Personality in Focus
Focus on Disability Foundation Hails Adeola Ajayi’s Appointment As New DSS DG
By Eric Elezuo
The Focus on Disability Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, saddled with the responsibility of catering for the needs of people living with disabilities, has celebrated the newly appointed Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi.
Mr. Ajayi was appointed to the office on August 27, 2024 by President Bola Tinubu, to replace Yusuf Bichi.
Describing the emergence of Ajayi as a landmark decision and a positive roadmap to checkmating the insecurity situation of the nation, the Founder of Focus on Disability Foundation, Abiodun Enilari Paseda, said a round peg has definitely been put in a round hole, adding that the intelligence officer’s enviable trajectory in the field of security and intelligence gathering, speaks volumes.
“Most of us that know Adeola Ajayi or have come across him in one guise or another can testify to his undying love for security and safety of Nigerians, more especially the less privileged,” Paseda said.
The FOD Founder also recalled Ajayi’s unannounced visit to the Foundation a few years back, where he made donations of cash and materials to sustain the welfare of children of the facility, stressing that “with that kind of man handling a unit of the security architecture of the country, compassion for people will prompt him to do all the right things”.
The new DSS boss, on assumption of office pledged to refocus the service towards covertness and the likelihood of studied silence on certain matters, promising to work with relevant stakeholders to overcome the challenges confronting the country’s security environments.
“He is a man who cherishes peace, and the stability necessary for development,” Paseda added.
He is a thoroughbred and versatile Intelligence Officer, who joined the Service in 1990 as a cadet officer.
He rose through the ranks and served in Command positions as State Director of Security (SDS) at Rivers, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Enugu and Kogi States.
The new DG is trained in the areas of management, security leadership, critical thinking and human resources from within and outside the country.
Mr Ajayi brings to his new position experience, capacity and immense goodwill.
About Focus on Disability Foundation
Mr. Abiodun Enilari Paseda
Focus on Disability Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, founded in 2012, and saddled with the responsibility of providing top notch welfare for the physically challenged ranging from education, nutrition, accommodation among a host of other life basic requirements. The Foundation has a completely furnished home in Odogbolu, Ogun State, where a good number of people with disabilities are daily taken care of.
Terrorists in northeast Nigeria killed a brigadier general in an assault on a military base, a local government chairman told AFP on Thursday, the second killing of a high-ranking officer in five months.
Africa’s most populous country has been fighting a terrorist insurgency for 17 years, since Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising, which has seen the emergence of powerful splinter groups, including Islamic State West Africa Province.
In an overnight attack, unidentified terrorists killed at least 18 soldiers and torched vehicles at a base in Benisheikh, about 75 kilometres from Borno state capital Maiduguri, an intelligence source told AFP.
“Unfortunately, the brigade commander, Brigadier General O.O. Braimah, lost his life,” Kaga Local Government Chairman Zannah Lawan Ajimi told AFP in a phone interview.
Two intelligence sources confirmed Braimah’s death to AFP.
His death follows the killing of Brigadier General Musa Uba by ISWAP in November. He was the highest-ranking military official to die in the long-running conflict since 2021.
“They overran the brigade,” one of the intelligence sources said, giving the death toll as “at least” 18.
The second intelligence source said that “the terrorists killed several troops” and “burnt vehicles and buildings before they withdrew,” without giving a toll.
The army and Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– Rising terrorist violence –
Researchers have warned of an uptick of violence since 2025.
Borno capital Maiduguri has seen two suicide bombings since December — the type of bloody, urban attacks reminiscent of the insurgency’s peak a decade ago.
On Wednesday, the US State Department said in a notice it was authorising “non-emergency US government employees” to leave Abuja “due to the deteriorating security situation”.
While the insurgency is concentrated in the northeastern countryside, terrorists from Nigeria and the neighbouring Sahel have made inroads western Nigeria, where organised crime gangs known as “bandits” have been raiding villages and extorting farmers and artisanal miners for years.
Gunmen killed at least 90 people across several remote villages in northwest Nigeria this week, according to an AFP tally of tolls given by local and humanitarian sources.
Among the attacks was an assault in Kebbi state that police blamed a local terrorist group known as Mahmuda, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Kebbi sits on Nigeria’s border with Benin and Niger and since 2025 has been targeted by a rising number of terrorist attacks.
Conflict monitor ACLED says there has been a surge in violence in the area carried out by militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
In nearby Kwara state, in October, fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM claimed an attack after years of researchers warning that the terrorist conflict ravaging the Sahel risked spreading south towards coastal West African states.
In December, the United States, with Nigerian assistance, bombed northwest Sokoto state, targeting Islamic State Sahel Province fighters usually found in neighbouring Niger, along with Mali and Burkina Faso.
AFP
A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the 2023 Labour Party governorship candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has argued that President Bola Tinubu has no pathway to re-election in 2027.
Rhodes-Vivour, who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, said data from credible polls indicate that Tinubu will not win next year’s presidential election.
“I have looked at data, we have polling that is going on now, credible polling — there is no pathway for the president to emerge victorious, that is why we are seeing all these shenanigans,” he said.
He added: “There is no pathway for him. When you look at the North that gave him 62 per cent of his votes, you see the tsunami that is happening in the North. You have a president that created a government system that is just for the city boys. It is a city boys’ government. It’s not even a proper South-West government; it’s his cronies that are just in charge.”
The Lagos politician blamed the president for the crisis affecting opposition parties, including the ADC.
According to him, having assessed that the odds are against him ahead of the 2027 polls, the president is resorting to instigating crises within opposition ranks as a strategy to retain power.
“So, the best pathway is to create an environment where he is the only candidate on the ballot for the presidency. That is what he is trying to achieve, but he is not going to succeed,” he said.
Last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) removed the names of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as chairman and secretary of the ADC from its portal, citing a court order to maintain the status quo.
The party has faulted INEC’s decision, alleging that the electoral body misinterpreted the court order. Since then, the ADC leadership has held a world press conference to reject the move.
Earlier on Tuesday, prominent members of the party staged a “Save Nigeria Democracy” protest at INEC headquarters in Abuja. Among those present were Peter Obi; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi; former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; former President of the Senate, David Mark; former Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola; and former Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, among others.
Hundreds of supporters, including members of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, also participated in the protest.
The Speaker of the Kebbi State House of Assembly, Muhammad Usman Zuru, is dead.
Zuru died on Monday night in an Egyptian hospital where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.
His death was confirmed by sources close to the Kebbi State Government, although details surrounding his illness were not disclosed.
Until his death, he represented Zuru Constituency in the state assembly and was regarded as a key figure in the legislature.
Confirming the development, an aide to the governor on Communication and Strategy, Idris Zuru, described the incident as shocking.
“The death of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Muhammad Usman Zuru, came to us as a rude shock. It is a painful loss not only to Kebbi State but to the entire nation,” he said.
He added that further details would be provided by the government.
Further announcements on funeral arrangements are expected from the state government and the family.
