The sacked director general of the state security service had been arguably one of the most powerful persons in Nigeria and he apparently had no reluctance to put himself and the service he led in the spotlight, frequently.
The end of his second time as head of the feared service came without any ceremony hours ago when acting president would have no more of him according to a tweet by Laolu Akande, presidential spokesman.
He had tweeted, “Ag P Yemi Osinbajo has directed the termination of the appointment of the DG of the DSS, Mr. Lawal Musa Daura. Mr. Daura has been directed to hand over to the most senior officer of the State Security Service until further notice.”
Mr. Daura had disengaged from the service before he was controversially recalled on July 2, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the organisation.
Mr. Daura, 65, who was born in Daura, Katsina State on August 5, 1953, retired from the SSS in 2013, having reached the statutory retirement age of 60.
President Buhari is also from Daura in Katsina state.
He joined the service in 1982 and was a one-time deputy director, Presidential Communication, Command and Control Center at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He also served as state director at various times in many states of the Federation including Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo.
But instead of appointing a new director general from among the highly qualified officers of the organisation, the President rather went for his kinsman, Mr. Daura, in a move many commentators described as nepotism.
Mr. Daura attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1977 – 1980.
He attended various professional courses both home and abroad including the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS) Kuru.
Mr. Daura was the sixth director general of the SSS, one of the three security agencies created out of the defunct National Security Organisation in 1986.
He succeeded Ita Ekpenyong, who was appointed DG of the agency on September 8, 2010.
He would be remembered for turning the secret police into an organisation that became notorious for illegal arrests and detention of citizens, abuse of court orders, deep partisanship and human rights abuses.
