Jonathan Re-Appoints Ekpenyong DSS DG Amidst Grumbles From Officers

Several officials at the Department of Security Service (DSS),are angry over the decision of the President  to extend the tenure of the agency’s Director-General, Ita Ekpeyong, by another four years.

Mr. Ekpeyong first assumed office on September 7, 2010. His reappointment will run through September 2018, if he is not fired like his predecessor.

Before his elevation to the top post at the agency, Mr. Ekpeyong had served as a state director of state security in states like Bauchi, Kwara, Lagos, Anambra, and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Some of the officers who spoke with SaharaReportes said they were unhappy that the incumbent DG had done nothing to address the fact that they had not seen raises in their salaries for the past six years.

“This issue is affecting the morale of the officers and men of the agency. The DG is not making a case for us as long as he and a few of them are enjoying,” a top officer said.

Another official complained that the re-appointed Director General has tribalized the organization.

“How do you explain the situation whereby you leave intelligence gathering officers to stay with politicians, traditional rulers, hoteliers, businessmen and others for seven years without posting them?” one officer grumbled.

“Some of us have become politicians with this action as we have been seeing ourselves now as part of the people we are protecting” the official confidentially added

“Professionalism is dying and this is why the act of intelligence gathering is no longer there. We are in trouble in this country because almost everything in the service has been politicized and compromised.”

A female agent accused the current DG of favoring agents from the South-South, where Mr. Ekpeyong hails from. She said that the intelligence chief had become part of the push to return President Jonathan to office.

She said  “a majority of security operatives drafted to Ekiti and Osun States during recent governorship elections there were from the South-South.” A lot of them went there to make sure those who are opposed to the president do not win the election.”

“Those officers had a mission. And they were well motivated for that. That was why the Mopol Commander, Mr. Gabriel Serenkele, who attacked and teargased the convoy of the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, was never queried.”

Mr. Serenkele is from Bayelsa State, Mr. Jonathan’s home state.
Following public outcry over the attack, Mr. Serenkele was transferred out of Ekiti State.