Buhari appoints new DSS boss

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday appointed Yusuf Magaji Bichi as the new Director-General of the Department of State Services.

The appointment will take effect on Friday, September 14, 2018.

The appointee is a core Secret Service operative.

This came weeks after the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, acting in the capacity as the president, sacked the director-general of the country’s secret service following the service’s operatives blockade of the National Assembly complex on August 7.

Osinbajo named Matthew Seiyefa as the acting boss of the DSS boss after the sack.

Yusuf Magaji Bichi’s Profile

Bichi attended Danbatta Secondary School, the Kano State College of Advanced Studies and the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he graduated with a degree in Political Science.

Bichi began his career in the security division of the Cabinet Office in Kano, from where he joined the defunct Nigerian Security Organization (NSO), the precursor of the present DSS.

Bichi has undergone training in intelligence processing analysis, agent handling recruitment and intelligence processing in the UK, as well as strategic training at the National Defence College.

His appointment as the new DSS boss comes to the job with skills in intelligence gathering, research analysis, conflict management, general investigation, risk and vulnerability operations, counterintelligence and protective operation and human resources management.

Bichi has worked as the State Director of Security in Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Abia States.

He was at various times the Director, National Assembly Liaison, (National War College), Director at National Headquarters in the Directorate of Security Enforcement, Directorate of Operations, Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Inspection and Directorate of Administration and Finance.

He also served as Director at State Service Academy. Mr Bichi is married and with children.