I expect that this will be an interesting experience. First, I will like to know why you decided finally to honour our request for interview after many failed attempts.?
You are welcome. I changed my mind to encourage the improved relationship between media and security in Nigeria. Moreso, it is not unusual with intelligence organisations globally to do this when the need arises. Our counterpart, the current Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) held a televised briefing on 16th September 2025, where he spoke to the Agency’s fight against criminal cartels, terrorism and drug traffickers. Traditionally, the MI6 Chief also makes annual public speech aimed at building public trust and explaining threats.
Your Department is 40 years now. That’s a huge milestone. We expected some fanfare, but its quite. Can you walk us through your experience these past decades. What has it been like and what has happened so far?
Intelligence Organisations are not disposed to public fanfare. We hold most of our celebrations internally. Moreso, the mood of the nation does not warrant that now. The background is that I grew up in the Service. I started as a Cadet Officer, rose through the ranks, and, by God’s grace, I am here. So, I have been part of the system; I therefore acknowledge our challenges and problems. I also know the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Thus, what I have done over the last two years is not different from what I did at every level of leadership I held before now.
In summary, I am building on past managements’ successes, improving on our weaknesses, and developing our strengths. One result I think you can see is, firstly, strict law enforcement, which is one of the things that helps every society. The convictions of terror suspects and other criminal elements so far prove this. Secondly, and quite importantly, is improving cooperation between sister agencies and our foreign allies. I’m sure you must have also noticed that, and then improving the Service’s respect for human rights.
Where we commit unavoidable errors, we proactively compensate victims without waiting for litigation. And in cases where the Court has issued an order, we ensure the compensation meets the highest standards of adequacy. For instance, in a N10 million compensation judgment, the person we mistakenly shot deserved more, so we added N10 million to it. We also provided him with fully covered medical treatment. And of course, we are also purging ourselves. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards unethical conduct. Such staff members are not accommodated in our Service.
We enforce a strict disciplinary process and keep the public duly informed. The idea is to be proactive in addressing misconduct to ensure that ex-staff members do not go on to commit crimes in our name. That’s a summary of what I have concentrated on in the past two years.
Kindly tell us about some specific reforms?
The reforms fall into these five broad categories that I mentioned: law enforcement, synergy, accountability in what we do as a Service, respect for human rights, and infrastructural/administrative reforms to enhance operational efficiency.
Narrowing to your focus on accountability and human rights, before you came in as DG, the DSS was known for arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial treatment of suspects. Can you speak to the specific actions you took that led to the improvements we are seeing now?
We visibly separated civil matters from criminal matters. My experience through my career path showed that we conflated the two aspects. For instance, and I must thank you in the media for my three awards from IPI, NUJ, BON. You cannot apply the use of force in civil matters.
Even some criminal matters don’t require force; take for example, the attempt at the establishment of a shadow government, i.e., the Service versus Pat Utomi. Rather than arrest him, we sought judicial interpretation. And the Court ruled that his adventure was unconstitutional, illegal, and a threat to national security.
So it was with Socio – Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP), which wrongly accused two DSS operatives of invading their premises; they approached the court on my approval. Throughout the process, nobody was arrested, and the court awarded over N100 million in their favour.
The case with the owner of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, is the same. Even from day one when he went to court, the court asked if we objected to his bail, and we said no because we didn’t arrest him in the first place. He was granted bail on self-recognition, so whatever transpired that he violated court process is unrelated to the Service and then the court revoked it but eventually granted him bail with conditions.
So, you now go to court for civil matters?
Yes. I have told my people there should be no arrest on any civil case. And I’m sure you have found out that, even in cases involving journalists, we rather approach the court because we do the same job. I call you our professional colleagues. The only difference is that, while you inform the public, we inform the Government. And because we inform the Government, our information is classified until we declassify it.
Journalists will disagree when you call them your professional colleagues because, before you came, your Agency was known for serial violation of press freedom.
