MOGADISHU (Somaliguardian) – Somalia’s opposition hailed the dismissal of a controversial intelligence figure on Friday, who had been accused of preventing former officials from boarding flights bound for a restive region in the south of the country.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Council of Presidential Candidates, a conglomerate of opposition parties said the prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble’s decision to sack the deputy chief of the intelligence agency was the only right option to deal with growing attempts by loyalists of the current acting president to deny former officials the right to free movement inside the strife-torn nation.
Abdullahi Kulane, a controversial spy figure and a close associate of the country’s embattled president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and his intelligence chief Fahad Yasin was fired on Friday along with the head of spy agency at Mogadishu airport after they had stopped popular politicians from attending flights heading to Gedo region where the selection of federal MPs is due to start soon.
Analysts say the move appears to send a chilling message to the intelligence chief Fahad Yasin, whose controversial influence in the country’s politics and the electoral process sparked clashes between two factions of the army in April.
Opposition leaders called on Farmajo to refrain from violating the country’s law and to stop inference in the electoral process to ensure that the polls take place on schedule.
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