President Bola Tinubu has appointed new Directors-General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS).
In a statement on Monday, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said Tinubu appointed Mohammed Mohammed as the new NIA boss while Adeola Ajayi has been appointed to lead the secret police.
Ngelale said the fresh appointments followed the resignations of Ahmed Rufai of the NIA and Yusuf Bichi of the DSS.
Tinubu had retained Bichi and Rufai in June 2023 when he fired all service chiefs and heads of security agencies.
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The new NIA boss 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.
Before his new appointment as DSS DG Ajayi rose through the ranks to attain the post of Assistant Director-General of the service.
He had, at various times, served as State Director in Bauchi, Enugu, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Kogi.
“President Tinubu expects that the new security chiefs will work assiduously to reposition the two intelligence agencies for better results and charges them to bring their experience to bear in tackling the security challenges bedevilling the country through enhanced collaboration with sister agencies and in surgical alignment with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
“The President thanks the outgoing Directors-General of the two pivotal intelligence agencies for their services to the nation while wishing them success in their future endeavours,” Ngelale said.
Why I resigned – Ahmed
The Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar, has given an insight into why he resigned from his position.
Briefing journalists at the State House after meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Saturday, the former NIA boss cited personal and family issues as his reasons for resigning from office.
“There are quite a number of reasons one will do that. Some personal family issues, but nothing very serious, actually, and the friendship will continue,” he said after tendering his resignation letter to the President at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
“I discussed with Mr. President, he understood very well, and I promised to remain steadfast with issues and the security situations of the country.”
He also expressed gratitude to the President for allowing him to serve for the first 15 months of the new administration, having occupied the office since 2018.
“After the briefing, I tendered my resignation and Mr. President graciously approved and accepted the resignation.
“I thanked him for giving me the opportunity to serve Nigeria under his transformational leadership for an extended period of 15 months, which is very rare,” Abubakar said.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari extended the tenure of Ahmed Rufai, former director-general of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), despite internal protests against his reappointment, published by Peoples Gazette on December 31, 2021.
Mr Rufai replaced Ayo Oke, who was suspended by the president in April 2017 and dismissed on October 30 the same year over fraud allegations.
Top NIA brass and critics of the Buhari regime had queried the appointment of Mr Rufai in 2018. They argued over his competence, nationality, and the motive behind the appointment of the Katsina State-born director-general.
Of the criticisms against Mr Rufai’s appointment was how he failed his promotion examinations into directorship rank on three different occasions before being compulsorily retired.
Amid claims that the president was extending Mr Rufai’s tenure, directors in the agency reiterated in a letter to Mr Buhari that the director-general was unqualified for the position.
“YE (Your Excellency), the current DG, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, left the service in 2012, which was six (6) years before you appointed him as the DG. He was compulsorily retired after failing his promotion examinations, from Deputy Director to Director, three(3) times consecutively,” the NIA directors explained.
“This appointment brought a kind of a very odd and awkward relationship between the DG and directors.”
He was first appointed DG of the NIA in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, who extended his stay in office in December 2021.
Abubakar, a 71-year-old retired career foreign service officer from Katsina State, joined the security department of the Nigerian Foreign Service in 1993. In 2015, he was appointed senior special assistant to the president (SSAP) on international relations and foreign affairs.
He attended Bayero University in Kano, where he bagged bachelor’s and master’s degrees in French. He also speaks English and Arabic.
