The director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, has tendered his resignation.

“After the briefing today, I tended my resignation, and Mr President graciously approved and accepted the resignation,” Mr Abubakar told State House correspondents on Saturday, according to Radio Nigeria.

Mr Abubakar did not specifically state the reasons for his resignation but said such announcements typically result from family or personal issues.

“I discussed with Mr President. He understood very well, and I promised to remain ceased with what I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well, and I promise to remain ceased with issues and the security situations of the country,” the 71-year-old stated.

Mr Abubakar further thanked President Bola Tinubu “for allowing me to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for a period, for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare, by the way, to serve, to have the opportunity to serve two presidents at a stretch. So I thanked him very well, and I promised to remain professionally dedicated to our country and noble causes.”

“This is the seventh year, by the way, to mentor young officers and staff for all the period that I’ve been DG, younger officers to come up, and now we have a lot of many officers who can do this job and do it excellently well,” he added.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mr Rufai in January 2018, and his tenure was extended to December 2021.