President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of a new Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s secret Police, and a tool for human rights abuses by the government. A new DG was also appointed for the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi has been appointed the new Director-General of the DSS, while Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed is the new Director-General of the NIA.
The appointments were announced in a statement issued on Monday by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity.
According to the statement, Ambassador Mohammed joined the NIA in 1995 and had once served as the head of the Nigerian mission to Libya. He “had served in North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, and at the State House, Abuja.”
The new DSS DG is currently the Assistant Director-General of the Service. “He had, at various times, served as State Director in Bauchi, Enugu, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Kogi.”
The DSS has been especially oppressive in its conduct over the years, violating international laws on fundamental human rights.
The United States Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2023, published in April 2024, indicted the DSS, noting that the service contributed the most to the rise in extrajudicial killings, violence against journalists, civilian deaths and other forms of human rights abuses in 2023.
The immediate past DG of the NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, tendered his resignation to President Tinubu last weekend.
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