Buhari’s aide, Bashir Ahmad, denies being appointed as manager of DPR unit

Personal Assistant on New Media to the President, Bashir Ahmad has denied being secretly appointed as a manager in a unit under the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

Unconfirmed reports from a news blog, Peoples Gazzette, broke previously that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) “quietly appoints Bashir Ahmad manager of lucrative petroleum ministry department,” the headline read.

According to the digital news site, Buhari appointed Ahmad “to supervise a powerful and lucrative division at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) — a role that supersedes his work experience and area of expertise.”

The report added that “Bashir got the appointment early January, but his documentation took place last week,” a State House official familiar with the appointment told the Gazette. “It was delayed following the death of one of his friends, Jamilu Ibrahim Shinkafi, in an accident along Bauchi-Nasarawa Road, precisely in Akwanga in Nasarawa.”

Reacting to the report in a tweet to his 828.4K Followers on Monday, Ahmad said that the “story is 100% false”, adding that he is not a staff of the DPR.

“A friend sent me a link to a concocted story from an online news blog that the President has quietly appointed me as a manager of the DPR, a department of Ministry of Petroleum Resources, for those who want to know the truth, the story is 100% FALSE. I am not a staff of the DPR,” Ahmad.

A friend sent me a link to a concocted story from an online news blog that the President has quietly appointed me as a manager of the DPR, a department of Ministry of Petroleum Resources, for those who want to know the truth, the story is 100% FALSE. I am not a staff of the DPR.

— Bashir Ahmad (@BashirAhmaad) February 15, 2021

Meanwhile, Peoples Gazzette are yet to put out a disclaimer to the story which it claimed to be an ‘exclusive’.