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…Claims Nigeria has insufficient security personnel to tackle menace
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused some political elements of seeking to weaponise insecurity in the country ahead of next year’s forthcoming general elections.
Both the party’s National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda and National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, made the allegation while addressing a world press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.
They disclosed that the present administration is also targeting to unravel the source of financing for the terrorists, lamenting that the numerical strength of the security personnel is grossly insufficient to tackle security menace in the country.
The national leadership equally implored Nigerians of all political divide to take the issue of insecurity seriously instead of politicising the issue of insecurity.
Responding to the question on whether the President Bola Tinubu-led administration has been overwhelmed by insecurity, the party’s chief scribe, Basiru said: “Security is not measured by successes but by the lapses because it also implicates on the lives of people.”
“Under this administration, a lot of progress has been made even though there are challenges. The challenges are also been met and one of them that have been fueling the ability to tackle insecurity is impunity and tackling the people involved with kid gloves. In the past one or two months, you will know that the question of prosecuting people that have been involved in this activities have taken seriously.
“Over 350 people have been tried and even the USA has commended the administration for doing that. The kind of insecurity we face in the North East and some parts of the North West have been the war without borders in separating the insurgents from the civilians which has been very difficult.
“We want to implore Nigerians of all political divide to take the issue of insecurity seriously. We must not politicise the issue of insecurity. Recently when there was an attack in Borno some people claimed that the villagers were attacked, only for the state governor to say that the place has ceased to be a conventional market, but a hob for terrorist activities and has been bad for the past five years.
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“How do you separate a force without uniform and a force that looks out for the weakest link to attack. In terms of non-kinetic approach, community engagement and development of the areas where those insecurities are occurring is also helping us to address the issue. We have also engaged and implored our governors to address with seriousness what Mr President is saying about State Policing. This is the first time a president is appealing for the creation of State Police.
On the insufficient strength of the security agencies, he said: “What we have in terms of capacity of Nigerian Police, the Civil Defence and all other internal security agencies are incapable of addressing the size of the country.”
“One research showed that the police post of the IGP office in Abuja down to the grassroots, we have about 6000 formations in Nigeria. We should dare not continue to politicise the issue of insecurity. Considering what people claimed of tendencies for heightened insecurity during elections, it appears that some elements are seeking to weaponise insecurity but what the present administration is doing is targeting the source of financing the terrorists because the unanswered question is if these people are really ragtag we talk about how do they get the Hilux they are brandishing when the cost of one of it is about N75 million and they have them in moving convoy and with motorbikes in N100 million.
“So targeting these is also very important and in the past two and half years, we must say that many of them have been neutralised. We must see these as a collective fight and not one to be policised,” Basiru appealed.
Equally defending the position of the Minister of the FCT,Nyesom Wike, the ruling party’s national chairman said: “What is wrong if President Tinubu is doing exactly what two other presidents have done, which nobody condemned and everyone’s hating president for bringing in Wike from PDP to serve in the APC government, and not just him alone.”
“Why are they hammering on it alone, why not hammer on the Minister of State of foreign affairs, she’s of the APGA serving in our government. Nobody has mentioned her. People are just bothering about Wike. Why Wike only? And most importantly, let me just put the facts across of PDP in 2023 to take the ministerial appointment.
“The PDP approved that he should serve with us. So he is serving with the approval of the NWC of PDP, not APC. So it was PDP that approved that wiki should work with the APC. So we are just obeying what the NWC of PDP has done, and we saw what the infrastructure he has done in Rivers state. A lot of bridges, infrastructure, buildings, and we felt FCT leads that infrastructure, because we have a population over 184 million, but the infrastructure was just built for about a million people.
“So we needed a quick expansion to meet with the demand in that city, and Wike was the big fix for us and we brought him in, and you can see the difference, I’m sure. I am not saying that he must join the APC. If he wants to join the APC, he is free. We don’t compel people to join APC. We don’t compel.
People willingly join the APC. There’s no way we are in agreement that people will join the APC before they serve in our government. Wike has done that willingly.
“Mr President has done well by appointing even people that insulted him without compelling them to join APC. Some are ambassadors, some political appointees who insulted the president, who very fighting, but he openly, broadly in broad daylight, welcomed them to serve where he feels at the capacity,” Yilwatda noted.
