Insecurity: FG moves to decentralize police, as NEC set up c’ttee
*NSA laments difficulty in coordinating security agencies
The increasing spate of insecurity in Nigeria has necessitated the National Economic Council (NEC) to set up a committee to decentralize police operations in the country to ensure effective policing and adequate protection of lives and property.
This was disclosed by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Mungono, after the NEC meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa on Thursday in Abuja.
He explained that decentralizing police operations would aid security agencies to greater access information while the handling of security situations will be easier.
He added that the committee would be chaired by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.
According to the NSA, he briefed the council on behalf of the security agencies both operational and intelligence, saying he gave a general overview of the security situation in the country, current situation, trends and also the challenges that they are confronted with.
Stating that these threats are increasingly asymmetric in nature, Mongunu stressed the need to deal with these problems in a more collective manner.
He admitted that it is the responsibility of the security agencies to deal with the threats, stating that the complexities of insecurity in the 21st century are such that you need a whole of government and society approach in dealing with these issues.
He said that “I emphasized to the council the need for the state to collaborate with and support the federal government in dealing with each individual threat, and these threats differ from one zone to another and find a way of linking with security agencies so that we can find a lasting solution.
“These things cannot be overcome within a short period that is the hard truth. What we have decided to do is to work on certain methods.
“For example, the council decided that a committee would be set up with representation from each of the geo-political zones to be chaired the inspector general, so that we find ways of decentralizing police operations so that there will be greater access to information and handling this situation will be easier rather than a centralized and cumbersome approach.
“We also reviewed the resolutions and recommendations of the 2017 security summit after which the state governors agreed to work with the security agencies on all the issues that were raised and all the recommendations will be revisited.
“The federal government is also looking at other issues in dealing with problems coming from outside the shores of this country. These problems are being collated by the security agencies and a team would be set up under the supervision of the office of the national security adviser to deal with these threats”.
When asked on reports of inter- agency rivalry among security agencies vis-a-vis the invasion of the Benue State House of Assembly by policemen, and the invasion of the National Assembly by the DSS, the NSA stated that it is difficult to coordinate the agencies.
He said, “On lack of coordination, it is not easy to coordinate. Yes, all security agencies are supposed to be centrally coordinated but sometimes we have issues. But these issues are being addressed right now and that is probably why we are beginning to see some improvements.
“The truth is that we are dealing with a situation that is asymmetric, that is not normal, not conventional. In dealing with these problems there will be issues, inter-service issues, inter-agencies issues, my office has been trying to address in the last couple of weeks, hopefully we should be able to see some improvements.”
The NSA also denied insinuations that improvement in security situation is linked to coming elections.
He stated that “not really; what happened is that there has been continuous review of the activities of the various security agencies, successes and failures and so on and so forth.
“There has been deliberate attempt to try and take care of those areas that are most difficult. The fact that we have started making a breakthrough it is just coincidental with the fact that elections are approaching.
“Several new operations have been launched, these operations are being reviewed in a more coordinated manner with other agencies that are not directly within the military component but with other MDAs; and that have resulted in improvement and it has nothing to do with elections approaching.
On reports by the Red Cross that 17, 000 Nigerians are reportedly missing, the NSA said “19, 000 Nigerians missing; that report is being looked at by different agencies of government and we are awaiting their report before we can comment on that”.
Responding to a question on the recent investigation of security votes of some of the governors by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Jigawa State Governor Abubakar Badaru said that it was discussed at the governors’ forum “and the position is that we will have our lawyers see the legality of doing that. After giving us the report then we will see the next line of action to take”.
