Secretary to Nigeria’s federal government, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was on Monday sacked by President Umaru Yar’adua who replaced him with incumbent Defence Minister, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed.
Kingibe’s sack was announced in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President (Communications), Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi.
No reason was given for Kingibe’s removal which came as a surprise considering that the former AU Special Envoy to Sudan and subsequently Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and head of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) was regarded as a close confidant of the President.
Kingibe, a former Foreign Affairs Minister was appointed Secretary to the government in June last year.
Yar'adua who has reportedly been sick and under-going treatment in Saudi Arabia returned to the country last Saturday after seventeen days.
Government officials however insisted that he only travelled out of the country for the lesser Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.