There are simmering protests within Nigeria’s top two intelligence services, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Department of State Service (DSS) for a probe and urgent leadership change in both spy agencies.
It was learnt that senior officers within the two agencies are calling for the removal of NIA Director General, Amb. Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, and the DSS Director General, Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi over gross abuse of office and incompetence.
The clamour for their removal follows the discovery that the heads of the agencies have began lobbying President Bola Tinubu to retain their positions, following the recent shakeup in the security community by the new administration.
The director-generals, it was gathered, have recruited some top northern traditional rulers to lean on the president to retain and possibly renew their tenures in office.
Recall that Tinubu recently sacked and appointed new Service Chiefs including Inspector General of Police (IGP).
The NIA boss, Abubakar, and his DSS counterpart, Bichi, were appointed by former President Muhammadu Buhari in controversial circumstances.
While the DSS is responsible for gathering intelligence within Nigeria, the NIA handles foreign intelligence operations.
However, findings by Pointblanknews reveal that top officials of both the domestic and international secret service agencies have listed some of infractions commited by both leaders for which they should not be allowed to remain in office.
Sources within the two agencies told Pointblanknews that officers were taken aback over the continued stay of the NIA Director General and his DSS counterpart, despite the controversies surrounding the appointment of the duo.
A source in the NIA said, “For the Director General of NIA, Amb. Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar it was alleged that he failed exams thrice and that by his levels in the Service, he was not qualified to be appointed DG at the time of his appointment. More so, having attained the age of 70 and have served a term as DG it is expected that President Tinubu will inject a much younger person to steer the affairs of the Nigeria’s foremost intelligence agency.”
In DSS, a source said “the case of Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi, was appointed from retirement and has done so little in the fight against banditry which threatened internal security and stability, and having served a full termed and now in second term and approaching 70 he should also give way for younger ranking officers to turn around the internal security of this country. It was said the DG DSS is involved in intensive lobbying to be retained by deploying influential emirs and Islamic clerics from the north to put pressure on President Tinubu and those around him claiming that without him Tinubu wouldn’t have become President.”
The source added that unwholesome and overbearing activities of the wife of the Director General of the State Security Service Hajiya Aisha Yusuf Magaji Bichi has created strings of administrative scandal, contract scams and subversion of principles and rules governing the DSS operations.
“Mrs. Aisha Bichi rose into prominence and national limelight when a tailor who goes by the name Ms. Hadiza Usman sued her, alongside her husband and the Director FCT Command of the DSS over alleged threat to life. Hadiza Usman dragged the trio before Justice Sylvanus Orji for the enforcement of Fundamental Human Rights pursuant to Order 4 Rule 7, Order 5 Rule 7 and Order 11 of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedures) Rules, 2009 and Section 33 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. She prayed the court to make an interim order restraining the respondents by themselves, agents, employees, operatives, detectives from further threatening her life or putting her life in jeopardy either by their actions or inaction pending the determination of the application.
“In the suit, Hadiza informed the court that the respondents on May 5, 2019 forcefully gained entrance into her premises at No. 36 Gnassingbe Eyadema Street, Asokoro, Abuja tortured, maltreated and threatened her life and those of other members of her family. She further assert that the respondents through their officers are continually menacingly moving around her premises, adding that she and her family are constantly living in fear as they keep seeing strange movement of Hilux vans belonging to the respondents with masked men driving around the premises. Ms. Usman further told the court how several gunshot were fired into her compound by the masked men that accompany the respondent (Aisha Bichi) and was subsequently admitted at Asokoro General Hospital as a result of the trauma and injuries she sustained from the beating, inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to her on the instruction Mrs. Aisha Bichi.
“In the same authoritarian manner, sometimes in January, 2023, Aisha Bichi order illegal arrest and detention of the then Kano State NNPP gubernatorial candidate (now Kano State Executive Governor), Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf (Abba Gida Gida) over a minor altercation between his supporters and her security details. The security details and motorcade that Mrs. Bichi move about with is longer than the convoy or details of any Governor in Nigeria, and almost twice the size of her husband details and motorcade. In the course of the altercation one of Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf’s entourage, Garba Kilo was brutally dehumanize leading to serious injury on the head and brain trauma as she was heard saying kill him, and nothing will happen. Equally, she promises to deal decisively with Engr. Abba Kabir and vows at the time that she and her husband will never allow him to govern Kano.
“She rained a stream of invectives on Abba Kabir and then ordered the beating up of Abba’s members of entourage and the destruction of his motorcade. She vowed at the time never to allow Abba board same flight with her to Abuja and she made good her threat by calling for heavy reinforcement of DSS personnel who condoned the lounge and told Abba he was under arrest on the orders of Mrs. Bichi thus preventing Abba from boarding the plane.
“It is no secret that Mrs. Bichi is meddling with Service Affairs and deploys DSS Operatives to deal with her perceived enemies at the slightest provocation. Sometimes ago she ordered for the removal of DSS Director in charge of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja over what she termed insubordination for allegedly refusing to welcome her back into the country in 2018. It is believed that Mrs. Bichi and the Chief Security Office (CSO) to the DG Mr. Adamu who in the past engaged in power tussles over contracts issues on who control what. Mrs. Bichi and Mr. Adamu are now the sole contractors through proxies at the DSS Headquarters but with Mrs. Bichi having an upper hand. Some of the remittances are done through their children and associate Pandora-like business entities. The Technical Director at the DSS is being relegated and his duties taken over by Mrs. Aisha Bichi and Mr. Adamu.
“Under Bichi nepotism and favouritism is the order of the day largely due to the full grief of his wife as the unofficial Co-DG of the Service. Bichi has retained very old and senior retired directors and push them to manned strategic commands and formations, resulting in grumblings among upcoming officers, whose progress has been retarded by Bichi’s action of retaining and in some cases recalling retired personnel to carry out his biddings. Quite recently, more than 300 DSS Operatives were recruited from Bichi Local Government alone to the detriments of the other components that make up Nigeria.
“In another abuse of power, the DG Mr. Yusuf Bichi auctioned one of the Directors Quarters at Niafounke Street, House No. 20, Off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja to his wife Mrs. Aisha Bichi through proxies and in the process ejecting a serving director who was occupant of the house at the time. The house was outrageously undervalued and sold at an unbelievable gift away price. It is believed that it is the house that Mrs Aisha Bichi intend to reside when her husband eventually exit as the DG.
“Mrs Aisha has boosted at several fora that President Tinubu has no option but to retained her husband for at least 3 more years to stabilize his government otherwise Tinubu will not survive more than one year in office. It was gathered that she vowed to make Kano State Ungovernable for Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf and will sponsor series of protests and other unorthodox methods to destabilise his government, it was this singular mission that made her to singlehandedly select the Kano State Director and other strategic officers to support her clandestine mission. Unknown to Mrs. Aisha Bichi and her husband that those close to Tinubu are fully briefed of the secret pact that exist between former VP Atiku Abubakar and the DG including the recent twist at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. It has been exposed how Mr. Yusuf Bichi played both sides and strike a deal from the 2 front runners in the build up to the 2023 general election.
“It is no secret that Mr. Bichi has silenced media houses from reporting the shenanigans at the Department of State Service through intimidation, coercions and threat to life, to the extent media gagging has now become official policy of the agency. Any media that dares to reports happenings at the DSS, masked men will be send in draconian like manner akin to military dictatorship to raid and harass staff of such media house,” the source said