Hours after Somalia Cabinet of Ministers fired the Auditor General Nur Farah Jimale over the death of the late Somali Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction Abbas Abdullahi Siraji, the Auditor General refused his sacking, Somaliupdate reports.
A statement sent to the newsrooms by the Council of the Ministers, following an urgent meeting on Thursday, announced Mr. Jimale sacked over his role in the death of the minister and three of Mr. Jimale’s bodyguards arrested and currently in custody waiting for trail, the Office of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said.
The killed minister’s body was laid to rest in Mogadishu on Thursday afternoon and his funeral attended by the country’s top officials.
The statement further noted that the work of the Auditor General to be temporarily handed over to the Deputy Auditor General.
But Mr. Jimale in a press interviews to several radio stations in Mogadishu on Thursday night said that he was no accountable to neither the Cabinet of the Ministers not the Prime Minister’s office and that they cannot fire him.
“I was not appointed by the Prime Minister or the Council of the Ministers. The parliament has to petition my sacking first and then the President of the Republic can sign the petition of sacking on the State Bulletin.” Mr Jimale insisted.
Mr. Jimale, a longtime critic to the country’s several governments, attributed the immediate sacking against him as a politically motivated one in relation to his criticism and revelations of the government’s wrongdoing.
He said he acknowledges the tragic incident on Wednesday night during in which Mr. Jimale’s bodyguards shot and killed the Late Minister Abbas Abdullahi Siraji after mistaking for Al-Shabab militants.
“I have already said that I was very saddened by the incident in which the minister died. I am not armed and I did not kill anybody. I wonder why this decision has come at this moment.” Mr. Jimale questioned.
He vows to continue his job as Somalia’s Auditor General until the legislators sack him.
Currently, the Federal Parliament is closed and lawmakers will remain on leave until early July which makes the stalemate between the Auditor General and the Cabinet of the Ministers to remain until the Parliament re-opens.
