Kokori, Agunloye, YCE, others decry attack on NDA

It’s Most Embarrassing For Terrorists To Attack NDA—Scholar

A former General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Chief Frank Kokori, and Secretary-General, Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Dr. Kunle Olajide, yesterday, expressed dissatisfaction over the worsening state of security in the country.
 
The duo warned that Nigeria is now at the peak of its security challenges and near-war situation, especially as bandits and Boko Haram insurgents now have the effrontery to attack the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and others strategic bases.
   
They said it is becoming worrisome, when criminals now have the courage to attack military base and kidnap soldiers. “If they could do that, what is now the fate of armless civilians,” they queried.

“Of course, the bandits and Boko Haram are ragtag armies, which I strongly believe will take our military formation nothing to crush, if there is the political will,” he said.
 
Olajide said the attack on NDA was a clear signal that security architecture under the present government has broken down. He said the country needed to change the current Constitution to one that would give the federating units power to set up their separate security operations. 
 
He also tasked the National Assembly to wake up to its responsibilities, saying the idea of conscripting repentant Boko Haram members into the army is seriously counterproductive. 
 
Also, a former Minister of Defence, Dr. Olu Agunloye, said he was more than convinced that the Nigerian security formation is sophisticated enough to deal decisively and even wipe out the present insecurity challenges provided the will is there.

Similarly, a scholar at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, has lamented the attack on Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), describing it as the most embarrassing. Prof. Aremu stated this while speaking with The Guardian in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

The policing scholar said: “The terror attack on Nigerian Defence Academy, being the foremost military institution for elite cadets, is the most embarrassing security lapse on the military and by extension, the Federal Government. The attack, which resulted in the death of two officers and abduction of one, informed the daring capacity of the terrorists, and a bad signal to the military hierarchy and the country at large.

“The military hierarchy would have to reappraise its intelligence and also carry our some internal profiling with a view to identifying human compromise. What happened was in the least of expectations of Nigerians. The military should therefore, scale-up its intelligence, strategies and counterinsurgency on the raging asymmetry war of the terrorists.

“The military leadership would also have to reappraise its various external and internal networks, with a view to checkmating anything that can compromise its own security and that of his officers, cadets and men.”