You can attest to the fact that not a single journalist has been victimised under my watch. Where any misgivings arose, and I became aware of it, we responded immediately and offered an apology. Like the case of a journalist in Plateau State, I apologised for our staff member’s error, and the NUJ President confirmed it. It was one of the reasons they cited for awarding me as NUJ MAN OF THE YEAR, 2026. If for any reason we need to question a journalist, we go through the IPI, the NUJ, or any other relevant body.
But what suddenly changed in the relationship between this Agency and the media? It was very frosty in the past, and in fact, your Agency was known for being the biggest violator of press freedom, journalist safety, and independent journalism. So, what changed suddenly?
What changed is that I believe civil matters do not require the use of force. We also have a responsibility to protect journalists’ rights so they can do their job. Having been in the system, I have seen many things we could have handled better, and I am bringing those lessons to bear.
People are wondering how an Agency that was once seen as hostile to the media now enjoys a robust relationship with it, to the point where you are receiving honours from media organisations.
As I said earlier, what has changed is our respect for people’s right to do their jobs without hindrance. Our responsibility is to protect those rights. If a journalist publishes an inaccurate report about the Service, my first step is to request a correction, not to make an arrest. We’ve done this on several occasions. For instance, when some media organisations reported that the DSS invaded Lagos State House of Assembly, we demanded a retraction of the story within seven days. When they all complied, we took no further action because that’s the proper civil approach.
The same happened with the report from the Order Paper, which alleged that the DSS was involved in moves to impeach the Senate President. We clarified the facts and requested a retraction. Where there is a refusal, we seek redress through the Courts, not arrests. That is the same approach we adopted in cases involving SERAP and Sahara Reporters.
So where are you on SERAP? Is there no way to resolve the matter out of court?
We are very open to conversations if they apologise. We didn’t invade SERAP and the Court has ruled in favour of the two operatives that sued for defamation. They chose to appeal the ruling and we respect their right to do so.
Let me follow up on a similar subject: the issue of detention.
Let me stress something on this. You see, if I, as leader of this organisation, can tell my staff members across the states to apologise when wrong, that must mean something. It is a sign of courage to admit errors, as we are doing, and to pay compensation when a mistake is made without waiting for the court to order us. So when you wrong us, should you grandstand instead of apologising, and turn it into a pity party or false claims of harassment?
Your Agency had past reputation for arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention, then releasing those found innocent without any justice or redress. But lately you’ve been paying compensations. What informed this change in approach?
The simple reason is, you cannot do injury to someone, go on to admit that it was a mistake and then refuse to seek restitution. Even before God, there is room for restitution. Sometimes it is to heal the trauma, to provide the resources to help reintegrate, after we’ve disrupted a life. Most times, we follow up to see how to get the victim back into business. You see, what people hear is initial compensation, like the Jos businessman; we actually went further to set up a business for him, and he is now an employer of others.
Q: What happened to the Jos man really?
He was mistakenly shot, and in 2016, there was a court judgment for the Service to pay compensation of N10 million.
You’ve been talking about Intelligence. Some people see your Agency as simply providing intelligence that makes Government happy. What will you say to that?
Some people even say we only act after crimes are committed, but much of our intelligence work is classified, so the public never see it. Our job is to provide Intelligence to Government and sister agencies, including advice on the security implications of policies, not to tell Government what it wants to hear. The Intelligence helps prevent attacks, rescue victims, identify perpetrators, and make arrests. While many of those successes cannot be disclosed, recent cases, including suspects arrested for planned terrorist attacks, show that preventive Intelligence is at work.
If you gather all this intelligence, how come the Government does not do enough to stop these attacks from happening?
I want to anchor on the fact that we recognise that attacks are still happening, which tend to diminish our efforts. For instance, somebody whose child was kidnapped doesn’t care if you prevented 200 attacks. For that person, you haven’t achieved anything. Premised on that, I acknowledge we need to do more.
The President keeps urging for the protection of Nigerian lives; he doesn’t forget to caution that ‘Nigerians are in a hurry to celebrate peace.” That’s what is important and we have to do more.
