A military source has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s frequent stay in Lagos and reduced presence in Abuja were due to the alleged military coup.
The source who spoke to Punch stated that the intelligence gathered during the surveillance of the coup plotters led to a review of presidential movements.
“The first countermeasure taken was to divert the President’s movement in recent times.
“There was credible intelligence that they would execute the coup operation on October 1, and that was why the Independence Day celebration was cancelled. It was an operation that lasted for over a year, since August last year. But the service was ahead of them because they had access to their communications,” the source disclosed.
Last Friday, President Tinubu dismissed all the service chiefs and replaced them with new ones.
According to information gathered, the removal of the former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, was partly due to a public statement issued by the Defence Headquarters confirming the arrest of 16 officers.
The disclosure was described as a “management error.”
“Information about the arrest of the 16 officers shouldn’t have been in the public domain.
“The management of the situation was essential because they didn’t want people to have justification for the plot. The international community might begin to misinterpret the situation. The fact that the Chief of Defence Staff was careless by disclosing that they arrested 16 officers was a bad approach to management. That carelessness necessitated the change of the service chiefs,” a security source said.
The source noted that the move to dismiss all the service chiefs at once was meant to mask the disciplinary intent and prevent speculation that Musa alone was being punished.
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