There’ll be watertight security before, during, after elections – IGP
By Abdullahi M. GullomaAbuja
President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday directed military and security agencies to immediately rescue all those being held hostage by kidnappers and terrorists.National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major-General Babagana Monguno, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of Security Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The President spoke about his sadness in respect of recent security challenges and developments we have had in the country, in particular the incident in which several Nigerians lost their lives with many more taken into captivity by criminals and bandits.“Not just those that were captured during the last Kaduna –bound train incident but those that have been in captivity in other parts of the country.“The President has directed all the operational and intelligence elements to rescue all of these innocent people immediately and unhurt. This is the basis in which other issues were discussed. The Chief of Defence Staff, the Service Chiefs and the inspector General of Police all briefed the President on occurrences in their respective organizations,” he said.
The NSA said he briefed the Security Council on recommendations on how to tackle the security challenges confronting the nation, which the President is carefully considering.“I submitted a memo to Council and my recommendations are being looked into by the President. My recommendations are wide ranging and they touch on all aspects of security, starting with the level of security of our land borders as well as within the country itself,” he said.He said decisive steps are being taken to security all the land borders of the country, in order to address the treats coming from outside such borders. He said the threats have now shifted from the North-Eastern part of the country to the North-West and North-Central and must be contained.
“It has to be contained collectively by both the Armed Forces and constabulary forces but the intelligence agencies have also been directed to enhance the acquisition of intelligence,” he said.He said the present situation in the country calls for collective efforts by all, not only those that have been charged with the responsibility of physically securing the country. “Unless the wider society, right down to the Local Governments are willing to give the type of information needed in order to block the activities of these criminals, this situation will continue to linger beyond whatever time frame we are looking at towards ending this problem,” he said.
On why is it difficult to deploy technology, especially in some areas where the military has been having problems, he said “One, technology is expensive. Technology takes time to acquire these things. Since inherently we do not produce this very, very delicate equipment.“It’s not as if the government is not making any effort to acquire but we need to know who to acquire this technology from, where, when and there are certain processes. “For now, I know we have but the plight is that there are inadequate, so to the government, it’s a continuous process. That’s what I can say about the issue of deploying technology.”The NSA also expressed concern over comments by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state in respect of the activities of bandits, saying that divulging classified information endangers the victims and aids the kidnappers.
He said the governor’s comments could compromise the security situation as the bandits can relocate to other destinations if they know that their current hideout is known.“Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, spoke about the security agencies saying we know who they are, where they are. Again, that is the danger. When you start talking too much. You give away a lot, I agree. Now, even if they say we know where they are, that in itself is already a problem because once you say it, whether it is true or false, the person who has your people in captivity will move to another location. It’s just as simple as that. So sometimes is best to just keep silent, mum is the word,” he said.
Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, assured Nigerians that the issue of security would be well coordinated across the country before, during and after the 2023 general elections.“Regarding the general elections, we are very conscious of the fact even before the general elections, we have staggered elections in Osun and Ekiti States in the next eight weeks. All the Service Chiefs and heads of security agents and members of the inter-agency consultative forum on elections, are studying the situation.
“We are hopeful and we believe the narrative will change for the better in terms of securing the country to enable us conduct both the staggered and general elections,” he said.He also assured the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that no security challenge would be allowed to threaten the conduct of its elections.