But talking specifically about sharing intelligence, what happened to the attacks that were carried out? I’ll first draw your attention to the fact that, all over the world, no one can completely root out crimes one hundred per cent. But we owe it to this generation and those unborn to reduce crimes to the barest minimum.
If we go by those who even started the intelligence business before us, here we are talking of 40 years, you can imagine the global threat levels and how even the most powerful nations on earth are currently grappling with various forms of internal insurgencies, heightened violent crimes, among others. Thus, intelligence all over the world can’t be perfect. I won’t tell you it’s 100 per cent. Secondly, where we get a good percentage of it, there are issues such as capability, terrain, and the need for strategic decision-making. Hence, the presidential action on State Police, forest guards, are strategic solutions to enable vulnerable communities to defend themselves.
Just a follow-up: will you say that those factors you’ve listed contribute to the inability to provide a swift response? People complain that the response isn’t swift enough. For instance, the Oriire attack in Oyo and the fact that the victims were held for weeks before eventually being rescued. Are the above reasons why that has not been achieved?
What I’d tell you is that immediately the incident happened, based on credible intelligence, troops chased them, and sadly, a vigilante and a policeman were killed. During the second raid, more were killed, making a total of nine fatalities, four civilians and five security personnel. It was a complex operation involving a two-and-a-half-year-old infant who cannot run much if we invaded the place.
As expected, the rescue operation attracted a lot of social media disinformation; you have to sieve the information there. I give you an example: while that incident lasted, they were posting deepfake videos of children beaten with lacerations on their bodies. They were actually footage from a particular country on witchcraft-related incidents passed off as real-time crude events here. Recall the victims recounted how well treated they were by the criminals.
One of the things I’d like you to do in the media, is fact-finding and separating facts from fiction. Some patriotic Nigerians understood that a soldier was killed, and other lives were lost during the rescue operation and they empathised, having learnt about the nature of the kidnap group – an international terrorist group with links to Al-Qaeda. Citizens ought to know that the incarcerated leaders of the kidnap group who were requested in exchange for the victims were arrested last year by the Service; their arrest helped to prevent high-profile attacks.
These are people found complicit in the Abuja/Kaduna Train attack and were planning more kidnappings of foreigners, students, women and their children on a large scale to demand state recognition and freedom to practice their religion somewhere, hence arrest of their leaders proving proactiveness. The kingpins are the ones now sentenced to life imprisonment; the three other collaborators earned life imprisonment, which the Service will push for stiffer penalty.
Let me ask you because we are talking about working with other agencies. How will you assess the working relationship between your Agency and other sister agencies in Nigeria and with foreign intelligence partners? Where there are gaps and where is cooperation strongest?
Locally, our information/intel sharing is great. Over the decades, we have collaborated with our allies in the US, the UK, France, and many other European countries. After we share our intelligence, we determine where we want the joint boots on the ground. Don’t forget that sometimes around 2000, US soldiers came to join us to deal with some threats. So, it’s very useful.
One of our strengths is that we are very open with ourselves, and get support when we need it; we also support them. So, it’s the openness and frankness that are our greatest strengths. Can it be better? Yes. We will achieve many more feats with the liaison we now share.
Our citizens often misunderstand it, and we must keep educating them.
There is another side to my question, especially about inter-agency rivalry. So how are you navigating that?
For me, that has to do with leadership. Anytime you see it happen, it is because a leader encourages it. My operatives know I encourage collaboration and joint operations. I must commend the leadership of all the agencies; we have an excellent working relationship. In fact, it was demonstrated in Oriire, Oyo State; no single agency could claim supreme credit for it. It was jointly acheived, and you saw the GOC when he was giving his brief; he called out every other Agency that participated – DSS, Navy, Air Force, Police, NSCDC, vigilante, everybody. When you see rivalry thrive, the leaders encourage that. This crop of leaders, no!
We hear of massive infrastructural developments you have carried out since assumption of office and today, we are opportune to see them. Such great changes. How did you achieve this feat in just two years in office?
