Ex-IGP, VC advocate inter-agency alliance against insecurity

Former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, yesterday, called for inter-agency collaboration and the review of the national security policy to assist in tackling insecurity in the country, saying no agency could do it alone.

Arase made the call during a roundtable meeting, with theme, ‘Enhancing National Security through Inter-Agency Cooperation,’ organised by Igbinedion University Okada (IUO) Buratai Centre for Contemporary Security Affairs in Edo State.

Arase, who lamented the rivalry among security agencies, described the development as worrisome and called for synergy in the fight against crimes and criminality.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, said cooperation is vital to combating security challenges facing Nigeria.

Ezemonye said: “The importance of synergy is underscored by the realisation that the nature of emerging security challenges facing Nigeria is multidimensional and would require skills and competencies, which no single security agency may possess.

Inter-agency cooperation thus becomes a sine qua non and a necessity from which we cannot shy away.

“While this realisation of the need for inter-agency cooperation is clear and obvious, it cannot be said that we have harnessed it to the fullest as a country. From time to time, we have experienced security breaches that could have been nipped in the bud if only there was a robust synergy among security agencies.”

According to the vice-chancellor, the institution’s effort at interrogating the nexus between national security and inter-agency collaboration is the university’s modest contribution to knowledge generation and application, both of which form the core pillars of a university’s mandate, especially in an area that is contemporary and of vital interest to all and sundry.