MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia’s prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble fired controversial deputy chief of the intelligence agency after a number of former officials were barred from boarding flights at Mogadishu airport under his orders, a government spokesman said on Friday.
Abdullahi Kulane, whose alleged interference in the electoral process in Gedo region renewed tensions over the past weeks, nearly two months after talks between federal and regional leaders managed to break a deadlock over the polls.
Former governor of Gedo region Osman Nour Haji (Moalimu) told media on Friday that he was refused to board a flight from Mogadishu airport heading to the restive region, where the selection of members of the federal parliament is due to begin.
He accused deputy spy chief Abdullahi Kulane of ordering the move at the behest of the Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, though president’s office and the intelligence agency have not yet commented on the claims.
A spokesman for the prime minister told reporters in Mogadishu on Friday afternoon that the deputy director of the Somali National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) and the head of the agency at Mogadishu’s Adan Adde airport had been sacked after violating the rights of a number of citizens to free movement inside their country.
The controversial figure had earlier led attacks on opposition figures which resulted in clashes that racked the capital Mogadishu in April after troops loyal to the current acting president raided the residences of several opposition politicians.
The prime minister’s decision comes just a day after a member of the Somali parliament Mahad Salad accused Abdullahi Kulane and the intelligence chief Fahad Yasin of orchestrating a plot in which a young female employee at the agency had been kidnapped and assassinated over politically sensitive information, including the murder of late Mogadishu mayor Abdirahman Yarisow and youths deployed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.
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