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Tag: NIA

  • VP Shettima pays tribute to late FEDECO Chief, Ex-NIA boss

    VP Shettima pays tribute to late FEDECO Chief, Ex-NIA boss

    Vice-President Kashim Shettima has paid tribute to former Executive Secretary, Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), Ahmadu Kurfi, and former Director-General, Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Amb. Ibrahim Zakari.

    The two elder statesmen, who were from Katsina State, recently passed away at the age of 93 and 81, respectively.

    A statement issued by the spokesperson of the Vice-President, Mr Stanley Nkwocha, said Shettima spoke during his visit to the family residences of the two elder statesmen in Katsina.

    Shettima described the late elder statesmen as the last of the great titans to have emerged from their time.

    ”We’re here at the behest of President Bola Tinubu to convey our condolence to the family, government and people of Katsina State over the sad demise of our elder statesman, Alhaji Ahmadu Kurfi, the Maradin Katsina,” he said.

    Reflecting on Kurfi’s passing, Shettima noted: “He is the last of the great titans. In African folktale, when such an elderly person dies, a part of history goes.

    ”May Allah grant his soul eternal rest and reward him with Aljannah Firdaus. May Allah also grant the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”

    Also, during his subsequent visit to the family of Zakari, the Vice-President stated: “We are here on behalf of President Tinubu to offer our condolences to the family, Katsina Emirate Council, the government and people of the state over the demise of our elder statesman.

    ”It is a huge loss but he lived an eventful life worthy of emulation by all of us. It’s a celebration of life and not a celebration of death.

    “May Allah grant his soul eternal rest and reward him with Aljannah Firdaus and grant the family, the people and government of Katsina and by extension, the nation the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.”

    The Vice-President praised the deceased elder statesmen for their significant contributions to Nigeria’s development.

    Kurfi in electoral administration during the Second Republic, and Zakari in diplomacy and national security as the former head of NIA.

  • BREAKING: Tinubu appoints new Directors for NIA, DSS

    BREAKING: Tinubu appoints new Directors for NIA, DSS

    President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of new Directors General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Department of State Services (DSS). Ambassador Mohammed Mohammed is the new Director-General of the NIA. Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi is the new Director-General of the DSS.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Ambassador Mohammed replaces Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, who resigned on Saturday after seven years in office, and Mr Oluwatosin Ajayi, the new DSS boss replaces Yusuf Magaji Bichi, appointed by President Buhari in 2018.

    Ambassador Mohammed joined the NIA in 1995 and has had an illustrious career in foreign service since then. He had served in various roles, culminating in his promotion to the rank of Director and his subsequent appointment as the head of the Nigerian mission to Libya.

    The 1990 graduate of Bayero University, Kano, had served in North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, and at the State House, Abuja.

    Meanwhile, the new DSS Director-General, rose through the ranks to attain his current post of Assistant Director-General of the Service. He had, at various times, served as State Director in Bauchi, Enugu, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Kogi.

    “The new appointments follow the resignation of the previous NIA and DSS chiefs,” a statement by President Bola Tinubu’s Spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale reads.

    President Tinubu expects the new security chiefs will work assiduously to reposition the two intelligence agencies for better results. He charge 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 endeavours,” the statement added.

  • Real reason why NIA DG, Ahmed Abubakar resigned

    Real reason why NIA DG, Ahmed Abubakar resigned

    Mr Ahmed Abubakar, Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), tendered his resignation to President Bola Tinubu on Saturday. Abubakar submitted his resignation to the President, after a routine briefing which was graciously accepted.

    The NIA D-G, speaking to State House correspondents, expressed gratitude to the President for the opportunity to serve Nigeria for an extended period of 15 months, a rare privilege.

    “I had the honour of serving two Presidents consecutively. I thanked him for the opportunity afforded me,” he said.

    Abubakar cited personal reasons for his resignation, declining to elaborate further, as it would be a breach of protocol. He stated that the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the President would disclose the reasons for his resignation if necessary.

