President Buhari appoints new acting DG of NIA

Buhari appoints new NIA acting DG.

Ambassador Mohammed Dawuda has been appointed as the Acting-Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, reports indicate.

President Muhammadu Buhari was reported to have quietly approved the appointment Dawuda over the weekend, Eagle online reports.

New information indicates there is controversy within the confines of Aso Rock Presidential Villa,.

The intrigues have been said to require prompt intervention in order to forestall factionalisation on issues regarding the NIA, which can cause the agency’s activities to be hindered.

NIA is Nigeria’s elite intelligence arm, and the country’s equivalent of the American Central Intelligence Agency or the British M16

Dawuda, who was formerly Nigeria’s immediate past Ambassador to Chad, had been restricted  by the decision of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, who limitedthe DG’s role and powers only to operational matters.

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Other roles that have in the past been within the purview of the DG have been set aside for a new group personally put together by the Chief of Staff.

This group includes Ambassadors Babagana Kingibe, Zakari Ibrahim and Niyi Oladeji – NIA’s DG from 2009 to 2013.

The Ambassadors were initially called in by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo panel to make expert input into the report of the probe concerning the tenure of a former NIA DG, Ambassador Ayo Oke, which went up in a heavy smoke with the discovery of huge sums of money stashed in an IKoyi, Lagos State flat.

Oke was suspended months ago, and was recently sacked over corrupt practices.

However the nation is yet to see any other action from the result of the investigation into his tenure and especially about the $43.4 million operations cash discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at apartment 7B in Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.