Recent mass killings especially in Northern Nigeria has sparked condemnation of the nation’s security chiefs who have been accused in failing to protect Nigerians against rampaging insurgents and other criminals.
According to stakeholders, the security agencies may have been overwhelmed or treating the problem with kid gloves.
The wave of terrorism has peaked recently, especially with continuous killings in Plateau, Benue, Borno, and Katsina states, and the emergence of a new terror group, Mahmuda, aka the Mallam Group, in the North Central.
Mahmuda adds to growing security concerns already worsened by Boko Haram, ISWAP, Lakurawa, and other bandit and militia groups.
A civil society organisation in Kebbi State, the Association for Peace and Good Governance, condemned the military for not arresting Turgi.
The Secretary General of the group, Usman Anache, said the service chiefs in particular had failed the north and President Bola Tinubu.
“The north has been turned into a killing field with no concrete action taken by the service chiefs,” Anache said.
A member of the House of Representatives, Daniel Asama, representing Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency told Channels Television’s programme, ‘The Morning Brief,’ that security agencies were familiar with the whereabouts of the masterminds of the recent killings in the state.
He said, “The security agencies know where these attacks have been coming from. The people in the community can show them the routes of these attackers.”
Reacting to the rising terror attacks, a former Chief of Defence Training and Planning, General Ishola Williams (retd.), said the service chiefs were benefiting from the insecurity in the country, adding that the security agencies were not showing enough commitment to ending insecurity, noting that there was a need to restructure the security apparatus.
“Early this year, we were clamouring for the review of the security architecture. They said there’s no reason for that. It appears that the service chiefs agree with the President that the military and police are doing well and they don’t want to push for a re-organisation; they don’t want any change.
“They must be benefiting from the present situation. The police and the military are not ready to solve that problem. The president just accepts whatever they tell him.”
He told the Federal Government to sack any service chief who didn’t align with its plans on security.
A security expert and Chief Security Officer of Beacon Consulting, Dr Kabir Adamu, blamed the Federal Government for not properly coordinating the security agencies.
He said the FG would not succeed if the agencies were not working together to contain the insecurity.
Adamu said, “Each of them is operating in silos. The founding fathers of our constitution, when they created all of these agencies, the intention was that they would work together towards achieving Section 14(2) of the constitution.
“But today, we are waking up to a situation where those who are supposed to coordinate them are more interested in carrying out operations than their coordination functions. The inability to coordinate the security agencies has created gaps that are being exploited by the criminals.”
“The security agencies are not doing enough because they are operating in silos, with no coordination. As an example, when was the last time the National Security Council met?”
Also, the National President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Debo Adeniran, said the Federal Government has not been able to secure the lives and property of its citizens.
“Why do we have the intelligence arms of the Nigerian police, the army, and the rest of them? What information are they gathering? They are supposed to get prior information about the looming attack from the insurgents. They should know that there are ungoverned spaces in Nigeria, and they should ensure that they are secure,” he stated.
Adeniran he said the service chiefs needed to be given targets, and dismissed if they didn’t meet them.
“There should be targets, and if they don’t meet up, they should be dismissed because they are incompetent, and they are wasting public funds. They should be punished for it. Once they have been given that mandate that either they conquer or they don’t return, that should be a kind of thing to be done.
“This will not be the first time people have been calling for their removal. Their removal does not stop anything. All of them are walking hand in hand. If you remove them, they are still part of the same entity,” he stated.
Speaking in similar tone,, the Chief Executive Officer of Security Watch Africa, Patrick Agbamu, said if the FG can provide the necessary resources, the security chiefs should be held accountable and dismissed if they failed to perform.
“The security operatives are not angels. Providing them with what they need to work with is when they can be questioned or removed. Then the person being brought in will know they have the tools to do their work,” he said.