    Abubakar expressed his appreciation for the President’s leadership, encouragement, and confidence in his service. He highlighted the opportunity to mentor officers and staff during his seven-year tenure as Director-General, saying, “This is a significant milestone for me, and I am grateful for the experience.”

  • JUST IN: NIA boss, Abubakar, resigns

    JUST IN: NIA boss, Abubakar, resigns

    Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, has resigned his appointment.

    A source in the State House quoted by The Nation said Abubakar tendered his resignation to President Bola Tinubu.

    Abubakar was appointed in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari. He was reappointed in December 2021.

    Details later…

  • Court strikes out Nnamdi Kanu’s N20bn suit against Malami, NIA boss

    Court strikes out Nnamdi Kanu’s N20bn suit against Malami, NIA boss

    A Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, on Friday, struck out a N20 billion suit filed by leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, against the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN.

    Newsmen reports that Kanu, through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, had sued Malami and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar, as 1st and 2nd defendants respectively.

    Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, struck out the suit after I.C. Nworgu, who appeared for the IPOB leader, told the court that the plaintiff had resolved to withdraw the suit.

    Nworgu said the notice of discontinuance had already been filed.
    The application, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1702/2022, was filed pursuant to Order 50, Rules 2(1) of the FHC Civil Procedure Rules, 2019.
    NAN reports that Justice Ekwo had, on Oct. 27, fixed Friday for hearing in the the suit.

    The application, dated and filed on Sept. 23, had sought “a declaration that the defendants’ arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff (Kanu) at a location in Kenya and the subsequent imprisonment of the plaintiff in the aircraft that conveyed him from Kenya to Nigeria amounted to false arrest and false imprisonment.

    “A declaration of this honourable court that the defendants acted in bad faith and/or abused their public offices in falsely arresting and falsely imprisoning the plaintiff at the said location in Kenya and said aircraft.

    “An order of this honourable court directing the defendants to, jointly and severally, pay to the plaintiff the sum of N20,000,000,000.00 (Twenty Billion Naira only) being general and exemplary damages.

    “An order of this honourable court directing the defendants to separately write and deliver to the plaintiff, an unreserved personal letter of apology.”
    He prayed that the letters of apology shall be prominently and boldly published full-page in two Nigerian newspapers of national circulation.

    He also sought an order of the court, directing the defendants to pay the cost of the suit, among others.

  • Ikoyi building collapse: NIA calls for strict building regulations to avoid future occurrence

    Ikoyi building collapse: NIA calls for strict building regulations to avoid future occurrence

    The Nigerian Institute of Architects, Lagos State chapter, on Tuesday called on the government and regulatory bodies to put strict building regulations in place, to avoid future building collapse.

    Chairman of the chapter, David Majekodunmi, said this during his visit to the site of a building in the Ikoyi part of the state’s which collapsed on Monday.

    Majekodunmi criticized the signage of the building construction, saying that if the regulatory bodies had done the needful, then the public would know who to blame for the mayhem.

    According to him, the numbers on the construction signage shows that the same person is the consultant and the architect.

    He said, “If the regulatory bodies had seen this signboard and done the needful, maybe we’d be able to know who we are accusing or who to hold responsible for this mayhem.”

    The chairman said that, from his point of view, the collapse was an implosion, which could have been averted if regulatory bodies like the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria or Council of Registered Engineers had done the needful.

    “This construction has been going on for two to three years. Ideally, if this has been going on and we have this signage, the regulatory body could have blown the whistle,” he said.

    He added, “It has been on the social media that they got approval for 15 stories but they took it up to 21 stories, why? The regulatory body has every power, even if the government is silent, to blow it out.

    “In doing so, we know that the regulatory body is doing well. They need to buckle up their belt and do the needful. Government need to do the needful and create more laboratory testing agencies for building materials.”

