As Bichi, Abubarkar bow out from nation’s foremost intelligence organizations
By Olawale Lamina
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi as the Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, to replace Yusuf Bichi, who retired from the service after six years of active service as head of the nation’s secret police as well as appointed Ambassador Muhammed Muhammed as the new head of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, upon the resignation of Ahmed Abubakar .
The former DG DSS was appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
A statement on Monday by the presidential spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, informed that the President made the appointments sequel to the resignation of Bichi as head of the State Security Service, SSS and Ahmed Abubakar as the Director-General, NIA.
The statement reads: “Ambassador Mohammed has had an illustrious career in the foreign service since joining the NIA in 1995. He had served in various roles, culminating in his promotion to the rank of Director and his subsequent appointment as the head of the Nigerian mission to Libya.”
“The 1990 graduate of Bayero University, Kano, had served in North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, and at the State House, Abuja.
“The new DSS Director-General, Mr. Adeola Ajayi, rose through the ranks to attain his current post of Assistant Director-General of the Service. He had, at various times, served as State Director in Bauchi, Enugu, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Kogi.”
Tinubu tasked the two heads of intelligence organizations to bring their experiences to bear in addressing the myriad of security challenges plaguing the country through enhanced collaboration with other sister agencies and in “surgical alignment” with the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA.
As to if the changes that took place in any way cascaded down to other senior officers of the organizations, a security source hinted that the change of guards at the NIA and the DSS was a ‘tsunami,’ which suggested that some other top ranking officers may have been affected by way of retirement, upon attainment of mandatory 60 years of age.
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