Somalian President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has suspended the Prime Minister’s power to hire and fire officials.
The decision is the latest development in a bitter dispute that has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis.
Farmajo accused the prime minister of making rush decisions and not having good working relations with the president’s office.
“The prime minister has violated the transitional constitution, so his executive powers are withdrawn… especially his powers to remove and to appoint officials, until the election is completed,” the president’s office said in a statement.
Mohamed Hussein Roble said he would not abide by the president’s order and accused him of twisting the constitutional provisions he cited to justify his interference with the powers of the prime minister’s office.
Somalia’s president and prime minister have been locked in a power struggle over the country’s spy chief and the death of a cybersecurity agent.
Roble had suspended the head of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, Fahad Fassin, for failing to investigate the agent’s death.
However, the president rebuked the move and appointed Yasin as a national security adviser.
Later, Farmajo convened a national security meeting and reshuffled some top security positions, appointing suspended spy director Yassin as his national security adviser, while installing former Banadir regional intelligence chief Colonel Yassin Abdullahi as new acting director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, NISA.
Roble described the president’s move as an obstruction of justice toward the investigation of the alleged death of young female spy Ikran Tahlil Farah.
