President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Rear Admiral Yaminu Ehinomen Musa (Retd) as the pioneer coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC).

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

Adesina noted that the appointment of Musa was with immediate effect, adding that it would run for an initial term of five years.

According to the statement, before his appointment as the NCTC coordinator, Musa had been the Director of the Counter Terrorism Directorate in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) since 2017.

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He was responsible for the review of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST), and the creation of the Policy Framework and National Action Plan for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE), which President Buhari signed into law in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The retired Naval senior officer served as the Nigerian representative at the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) for the last three years.

The NCTC is established in ONSA as the coordinating body for the harmonisation of all counter-terrorism and terrorism financing efforts in the country.

The NCTC is equally charged with the coordination of counter-terrorism policies, strategies, plans, and support in the performance of the functions of the National Security Adviser (NSA), as provided in the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.

The Star