Some officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) have revealed why they celebrated the removal of Yusuf Bichi as DSS director-general.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu on Monday sacked Bichi and appointed Adeola Ajayi as replacement.
Shortly after Bichi’s dismissal, some DSS staff members were seen in a viral video shared by Dockaysworld, celebrating his exit.
However, an X user, Sanusi Jibrin, said the clip was recorded at the Kogi State DSS office, where personnel were celebrating Ajayi’s appointment, as he was a former director at the state command.
But a DSS officer told Punch that personnel of the agency were happy with his removal.
Giving reasons for the celebration, the DSS officers listed Bichi’s alleged misconduct to include undue interference in the service’s operations by his wife and son, Yusuf Bichi.
“We believed his regime was a punishment for us. He impeded the career advancement of many officers by extending the service years of those due to retire. Some senior officers, who were due for retirement in 2021 and 2022 were retained in the service,” he stated.
Another officer alleged that Bichi was indifferent to the welfare of workers.
“The Federal Government increased our salary by 40 per cent, but there was no implementation. We were earning more than the police before, but the police are now earning more than us because they implemented their 40 per cent increment. However, there was a proposal to increase our salary by 25 per cent this year, but it has yet to be realised,” the officer said.
Speaking on the recruitment of personnel, another secret agent described Bichi’s recruitment as nepotistic.
“Bichi’s recruitments were arbitrary and lopsided. Three different training sessions have been conducted for some people we didn’t know when they were recruited this year alone. Most of the newly recruited personnel are northerners.
“His first recruitment in 2019 brought in either 420 or 450 persons from Bichi Local Government Area in Kano alone. In the history of the service, 450 was the maximum recruitment we ever had before Bichi, but he recruited 1,000 personnel at once.
“There was no southerner among the national directors and deputy directors at the headquarters until January this year when he was directed by the Presidency following a petition. His wife is another issue; she abused her husband’s office. His son, too, was power drunk.
“Just two weeks ago, his wife slapped a DSS director in a northern state. She also slapped at least two deputy directors at airports.”
Nigerians on Twitter also criticised the former DSS boss, accusing him of allowing his family to abuse power because of his position.
The publisher of Daily Nigerian, Jafaar Jafaar, while commenting on X, said Bichi turned the DSS into a “graveyard of career aspirations.”
“He lowered the recruitment bar, removed the multi-layer screening process to recruit personnel who couldn’t even pass the Halogen Security aptitude test. Bichi arguably recruited the highest number of Cotonou ‘graduates’ into the service. He wilfully extended the tenure of some retired directors in his good book for years, killing the ambitions of the aspiring directors. He allowed his wife to lord over the service, influencing recruitment, promotion and discipline,” he stated.
Jafaar alleged that Bichi’s wife oppressed people with “a superfluity of everything at the expense of public funds,” adding that she moved around in a long motorcade, harassing motorists.
“She was a stormy petrel, who was majorly in the news for either assaulting her tailor for failing to meet a deadline or picking a fight with opposition politicians. His impudent, spoiled brat son shrugged off public criticism to gleefully display a fleet of luxury cars on social media.
“At the expense of public funds, he has a number of DSS operatives giving him cover at football arena, nightclub and political campaign rallies.”
