Group condemns asset destruction

Following the destruction of national assets in the country, especially in the oil and gas, telecommunications, transportation and power sectors, a group, Ashcraft Centre for Social Science Research, has condemned the trend.

The group also said that as part of its response to the malaise, it has planned a zonal summit in Port Harcourt to domesticate stakeholders’ statutory responsibility in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure and assets in South-South.

The Chief of Strategic Planning and Innovations of the centre, Dr. Chiakor Alfred, said, yesterday, in Port Harcourt that the summit was in line with the Risk Management Framework of the National Protection Policy and Strategy 2022 (CNAINPPS 2022), Petroleum Industry Act, 2021; the National Security Strategy Framework; and the Critical National Infrastructure Bill, 2021 currently under consideration at the National Assembly.

He said: “The last two decades have demonstrated clearly that the nature of threats to Nigeria’s security haS changed significantly.

Structural challenges, such as the systematic vandalisation, degradation and destruction of Nigeria’s critical national infrastructures, monuments and business assets; terrorism, insurgency, cyber-crimes, banditry, kidnapping, piracy, oil bunkering, drug trafficking and other forms of organised crime, have created an entirely new security environment.

“Nigeria now faces more security threats that have different characteristics from classic military conflict between states. The gross expansion of the contours that define security boundaries makes it imperative to recognise the eco-systemic dimensions of the threats that stare at us daily and in every form.”

He noted that the security of lives, infrastructures, monuments and other assets is the collective responsibility of every citizen, whether private or public.