President Bola Tinubu has appointed new Directors-General for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS) following the resignations of the previous heads of these critical intelligence bodies.
In a statement released on Monday, presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale announced the appointments of Mohammed Mohammed as the new NIA and Adeola Ajayi as the new Director-General of the DSS.
Ngelale announced the changes followed the resignations of Ahmed Rufai and Yusuf Bichi, the former chiefs of the NIA and DSS from their positions.
Tinubu had retained both Rufai and Bichi in June 2023 when he re-shuffled other service chiefs and security heads.
The newly appointed NIA Director-General, Mohammed Mohammed, has a distinguished career in the foreign service, which began since he joined the NIA in 1995.
On the other hand, Adeola Ajayi, now the Director-General of the DSS, also boasts an extensive career within the secret service.
He rose through the ranks to become the Assistant Director-General before his latest promotion.
According to the statement, Ngelale expresses the President’s confidence in the newly appointed Directors-General.
“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 bedeviling 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 endeavors” Ngelale said.
