SAEMA 2020: DSS Emerges Best Intelligence Agency of the Year

SAEMA 2020: DSS Emerges Best Intelligence Agency of the Year

The Department of State Service (DSS) has emerged the Best Intelligence Agency of the Year at the second edition of the Security and Emergency Management Award (SAEMA 2020) which was held in Abuja recently.

Also known as State Security Services (SSS), DSS is the foremost domestic intelligence agency in Nigeria.

The mission of the SSS is to protect and defend the Federal Republic of Nigeria against domestic threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of Nigeria, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to both federal and state law-enforcement organs.

It is primarily responsible for intelligence gathering within the country and for the protection of senior government officials, particularly the President and state governors.

The DSS is one of three successor organisations to the National Security Organization (NSO), dissolved in 1986. The SSS operates as a department within the presidency and is under the control of the National Security Adviser.

Behind the scene, the service played pivotal strategic roles in tackling the recent EndSARS protests through stakeholders’ engagements and strategic communication among other intervention mechanisms towards protecting national security.

Without doubt, the DSS is the unsung hero of many successful internal security operations. The service till date prides itself in its biggest achievement, which is ensuring the indivisibility and indissolubility of the country by promptly addressing the various challenges to Nigeria’s internal security. This constitutional provision has been upheld including being charged with the task of conducting counter measures against security threats, which is at the forefront of all its engagements.

Under the able leadership of Yusuf Magaji Bichi, its current Director General, the Service has remained very committed and proactive in intelligence gathering and responding to sensitive national security threats. Its periodic issuance of security warning and alerts to Nigerians has in very significant ways prevented and pre-empted threats to security of lives and property in the country.

But for the pivotal role of the Service before, during and after the #EndSARS under the leadership of the present Director General, Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi, and in synergy with other agencies, the consequences of the plan by clandestine elements to hijack the hitherto peaceful EndSARS protests, may have been irredeemable.

Yusuf Magaji Bichi Yusuf Bichi Magaji is from Bichi Local Government in Kano State. He attended Danbatta Secondary School, Kano State College of Advanced Studies and 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 Organisation (NSO), the precursor of the present DSS. He 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.

He comes to the job with skills in intelligence gathering, research analysis, conflict management, general investigation, risk and vulnerability operations, counter intelligence and protective operation and human resources management. In the course of his career, Mr. Bichi has worked as the state Director of Security in Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto and Abia states.

Bichi 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. He is happily married with children.