     

  • Buhari’s nephew Sabiu Tunde Yusuf reacts to reports of his appointment at NIA

    Buhari’s nephew Sabiu Tunde Yusuf reacts to reports of his appointment at NIA

    President Buhari’s aide Sabiu Tunde Yusuf, has debunked reports that he has been appointed an assistant director at the National Intelligence Agency(NIA).

    “It is not true. It is not true at all” He said.

    Yusuf said he got to know about the fake news today when people began to congratulate him for a new job.

    For a while, he did not know what informed the flood of congratulations.

    “How could I have been appointed into NIA, an institution that works under cover?”, he said.

    Yusuf said people writing the story need to be educated about what the NIA does and what it stands for.

    In his view, he suspected that forces within the agency, who are not happy with the current Director-general, Abubakar Ahmed Rufai may be behind the fake news.

    On Monday, an online newspaper, Peoples Gazette reported that Yusuf has been surreptitiously appointed by Buhari into NIA.

    “Sabiu “Tunde” Yusuf, a nephew and domestic but influential aide to Mr. Buhari, was recently admitted as an assistant director at the nation’s external intelligence outfit, the Gazette understands based on information first volunteered by two presidency officials before additional corroboration from an NIA chief.

    “Mr. Buhari inserted Mr. Yusuf into the NIA even as he lacked requisite field and administrative experience to handle the rigours of the crucial intelligence top job.

    “Mr. Buhari has declined to make the appointment public to avoid yet another round of public clamour over his bias for northern supremacy in public service. But officials familiar with it have now informed the Gazette and excoriated the president for being unable to recognise the benefits of inclusive national patronage”.

    Sabiu Yusuf said the truth will ‘come out’, one day.

  • Senate queries NNPC over payment of $289m cash to NIA

    The Senate on Friday faulted the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for paying the sum of $289 million to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in 2015.

    This revelation came barely three years after the $43million scandal that led to the sack of a former Director-General of the agency, Mr. Ayodele Oke.

    The money found in an Ikoyi apartment of the former NIA DG by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was said to be a fraction of the $289million cash collected by the ex-DG from the NNPC.

    The Financial Director of the NNPC, Mr Godwin Okonkwo, disclosed this to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts in Abuja.

    According to Okonkwo, the $289million cash given to the former NIA boss by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was based on a directive to that effect from the NNPC.

    Okonkwo said the NNPC directed the CBN to release the said money to the NIA based on a directive to it from the then Presidency.

    The Presidency, he explained, gave the approval for the payment of the said amount to the NIA on February 16, 2015, which was carried out by the CBN on February 24, 2015 to the former DG and not to the account of the security outfit.

    Okonkwo, while responding to a question from the Chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, said: “Yes, we complied with the request. It is not true that we said the money should be paid to the Director – General but to the NIA as an institution.

    “I’m not defending the NIA for requesting for the money to be paid in cash, but considering the circumstances which is for security purposes.

    “The NNPC obliged because we are not in charge of security. If they request for payment in cash and they said it is for security, and that it must be transfered through electronic means to a particular account, the NNPC cannot say no because if anything happens afterwards, the NNPC will be held responsible.”

    Senator Urhoghide noted that there was no document before the committee, suggesting that the directive for the release of the money to the ex-NIA DG was issued by the Presidency.

    He said: “Available documents from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and even those from the NNPC did not indicate that any directive to that effect was given by the Presidency.

    “The documents before us show that $289 million was released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from the Niger Delta Security Votes in the CBN to the NIA DG in February 2015 and in cash which is against extant laws.”

    Urhoghide further insisted that from the documents available to the panel, it was the NNPC that advised the CBN to pay the money to the former DG of NIA in cash which is against extant laws.

    He said based on the audit query from the Auditor-General for the Federation, the NNPC granted a request from the NIA to pay $289million in cash to the ex-DG of the NIA and that the NNPC also complied by directing the CBN to pay the cash to the NIA.

    He wondered why the NIA should insist on cash payment when the procurement of the security equipment the NIA claimed the money was meant for was to be purchased outside the country.

