Until Adeola Ajayi assumed leadership of Nigeria’s Department of State Services, DSS, in August 2024, the agency had become something of a national paradox, powerful yet mistrusted, capable yet controversial, writes Seunmanuel Faleye. For years, the DSS wore the uncomfortable reputation of being the government’s attack dog, an instrument deployed to silence dissent and intimidate critics. Invitations to DSS facilities arrived like summons to purgatory. Citizens who received them often consulted lawyers first, family second, and prepared for the worst. The mystique that should have defined a professional intelligence service had morphed into public anxiety. This was an institution that commanded fear, not respect; obedience, not trust.
But sixteen months into Ajayi’s tenure, something fundamental has shifted. The DSS is experiencing a transformation so profound that even its harshest critics are taking note. This is not cosmetic rebranding. This is institutional surgery, deliberate, disciplined, and driven by a Director-General who understands that intelligence work in a democracy must balance secrecy with accountability, strength with humanity.
The Discipline
What separates Ajayi’s leadership from his predecessors is his mastery of both kinetic and non-kinetic intelligence operations, a sophistication that has delivered results where brute force once dominated. Modern intelligence gathering is no longer about kicking down doors and dragging suspects into black vans. It’s about reading digital footprints, tracking communication networks, mapping criminal ecosystems, and striking only when precision is guaranteed.
The evidence is in the numbers. Between November and December 2025 alone, DSS-led operations have secured the freedom of hostages in some of Nigeria’s most high-profile kidnapping cases. When 38 worshippers were abducted during a Thanksgiving service at Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, on November 18, the DSS coordinated with military and police units to execute a rescue within days, no ransom, no theatrics, just quiet, effective intelligence work. When 303 students and 12 teachers were seized from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papri, Niger State, on November 21 in one of the largest mass abductions in Nigerian history, the DSS mobilised tactical squads that secured the release of 100 students in coordinated operations by December 8.
These are not isolated victories. They represent a fundamental recalibration of how Nigeria’s domestic intelligence service approaches threats. Under Ajayi, the DSS has become less reactive and more anticipatory, deploying sophisticated surveillance tools, behavioural analysis, and inter-agency collaboration to dismantle criminal networks before they can strike, or neutralise them swiftly when they do.
The Purge
Perhaps the most audacious reform Ajayi has undertaken is one that rarely makes headlines but speaks volumes about his commitment to institutional integrity: the mass dismissal of 115 personnel in November 2025. This was not administrative housekeeping. This was a declaration of war against corruption within the ranks.
The dismissed officers were found guilty of offences that would make any security agency blush, including fraudulent practices, certificate forgeries, leaking official information, and even impersonating active operatives to defraud citizens. Some had used fake Arabic institute certificates for employment. Others attended dubious schools in the Benin Republic for four months and presented the credentials as legitimate degrees. A few even submitted mosque certificates as degree equivalents. These were not minor infractions. These were systemic betrayals that undermined the DSS’s credibility and endangered national security.
By publishing the names and photographs of the dismissed officers on the agency’s official website, Ajayi sent an unmistakable message: the era of impunity is over. The transparency was intentional. Citizens needed to know who had been purged so they could protect themselves from impostors. More importantly, DSS operatives needed to understand that professional misconduct would no longer be tolerated, covered up, or swept under bureaucratic carpets.
As one senior DSS official told Sunday PUNCH, “The current DG doesn’t tolerate indiscipline. He is trying to reform the service and restore it to what it used to be. What is happening now is the cleansing of the system.”
From Intimidation to Invitation
One of the most telling indicators of the DSS’s transformation is a shift that doesn’t appear in statistics: people are no longer terrified to honour DSS invitations. Before Ajayi’s tenure, a call from the DSS felt like the prelude to arbitrary detention, legal limbo, or worse. Human rights groups regularly documented cases of prolonged, unjustified detentions. Families of detained citizens held candlelight vigils. Lawyers filed habeas corpus petitions that languished in court.
Today, a different culture is taking root. The DSS now operates with judicial backing. Arrests, searches, and high-risk operations are increasingly conducted within the protective framework of legal authorisation, court orders, warrants, and due process. This isn’t just optics. This is a fundamental realignment with constitutional democracy. And it’s working. The agency is releasing individuals who were unjustly detained, compensating victims of procedural overreach, and even providing medical support for those whose health suffered in custody.
Consider the case of Kenneth Okechukwu Nwafor, the Abuja businesswoman Chineze Ozoadibe, and the Jos businessman whose court-awarded damages were doubled on Ajayi’s directive. These aren’t just stories of restitution. They’re proof that the DSS under Ajayi is willing to admit fallibility, correct historical wrongs, and rebuild the social contract between the state and its citizens.
This commitment to legality has transformed the DSS’s public image. The agency is no longer seen as an instrument of intimidation but as a guardian bound by the same laws it exists to protect. This isn’t a weakness. This is the confidence of an institution secure enough to operate transparently without sacrificing effectiveness.
Collaboration
Nigeria’s security architecture has long been plagued by one debilitating weakness: fragmentation. Agencies operated in silos, hoarded intelligence, and viewed each other as competitors rather than collaborators. Kidnapping syndicates, terror cells, and bandit networks exploited these gaps with ruthless efficiency, moving across porous borders while security forces stumbled over bureaucratic turf wars.
Ajayi has made interagency synergy a cornerstone of his reforms. The DSS now functions as a bridge, coordinating intelligence flows between the military, police, Nigerian Intelligence Agency, and specialised tactical formations. The rescue operations in Kwara and Niger states are textbook examples of this collaborative approach. DSS operatives didn’t work alone. They shared intelligence with the military, synchronized movements with police tactical squads, and leveraged local hunters’ knowledge of terrain and bandit hideouts.
This is nation-building work that doesn’t make headlines but produces results that do. When agencies work in harmony rather than isolation, criminal networks lose their most valuable advantage: chaos.
A Nation Watching
The transformation of the DSS under Adeola Ajayi is not yet complete. Challenges remain. Banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism continue to threaten Nigeria’s stability. But for the first time in years, the country’s domestic intelligence service is evolving into an institution that balances operational effectiveness with ethical responsibility.
Ajayi’s reforms demonstrate that security agencies don’t need to sacrifice professionalism for power or intimidation for impact. The mass dismissals prove that accountability starts from within. The rescue operations show that intelligence, not brutality, wins battles. And the commitment to judicial oversight proves that even in the shadows, institutions can operate with integrity.
This is the story of an agency rediscovering its constitutional purpose, not as an attack dog, but as a guardian. Not as an instrument of fear, but as a pillar of national security that citizens can trust. In a season when Nigeria seeks renewal across its governance structures, the quiet transformation of the DSS stands as compelling evidence that reform, when driven by conviction and discipline, can change even the most entrenched institutions.
The question now is whether the momentum will endure. Ajayi has laid the foundation. The challenge is sustaining it beyond his tenure, building a DSS that remains professional, humane, and effective regardless of who occupies the director-general’s office. If that vision is realised, Nigeria will not only have a better intelligence service. It will have proof that democratic institutions can be both powerful and principled, secretive yet accountable, formidable yet fair.
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
