253 Department of State Secret Services operatives who hitherto were stationed in the Presidential Villa, Abuja have been redeployed back to state commands across the federation.
According to reports, the operatives have been mandated by the DSS leadership to report to their respective commands on Wednesday pending more directives from The Presidency on their deployment.
It will be recalled that since assumption of power of President Muhammadu Buhari, there have been reports that The Presidency is keen to dislodge the Secret Service agents and replace them with ‘Presidential Guards’ pooled from the police and the military.
According to their redeployment signal issued by the service’s National Headquarters, some of the personnel were to report to the Vice President’s office, some were attached to the President’s wife, while some others were attached to the Vice President’s wife among other beats in the Villa.
But on reporting at the Villa, the operatives were not allowed in by the ADC who reportedly said they were not needed.
Following their rejection by the Villa authorities, the operatives were said to have been taken to the agency’s training school, Institute for Security Studies, Bwari, where they underwent an induction process for some days.
After the induction, the DSS authorities were said to have directed the officers to return to their former posting and await further directives.
“We have been asked to return to our respective state commands and to await further directives or orders from the national headquarters,” one of the operatives explained.
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