‘Poor funding of security agencies fuels banditry’

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Coalition of Civil Society for National Security has linked the worsening insecurity across the country to insufficient funding of security agencies and lack of operational allowances for its personnel.

National Coordinator, Mohammed Maigoro and National Secretary, Tunde Funsho, in a statement, yesterday, said the situation weakens the morale of security personnel to discharge their duty efficiently.

Mohammed appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to intervene in the matter to boost the morale of officers to squash banditry plaguing the country.

“We observe with displeasure and concern, the deliberate lack of payment of outright salaries for some security agencies, half salaries for some and total non-payment of operational allowances, meant for troops’ wellbeing, welfare, hazard allowances, feeding and general funds to prosecute the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnaping and other forms of criminalities across the country for over three months now.

“This, we strongly believe, is the root cause of the heightened insecurity across the country, and we are calling on Mr. President, Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker, to urgently intervene and save our country from this imminent total collapse of the security.

“We cannot be so insensitive to the extent of playing with the welfare of those that are staking their lives for us on a daily basis.

“While we sleep in our comfortable rooms, they (security personnel) are outside in the cold, rain and sun trying to keep us safe.

“Our investigation, across the country, revealed that it has gone so bad that our security agencies cannot respond to threat for lack of fuel and other essentials.

“Their vehicles are grounded without maintenance, ammunition are out of stock. This is too dangerous for a country that is battling with insecurity of this magnitude.

“We appeal to the president to urgently address this without further delay,” he said.

He excused President Buhari and the service chiefs from the development, claiming they “have done everything possible within their powers to effect the full welfare of our  security agencies, but some few greedy elements in the Federal Government who don’t have the interest of this country at heart are sabotaging the good efforts of the president.

“These people must be investigated and shown the way out. Our soldiers and policemen now borrow money from the community, and beg for food to eat while serving our country.

“No country will do this and expect good results. We expect our security agencies, medical doctors, and teachers’ welfare to be on the first line charge because of the nature of the work they do.

“While not trying to justify crime, we strongly believe the insecurity we see in the country today is due to low morale, lack of adequate logistics and welfare for our security agencies.”

“President Buhari and the National Assembly must, as a matter of urgency, resolve these issues and sanction those concerned to avoid future occurrence.”