    He agreed with the submission of the Auditor-General for the Federation in his audit query that there was no way the that ex-President Goodluck Jonathan would have directed the NNPC to pay $289 million in cash to the then DG of the NIA.

    “We want you to convince this committee why you think that the transaction must be done through cash payment.

    “Tell us if the President expressly stated that the money should be paid to the NIA in cash. There is no way a government business, involving such huge sum would be transacted in cash”, Urhoghide said.

    The NNPC’s representative, Mr Okonkwo, promised to make the mandate from the Presidency to that effect available to the panel at a subsequent sitting.

  • N13bn Ikoyi cash: EFCC approaches Interpol for arrest of ex-NIA DG, Oke, wife

    N13bn Ikoyi cash: EFCC approaches Interpol for arrest of ex-NIA DG, Oke, wife

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has approached Interpol for the arrest of a former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayodele Oke, and his wife, Folasade.

    The whereabouts of the couple remain unknown one week after they were declared wanted by the EFCC.

    According to the anti-corruption body, they are wanted for failing to appear in court to answer to the N13bn money laundering charges against them.

    The couple reportedly travelled out of the country for medical treatment in January before they were to be arraigned.

    Justice Chukwujeku Aneke of the Federal High Court Lagos on February 7, 2019 issued an arrest warrant against the couple following an oral application by EFCC counsel Rotimi Oyedepo.

    Sequel to the court order, the commission on March 24 declared the ex-spy chief and his wife wanted in a statement by its acting EFCC spokesman, Tony Orilade.

    Oke and his wife are wanted in connection with the $43m, £27,800 and N23.8m cash recovered by the EFCC from an apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos, in April 2017.

    Orilade said the EFCC had asked Interpol to arrest the couple wherever they might be hiding.

    He added that the commission expected all Interpol member-countries to execute the arrest warrant issued against them.

    He said, “We have done what we needed to do. We have notified Interpol and we expect them to issue a red notice against the couple and arrest them wherever they may be found. We don’t know where they are at present.”

    Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, also could not provide an update on the status of the EFCC request to Interpol, stating that he was out of town.

    A check on Interpol website, however, did not turn up any information on Oke and his wife, an indication that they had not been listed on the wanted persons’ section of the site.

    Only the profiles of a handful of Nigerians were listed out of the 6,855 wanted persons.

    They include Odife Ikemefuna, 55, wanted for importing banned drugs and psychotropic substances from India and Iyinoluwa Victor, 55, wanted for drug trafficking.

    Under Oke, the NIA allegedly collected $289,202,382 in cash for special operations from the account of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services at the Central Bank of Nigeria in February 2015.

    The agency had claimed that the funds were meant for covert intelligence operations, but the Federal Government insisted it was a case of looting.

    The FG subsequently set up a three-man panel headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. The panel indicted Oke and recommended his dismissal from service.

    Criminal charges were subsequently filed against him and his wife in February this year over the cash found at the Ikoyi apartment.

  • Alleged $205m fraud: Judge’s absence stalls arraignment of ex-NIA DG, wife

    Alleged $205m fraud: Judge’s absence stalls arraignment of ex-NIA DG, wife

    The absence of Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of a Federal High Court in Lagos, Monday, stalled the arraignment of former Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke; and his wife, Folashade, over $205m crime concealment.

    The defendants were charged before Justice Aneke by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on counts of money laundering, fraud, concealment of crime proceeds, and criminal breach of trust.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the case which was earlier billed for the arraignment of the defendants, was on Monday, further adjourned to a date that would be communicated to parties, as the court did not sit.

    The judge is said to be away on an official assignment.

    On February 7, the court had issued a bench warrant for the arrest and production in court of the defendants, following an application moved by the prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo.

    According to the charge, on April 12, 2017, the accused indirectly concealed the sum of $43.5m, property of the Federal Government of Nigeria in Flat 7B, No. 16, Osborne Road, Osborne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos.