ODITA: Time To Unite For The Final Fight

FORMER spokesman of the Nigeria Police and Managing Director of Frankom Security Consulting, Mr. Frank Odita, has called on governors of states in Northern part of Nigeria to unite against Boko Haram, by embarking on sensitisation of youths against being used as bomb couriers.

Odita also urged the governors to deploy security votes from the Federal Government properly in order to ensure that the insurgents are totally wiped out in the north.

According to the retired Commissioner of police, the action of the terrorists now shows that they are in disarray, therefore, to give them a final fight, there is need to embark on intensive sensitisation of children, who are lured into suicide bombing.

“They are just trying to make a statement, because the president, on assumption of office, promised he was going to fight them. What the Jonathan administration did was to dislodge them from the Sambisa forest, now they abduct innocent children and engage them in guerilla activities, that is the situation now. Their tactics is that of people who are in disarray, they don’t have a base. Sometimes, you hear they are in Jos, another time; they will be in Kano, Kaduna. They abduct these children, indoctrinate them and give them the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to go and explode,” he said.

The former police boss urged the Department of State Services (DSS) to focus on their calling and begin real intelligence job this time.

According to Odita, “the DSS duties has to do with espionage and intelligence gathering. They cannot work in isolation. They have to work with the military intelligence. It is important for the security agencies to have synergy. If you observed, during the Jonathan administration, the military were vocal; they call press conferences, which has never happened before. It is unheard of about people, who do covert operation. They left their calling to begin to do policing work. Now, they have to put their house in order and begin to do core DSS job by working with the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

“Nigerians should not expect any magic yet from the Command and Control headquarters in Maiduguri, because they are yet to settle down and these terrorists are taking advantage of this to wreck havoc on the communities. Even the West African Command, where a Nigerian is made a commander in Cote d’Ivoire, has not taken off. The terrorists are already on the run and the only way they can make people feel that they important is to engage in suicide bombing. These activities are not going to last.”

He said, “what is important now is for all governors of the entire Northern states to take a stand and begin to change the orientation of the children. Parents should not allow their children to be abducted, and if any child is abducted, parents should report to security agencies. If the children are made to understand that their future would be terminated if they serve as bomb courier, they will not make themselves available.

“Government should engage private security practitioners like us in sensitisation and reorientation in these areas. It will cost some money and already, our economy is in bad shape, but I believe our economy should not be in bad shape for security because security is the foundation in which any meaningful project is anchored. Security votes should now be well deployed for the right purpose of sensitising students in schools, reorientation in churches and at home.

“The governors do not deploy the security votes for the purpose it is meant because if they do, we won’t have the security issues we are having today. Lagos have deployed security votes and even generated more funds through the Security Trust Fund to be able to prosecute security. They have created employment for people who are easily lured to crime by making the LASTMA officials, KAI, LAWMA, BRT Bus drivers and conductors. People are gainfully employed in Lagos and once people are gainfully employed, crime will reduce.”