Progressive Governors’ Forum boss craves establishment of anti-terrorism agency

The Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has canvassed the creation of a Federal Anti-Terrorism Agency (FATA) in the country.

Delivering a keynote address at the 2020 Annual General Meeting of APC Press Corps held in Abuja, he said the outfit should be properly trained as professional staff combining elements of both police and the state security service, which would be fully accountable to the National Assembly to conduct anti-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations.

The APC chieftain also called for the establishment of a Federal Police Complaints Authority and Ombudsman to provide a transparent process for ordinary Nigerians to raise complaints over police conduct.

Lukman, in his presentation titled “Political Contestation in Nigeria: Challenges of Benchmarking Party Manifesto”, argued that the call was in line with the dictates of the APC manifesto.

Calling on APC leaders to take provisions of the party’s manifesto much more seriously when designing policies, he stressed the need by ministers to revisit the party manifesto and develop complementary initiatives.

According to him, any discerning mind would appreciate that FATA and Federal Police Complaints Authority and Ombudsman are still very much needed.

“In fact, Federal Police Complaint Authority and Ombudsman would have effectively pre-empted any #EndSARS protest in this country with all the attendant loss of lives and property.

“The issue of improving on our intelligence services would have been addressed and safe schools’ initiatives would have been more effectively implemented.

“It is important to continue to use the issue of insecurity as a reference point in the discussion of political contest in Nigeria. To what extent have we taken steps to implement provisions of our manifesto on issues of security? No question, our elected leaders and representatives have remarkably taken some initiatives.

“Are those initiatives consistent with provisions of our manifesto? Closer scrutiny will show that a major gap exists in the area of accountability and delivery by our respective security services.

“This is an area that our party manifesto was very clear, and we need to begin to initiate and speed up implementation.”

It may be worth recalling the six proposals contained in the section Keeping Nigeria Safe, especially regarding commitment on Accountability and delivery on page 19 of our manifesto as follows”