The Department of State Service (DSS) has withdrawn Adegboyega Fasasi as Chief Security Officer (CSO) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Meanwhile, another officer of the Service, Rasheed Atanda Lawal, a Deputy Director, has been appointed as a replacement for Fasasi.
Although details of the development were still scarce Sunday evening when it became known, it was gathered that Fasasi, who has served as CSO since Tinubu became President, was replaced because he has been sent on professional training.
According to sources privy to the development, the Director-General of the DSS, Tosin Ajayi, had requested President Tinubu to approve the release of Fasasi from serving as CSO so he could proceed on a strategic training course.
However, a source who spoke to The Nation on Sunday evening, under anonymous conditions, said Fasasi’s removal and replacement was not strange, adding that the outgoing officer ought to have anticipated it because it is a common practice in the Service.
According to the source, whenever a new DG comes to office at the DSS, he is most likely to embark on reorganization in various areas of the Service, especially around the President.
“Yes, I heard he has been replaced with another officer because he is being sent on a professional training course. At least there’s is reason for his removal and you can’t really premise that on any particular scandal, though you can entirely rule it out that there might have been a misgiving somewhere, it happens.
“The angle I want us to actually look at it from is the fact that such exercise as this ‘change of guards’ usually happens when the DSS gets a new DG. You know they deal strictly with intelligence and operate in secrecy, the new DG will always prefer to have his own trusted men on critical beats, the Presidency and the office of the SCO to the President being number one on that list”, the source said.
As at the time of filing this report, there was yet to be any official confirmation of the movements in the CSO’s office.