The acting Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Mathew Seiyefa, has recalled officers he transferred out of the headquarters of the agency when he resumed office on August 1.
This followed the directive by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, who queried the DSS boss for carrying out reorganisation in the agency without clearance from the Presidential Villa.
DAILY POST had reported that the presidency ordered Seiyefa to reverse the redeployment.
A source had said the presidency was angered by Seiyefa’s redeployment of Director of DSS in Kano, Alhassan Muhammad to the Headquarters in Abuja and the deployment of Director of Operations at the Headquarters, Mr. Godwin Bassey Eteng who was moved to the Institute of Security Studies, Abuja as Director.
He had also posted another officer from Kebbi to serve as the Chief of Staff to the DG in Abuja.
The reorganisations include postings of directors from headquarters to states and vice-versa. Over 30 officers at all levels and cadres were affected.
The then Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, fired ex-DG Lawal Daura in August after the seige on National Assembly.
But a source told Punch Monday night that, “There is tension everywhere because the directive has been complied with by personnel, most especially by those who instigated it.
“Both Eteng and Kentebe have reported. Personnel morale is at its lowest ebb.
“Even quite a significant number of the personnel of northern extraction are not happy with the Chief of Staff because they said himself and the ousted DG had not been good to the service.
“Meanwhile, there is every possibility that the service may witness an unprecedented protest against the undue interference in the affairs of the service by the Chief of Staff to the President.”
A few days ago, the embattled Katsina-born Daura finally spoke on his ordeal.
He made three declarations: (i) That he took all actions in national interest through a collective responsibility, including involvement of principal officers of sister agencies; (ii) that he acted on a higher authority which he relied on to deploy agents at the National Assembly; (iii) that the report submitted by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Idris Ibrahim, was totally incorrect.
Earlier, in his interim investigation report submitted to Osinbajo, the IGP noted that Daura confessed that he deployed hooded operatives to the Federal Legislative complex based on intelligence report that unauthorized persons were planning to smuggle in dangerous weapons and incriminating items.
“The former Director-General, Department of State Security Services, DSS, Lawal Daura, acted unilaterally, without informing the Presidency. He did not share or intimate other Security Agencies on the unlawful operations,” Idris wrote in the report.
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