President Muhamadu Buhari has sacked the Director General, DG, of the Department of State Security Service, DSS, Ita Ekpeyong and appointed a director in the agency, Lawal Musa Daura, as his replacement.

The new appointment which was conveyed on Thursday via a letter by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, takes immediate effect.

Ekpeyong was first appointed as DG of the security agency in September, 2010 by former President Goodluck Jonathan and was reappointed for another four year term in September, 1014. Ekpeyong had at least three more years to serve before he was suddenly replaced.

Daura, the new boss of the security agency was a director in the service and served as deputy director of the presidential communication, command and control centre at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, between 2003 and 2007.

He was born in Daura on the August 5, 1953 and attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1977 – 1980.

He commenced his career in the DSS in 1982 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a director.

He also served at various times in Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo States.

He has attended various professional courses both home and globally, including the leadership course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, near Jos.

There had been speculations about Ekpeyong’s fate with the new government since Buhari won the election, as the security chief and the DSS were adjudged in some quarters as having been partisan in the movement to the last general elections.

The then opposition party, All Progressive Congress, APC, accused the DSS and its officials of hounding its officials and working out an agenda to favour the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the election.

Early in the campaigns, operatives of the DSS had raided the APC office in Lagos, arresting its staff and confiscating its computers and electronic gadgets. The DSS also accused the APC leadership of planning to clone voters’ card, an accusation the APC had denied.

After Buhari won the polls and on assumption of office at the villa, about 263 DSS operatives deployed to the villa had been rejected ostensibly due to a crisis of confidence in the agency..

A native of Cross River State, Ekpeyong was the first director of the Institute of Security Studies in Abuja, a training school for Intelligence Officers.

Appointed in September 7, 2010 by Jonathan, he was initially the director of the Senior Staff Development Centre of the DSS, Bauchi.

Ekpenyong also held director positions at the DSS in the states of Bauchi, Kwara, Lagos,Anambra and the Federal Capital Territory before being appointed DG.