President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked the Director General of the State Security Service, Ita Ekpenyong.
A statement by the Director of Communications, Haruna Imrana on behalf of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Danladi Kifasi, did not give reasons for the sack, but observers said that the sack had long been expected.
It would be recalled that under the sacked Director General, the SSS became openly partisan, especially in the run-up to the 2015 general elections.
Rather than gathering intelligence necessary to make the country safe, the agency busied itself more with harassing and arresting opposition figures, ransacking firms and offices with ties to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and appearing on television to disparage opposition politicians and their party.
On July 25, 2014, operatives of the SSS descended on the corporate headquarters of TNS-RMS, a Lagos-based research agency, holding its staff hostage, ransacking its offices and premises and whisking away three of its personnel.
The company’s offence was that it was, at the time, conducting an opinion poll on the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun state. The SSS struck because it got intelligence report that the poll would indicate that Rauf Aregbesola of the APC would win the election. Mr. Aregbesola later won that election.
On November 21, 2014, the agency raided the APC data centre in Lagos, arresting its staffs and accusing the party of “cloning INEC Permanent Voters Card with the intention of hacking into INEC data base, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data.”
The SSS is yet to prove that allegation till date.
The SSS also consistently disparaged the APC in the media, accusing the party and its leaders of being behind the deadly Boko Haram insurgency.
And after the Osun election, the agency’s spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, rushed to the media, claiming that some opposition APC politicians offered the Service’s personnel 14 million naira bribe.
The SSS is yet to substantiate that allegation and no one has been charged to court for bribery.
However, after his sack, President Buhari quickly appointed Lawal Daura as new head of the agency, which serves as Nigeria’s secret police.

Daura was born in Daura on the August, 5, 1953 and attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1977 – 1980.
He started his carrier in the State Security Service in 1982 and rose to the rank of Director.
He was at one time the Deputy Director, Presidential Communication, Command and Control Centre, at the Presidential Villa Abuja between 2003 and 2007.
He also served as State Director of Security Service at various times in Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo States.
He attended various professional courses both at home and abroad, including the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau state.
The appointment is with immediate effect. [myad]

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to work with other member-nations of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS, as well as international community to ensure that Burkina Faso conducts free, credible and peaceful elections scheduled for October 15 this year.
Speaking at an audience with Burkina Faso’s Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Rene Bagoro today at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, President Buhari said that Nigeria will do all that it can to help in the achievement of successful elections.
“I am aware that ECOWAS is providing logistics support and some form of electoral assistance to Burkina Faso. Nigeria will provide its own support as soon as possible,’’ President Buhari assured Mr. Bagoro, who was in Abuja as a Special Envoy of the transitional President of Burkina Faso, Mr. Michel Kafando.
President Buhari also received Niger Republic’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Aichatou Kane who delivered a special message from President Mahamadou Issoufou.
The message from the Nigerien leader and President Buhari’s discussion with the Foreign Minister focused on ongoing efforts at strengthening the Multinational Joint Task Force established to combat Boko Haram.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile. [myad]

The Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused governor Nyesom Wike of squandering over N60 Billion in his first 30 days in office.
Chairman of the state APC, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, in a statement today in Port Harcourt said: “In what is clearly a tale of the absurd, Wike’s rubber stamp State House of Assembly has approved a whopping sum of N30 Billion within 30 days for expenditure without any project attached. Apart from this N30 Billion,
the administration of Governor Chbuike Amaechi left the sum of N7.5 Billion, plus the N23 Billion released to the State from the Federation Account and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), making the total funds available for Wike to squander at over N60 Billion within 30 days,” Ikanya said.
He lamented that within the 30 days, which rank among the worst in the history of Rivers State, Wike has neither initiated nor embarked on any project apart from ordering a trailer load of his favourite Lexus XIII drink, a bottle of which costs N1.5 million, and sharing the remaining billions of naira with Madam Patience Jonathan, INEC officials and others that supervised the killing of Rivers State people so that Wike would become Governor.
“While Governors of States like Kaduna, Bauchi, Sokoto Abia, Lagos, Delta and Adamawa that were sworn-in the same date with Wike are initiating and executing projects aimed at improving the standard of living of their people, the Rivers State Care-Taker Governor is busy supervising the liquidation of the economy of Rivers State through acts of squandermania unknown to modern governance in the entire world. Wike has succeeded within 30 days to turn Rivers State to one of the dirtiest States in Nigeria without security and in ensuring that our people now sleep with one eye opened!” [myad]

Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina has stressed the need for stakeholders in information management to ensure that accurate information is disseminated to the general public at all times.
Speaking at a meeting with members of the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA) and the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) today in Abuja, Adesina said that it was only with accurate information that the public could have a better understanding of the actions and policies of government.
Adesina said that the establishment of FOSSRA and CCC was timely as they will help in building and fostering the much needed synergy among critical stakeholders in security and crisis management.
He gave an assurance that the administration of President Buhari will collaborate with the Centre in ensuring that activities of government, especially in the area of ameliorating the pains of victims of terrorism and insurgency are well disseminated.
The Chairman of FOSSRA, who is also the  Defence spokesperson, Major-General Chris Olukolade congratulated Adesina and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu  on their appointments.
Major-General Olukolade also briefed the Presidential spokespersons on the activities of the Centre for Crisis Communication and FOSSRA. [myad]

