Insecurity: Recall retired officers, Afenifere tells Buhari

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Friday advised President Muhammadu Buhari to consider Nigeria’s insecurity situation as a war that requires recalling retired intelligent officers to complement the efforts of the security forces.

In a statement signed by Jare Ajayi, the national publicity secretary of Afenifere, the group said there was no more time to be wasted in being more honest, decisive and comprehensive in confronting the security situation if the country is to be prevented from going under.

Apart from the bomb blast that happened in Maiduguri on the day President Buhari visited that city on Thursday, the Nigerian Immigration Service, also revealed in a letter to its border posts dated December 23, 2021, that terrorists from Mali plan to attack Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital territory.

The above are aside from kidnapping, killing, arson and burning of vehicles conveying people from one place to another as happened on Kaduna highway and in Borno and Katsina States.

According to Afenifere, the President must come out openly to give an ultimatum of two weeks to those carrying arms illegally to lay down their arms.

Ajayi added that beyond seeking foreign help, however, the federal government must be ready to be more genuinely committed to removing insurgency and related criminality from our land.

The Afenifere spokesman said it was disheartening that terrorists had the temerity to launch attacks near Maiduguri on Thursday, December 23, 2021, around the time the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Nigeria was visiting Maiduguri and parts of Borno State.

“Within this period, retired intelligence officers should be encouraged to report at the military formations nearest to them with a view to reintegrating them into the system. Needed weapons and incentives must be provided just as the intelligence units within the security organs are rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the army.

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“Overtures should be made to certain powers that have control over our neighbouring countries from where terrorists infiltrate our country. Among such superpowers that need to be consulted are France, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, Israel and the United States of America.

“The rationale behind this is to seek for direct assistance in terms of logistics as well as for some of them, particularly France, to work on French-speaking neighbouring countries to help curtail insurgents using their territories to infiltrate Nigeria.

“This, it can do successfully, by stopping to treat bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, by genuinely providing needed equipment to the army and other security agencies, by truly engaging the youths into ventures that would earn them a livelihood, by no longer treating some bandits and terrorists as sacred cows and by liberalizing the economy in such a way that the cost of commodities and services in the country would come down considerably.

“Above all, states and local governments that are willing should be allowed to have their own policing system up to the level of investigation and prosecution without let or hindrance.

Speaking further it said: “It is high time President Buhari heeded the advice being given from various quarters, including the ones by eminent Nigerians led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the one that emanated from the Inclusive Security Dialogue Retreat which held in Abuja a few weeks ago and attended by the same Obasanjo, Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, Samson Supo Ayokunle, CAN president, Edwin Clark and many other leaders from ethnic nationalities.”