An acting Director-General has been inaugurated for Nigeria’s secret
police, the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja.
He is Matthew Benabafa Seiyefa, who until his appointment was the director
in charge of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), an institution
established in 2005 as the cardinal training institution for the SSS.
Mr. Seiyefa is the most senior official at the SSS after Lawal Daura who
was sacked on Tuesday on the orders of Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
The acting DG, an indigene of Bayelsa State, was director of operations
between 2007 and 2010 when Afakriya Gadzama ran the agency.
Insiders at the SSS said he is close to retirement, and was indeed billed
to proceed on terminal leave later this month.
Mr Daura, who was appointed to the post by President Muhammadu Buhari in
2015, was axed over the invasion of the National Assembly Tuesday morning
by masked officials of the SSS, an incident the presidency said was not
authorised.
Sources said the handing over to Mr Seiyefa was being conducted at the
Yellow House headquarters of the agency by the agency’s director of
administration and logistics as Mr Daura was not available at the
ceremony.
The sacked DG’s official convoy returned without him from the Presidential
Villa to the Yellow House hours after Mr Daura was fired.
It is not immediately clear whether and where he is being held. Insiders
at the SSS said he was placed under house arrest at the presidential
villa. But that could not be immediately verified.
Multiple sources at the agency on Tuesday expressed relief over the sudden
end to the Katsina State-born Mr Daura’s three years leadership of the SSS
which they said was marked by high-handedness and autocracy.
He was said to have denied five senior officials their official quarters
in Abuja, instead allocating the facilities to his relations who are not
officials of the agency.
Mr Daura was also said to have cancelled the regular meeting of the DG
with state directors, the traditional channel for briefing his office on
security issues around the country and the forum for top level evaluation
of operations.
He also closed the regular channel of communication with the public as he
refused to appoint a spokesperson for the agency throughout his tenure.
Mr. Osinbajo had earlier met with Mr. Seiyefa at the presidential villa
shortly after sacking Mr. Daura, and directing him to hand over to the
most senior official in the service.
Mr Seiyefa arrived the presidential villa in an official SUV at about 4
p.m., clutching a file.
He was received at the entrance of the Villa by the aide de camp to the
acting president. He later left for the SSS headquarters after the meeting
to take charge of the security agency.
Premium Times