Jeopardy as Farmajo solicits Fahad's access for cash and documents locked at NISA HQ

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Jeopardy as Farmajo solicits Fahad's access for cash and documents locked at NISA HQ

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Somalia's outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo is attempting to solicit for former National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) Fahad Yasin's access to retrieve $13 million and classified documents loc

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Rift between Farmaajo and Roble widens.

MOGADISHU (HORN OBSERVER) Somalia's outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo is attempting to solicit for former National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) Fahad Yasin's access to retrieve $13 million and classified documents locked inside the embattled spy agency's headquarters, security sources and a government minister have confirmed.

According to government officials who are privy to the matter, the cash held at the NISA headquarter is part of funds received from Qatari government earlier. Some say it might have been intended for Farmaajo’s re-election campaign.

Yasin had travelled back to the country on Tuesday few days after his flight from Istanbul was denied permit to land by Mogadishu authorities. Early this month, Prime Minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble sacked Yasin for his handling of a high-profile probe into the disappearance of a young NISA agent Ikran Tahlil, who was abducted near her home in the capital in June.

A feud between Roble and Farmaajo over Yasin’s sacking intensified raising security concerns and delaying the already murky electoral process in the Horn of African nation.

On Sunday Farmajo called Roble to deliver his demand about giving Yasin access the spy agency’s building known as ‘Habar Khadijo’ which Yasin used as an office and his residency before it was taken over by the U.S-trained counter-terror units of Gashan and Waran. Roble reportedly declined the demand and instead ordered his men to protect the top-secret agency’s offices.

"President Farmaajo claims that Yasin should be given access to the building. There is a locked office which Yasin used to work where the money is. They want the cash and documents there,” a senior security officer told Horn Observer.

Prime minister Roble’s appointee to NISA, General Bashir Mohamed Jama has not yet reported to the NISA headquarter as the rift between Farmajo and Roble continues to widen.

Gashan and Waran units have cordoned off NISA headquarter since the spat between Farmaajo and Roble began on September 2 and had even faced off Dufan units which comprises majority al-Shabaab defectors.

‘When Yasin returned to the country on Tuesday, he was escorted to a private building inside the Mogadishu International Airport where he continues to receive his people within NISA,” one minister told Horn Observer.

Government officials are alleging Yasin of attempting to mobilize his own forces within NISA as the ensuing tensions nearly sparked a deadly firefight, with opposing units facing off at NISA headquarters until today.

Meanwhile, pro-opposition forces and Mogadishu elders who have backed the prime minister’s measures have threatened to remove Farmaajo from the presidency.

"Mediation efforts proved futile. Now Farmaajo wants his ally Fahad Yasin who is sacked by the Prime Minister to get access to $13 million cash and secret documents. This means violence is inevitable,” says Mogadishu-based security analyst Omar Mukhtar.