In response to the renewed restiveness in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, July 7, 2016 appointed a new chief of defence Intelligence, CDI, for the Nigerian Armed Forces in the person of Mohammed Usman, an air vice marshal.
Usman takes over from John Saduana Davies, a major general who had been on acting capacity since January 2016, when the former CDI, Air Vice Marshal Monday Morgan retired.
According to the Nigerian Armed Forces Statutes, the position of chief of defence intelligence is rotated between the three arms of the services.
Air Vice Marshal Usman, was until his appointment, the director of Air Intelligence at the Nigerian Air Force. He had served at the defence intelligence agency as the director of intelligence before he was appointed director of air intelligence.
Usman has served as an instructor at the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji and at the Defence Intelligence School, Abuja. He is a former security officer to a former chief of air staff, Air Marshall Isaac Alfa (rtd).
While speaking at the ceremony where he assumed office, Usman expressed gratitude to God and to President Buhari for the appointment promising to work in harmony with the services to ensure peace and security for the nation.
“Eight months ago, I was posted from here [DIA], to the NAF headquarters. I never knew that I will come back this way. I have taken it as an act of God,” Usman said in his address to the officers in the agency. “My doors will be open to all and I will be fair to all and I will carry everybody along.”
“I want to urge all of you to be up and doing because we are in challenging times. Let us put integrity into all that we are doing. Let us consider DIA as one family and let our actions speak for us” he said.
The new CDI congratulated Major General Davies for his services to the nation noting that “during the short time he spent as Acting CDI, he took the organization to a very high level adding that he would continue “where he stopped”.
Major General Davies is retiring from the Nigerian Army.
