Dogara tasks agencies  on new approaches to insecurity

The Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has charged the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies to come up with fresh measures to tackle the security challenges threatening the nation’s democracy.

At the graduation of the Executive Intelligence Management Course (EIMC) 10 of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), an arm of the DSS, Dogara noted that it was important for security agents to stay ahead in the war against violence by deploying modern techniques in unconventional ways.

He said: “We cannot afford to lose the fight against violence. And if there is any institution that can do this, it is the Department of State Services.”

The speaker pledged that the National Assembly would speedily pass any initiative geared at strengthening the agency for the task ahead.

According to him, it is only when security agencies develop new tools and evolve more advanced ways of maintaining law and order that democracy could endure, stressing that the security challenges confronting the country’s democracy were no longer conventional.

He went on: “Every challenge now in terms of security comes with an element of something novel, something new, something that has not been tested before. So, we need to stay ahead and the responsibility lies squarely on your shoulders,” he noted.

Dogara, however, challenged the graduates, drawn from all security agencies, National Assembly, para-military organisations and other federal bodies, to deploy wisely the knowledge they have acquired.

The speaker noted: “You have become salt on account of this training, you have become yeast.  But of what value is salt or yeast if it cannot be deployed? So you have to do everything possible to deploy the knowledge that you have acquired.

“I was talking with the DG and he told me his vision for this institution to attain a status such as that of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Jos and I said to him that as legislators, we are more than prepared to support that initiative but the ball is in his court and if they push that executive initiative to us, trust me, as someone who believes in the advancement of our democracy, I promise that we will do our best to pass it.”

Akwa Ibom governor, Udom Emmanuel, urged the secret police to organise a similar training for state chief executives, adding that as chief security officers, they needed to know some security tips to effectively handle emergent risks.