From the very first day I assumed office as Director-General, one of my priorities was to provide a befitting and functional working environment for our officers and men.We have completed construction of a new modern office building by Julius Berger to accommodate the expanded Service organogram, requiring additional office space for staff members, including the execution of several other welfare and capacity-building projects across the Service:
i. Construction and renovation of Staff Quarters as well as transit accommodation.
ii.
ii. Establishment of Creches in State Commands and at the NHSS to support our female staff.
iii. Provision of operational vehicles, surveillance equipment and modern armament; details of which I cant give.
iv. Upgrade of Sporting Facilities to promote fitness and esprit de corps.
v. Upgrade of the Medical equipment/facilities to improve access to quality healthcare for personnel and their families.
My vision is simple: a modern, professional Service must have infrastructure that matches its mandate. When officers work in an environment that respects their dignity, their productivity and morale naturally improve. The support of the President to us and other Security Agencies has been enormous.
How has the DSS fared in its 40 years of existence?
By Decree 27 of 1976, after the assassination of the then Head of State, Murtala Muhammed, Gen/retd; National Security Organisation (NSO) was established by Olusegun Obasanjo, Gen./retd, as the sole domestic and external Intelligence Agency in the country. Initially composed of part of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), E Department (Special Branch) of the Nigeria Police and part of the Federal Ministry of External Affairs, it was split into three by National Security Adviser (NSA) Act of 5th June 1986; Department of State Services (DSS- Fmr E-Department) Domestic; National Intelligence Agency (NIA – Former External Affairs) External, and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA – Former DMI) Military.
To summarise how we have fared as a Service against the background of the above brief history, three obvious facts suffice: Nigeria is still existing and no President has been assassinated again in the last 40 years, and we have practiced 27 years of unbroken democracy. Our Intelligence inputs into achieving these are known to you. However, I must add quickly that, we still have a lot to do, in view of the current security challenges, especially terrorism and other violent crimes.
There should not be ethnic colouration to crime, we cannot criminalise a race or paint a whole ethnic group with one brush. Between 2003 and 2007, we had kidnappings in South-East and South-South. Even recently, there was this viral case of Evans (aka the Billionaire Kidnapper). At a time in Nigeria, there was problem of armed robbery. Remember Ishola Oyenusi, popularly called ‘Dr. Oyenusi,’ was a very notorious armed robber.
After Oyenusi’s execution, Lawrence Anini appeared on the stage. General IBB had to ask then IGP (Etim Inyang), ‘My friend, where is Anini?’ With him was Monday Osunbor. The point I’m making is that, we met crises in this world. Apart from robbery, there was Maitatsine, Kalakato, etc. One of the problems we hope to solve, is ethnic colouration/politicisation of insecurity. A criminal should be treated as one, irrespective of his colour, race or religion.
Boko Haram started around 1998, but their Jihad started during the Administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. The problems in Benue and Plateau states are age-long. It started as dispute over access to land resources between native farmers, most of whom are Christians, and their Fulani neighbours, majority of whom incidentally are Muslims. Overtime, local criminal groups, including terrorists who pledged allegiance to International Terrorist Organizations got involved, mainly to further their sinister agenda.
As your tenure advances, what are the top priorities citizens should expect from you to consolidate on the ongoing reforms and successes?
I quote the President again: ‘Nigerians are in a hurry to celebrate peace.’ What they should expect from us is that the fight against terror, especially with strict enforcement of the law, would be strengthened. We will work more with the people. That’s why I want to again commend whoever initiated the hashtag #UniteAgainstTerror.’ We need the people. As patriotic citizens, we must collectively put pressure on evildoers, showing clearly that we will not harbour evil. We need the cooperation and understanding of the people.
The turning point will be when we agree to face our common enemies, criminalise them, demonise them. The media must also strengthen its trust in the Government and ensure reportage that projects hope and effort, rather than fall into the temptation to serve as mouthpieces for terror elements.