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]