The newly appointed Acting Chairperson of Independent National Electoral Commission, Amina Bala Zakari has pledged to continue to work towards the improvement of the electoral process in the country.
Amina Zakari who spoke today at a brief hand over ceremony, held at the INEC headquarters, Abuja said: “I accept this with humility and added dedication to serve. We hope to see the continued improvement of the electoral processes in the country.”
The acting chairperson of the electoral umpire said that the successes achieved under the leadership of the immediate past Chairman of the Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, must be consolidated.
She prayed for God’s guidance to lead the Commission until a new Commission is constituted, saying: “we cannot rest on our oars until we deliver on that premise.”
The first female boss of INEC is a professional Pharmacist. She hails from Jigawa State.
She completed her Secondary Education from the prestigious Queens College Yaba, Lagos. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science (B.sc) Degree in Pharmacy with Second Class Upper (Best Graduating Student) in 1980 from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
After completing the National Youth Service Corps, she worked as a professional Pharmacist in various hospitals from 1983 – 1996. She then moved into the consultancy field to serve in various capacities as a consultant in Health and Social Services from 1997 up till her appointment as National Commissioner, INEC.
She has also served as a Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and was posted to FCT where she   served  as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Social Development and Agriculture and Rural Development from 2004 – 2007.
Her Consultancy services covered Federal MDAs (FMWH, NAFDAC, NPHCDA etc) MDGs and the Private Sector.
Amina Bala Zakari is a registered Pharmacist and Member of the Pharmacist’s Society of Nigeria as well as Member of Nigeria Institute of Management (MNIM).
Other qualifications obtained include: Certificate in Managing Drugs Supply for Primary Health Care from MHS Amsterdam in 1997, Certificate in Project Management 1998, Certificate in Senior Management from Crown Agents    London in 2005, Certificate in Executive Education in Business Management from Harvard Business School. [myad]

Former Nigeria Aviation minister and recently, Director of media and publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode has rolled out series of criminal cases which have been made against him by those he called political detractors, even as he announced the change of his family name from Fani-Kayode to Olukayode.
Addressing newsmen today in Lagos while reacting to the court verdict earlier in the day, acquitting him of money laundering, Olukayode said that initially, he was accused of stealing N19.5bn of public funds when he was Minister of Aviation but that it was thrown out by the courts.
“Then I was accused of stealing N6.5bn. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N200m. It was thrown out by the courts. Then I was accused of laundering N99m. It was thrown out by the courts. Finally, I was accused of laundering N1m and N1.1m respectively, and today, both of these charges have also been thrown out by the courts.”
Olukayode said that in the last seven years, he had been subjected to the most malicious, vicious, sinister, well-orchestrated, insidious and devastating form of political persecution and wickedness, adding: “the whole process almost destroyed my life, my family, my reputation, my health and my career. I thank God for His goodness, His mercy and for the fact that today, the whole nightmare has finally come to an end.”
The former PDP Presidential campaign spokesman thanked God, his family members, leaders of the Body of Christ, intercessors, pastors, political associates and friends who never doubted his innocence and who stood by him through thick and thin “for today’s verdict.”
He thanked the judiciary “for refusing to send an innocent man to jail and for refusing to allow themselves to be used as tools for personal and vindictive vendettas or political persecution.”
Olukayode recalled that the whole nightmare started on 1st of July 2008 when he was arrested in the premises of the Nigerian Senate after the public hearing on the N19.5 billion Naira Aviation Intervention Fund.
“I was cleared of any wrong doing in the administration of that fund by the Senate Commitee on Aviation yet despite that, immediately after the sitting before the Comimitee, I was abducted and arrested in an unceremonious and shameul fashion and locked up by the Farida Waziri-led EFCC for 10 days and charged to a magistrate court in Abuja.
“Today, the 1st of July 2015, seven years to the day from that day when I was first arrested and first put into detention, I have been discharged and acquitted of all remaining charges by the courts.
“As a mark of honor and respect for the Lord and as an everlasting testimony of my love for and dedication to him, I wish to make it known to the Nigerian public that as from today my name will be changed.
“It will no longer be David Oluwafemi Fani-Kayode but instead, it shall be David Oluwafemi Olukayode. Olukayode means “the Lord has brought me joy” and today he has done precisely that.”
The former aviation minister said that he had sworn not leave the shores of Nigeria until the case was finally brought to an end and that since the courts had pronounced his innocence seven years after it all began “I shall be leaving the shores of my beloved country for the first time in seven years for a short holiday and a long overdue medical examination.” [myad]