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

Mr Femi Adesina, the president’s spokesman, confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

The NCTC is established in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) as the coordinating body for the harmonization 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.

Before his appointment, Musa had been the Director of the Counter Terrorism Directorate in the ONSA since 2017.

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).

Buhari signed into law NACTEST and PCVE in 2016  and 2017 respectively.

The retired Naval senior officer had also served as the Nigerian representative at the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) for the last 3 years.

”His appointment is to take effect immediately and to run for an initial term of 5 years,” Adesina further revealed.