year-old retired career foreign service officer from Katsina state joined the security department of the Nigerian Foreign Service in 1993.

In 2015, he was appointed senior special assistant to the president (SSAP) on international relations and foreign affairs.