Sunday Adebomi, a security expert and retired captain in the United States’ Army, has said the Nigerian Army and Police lack the equipment necessary to combat the rising wave of kidnapping, insurgency and banditry being witnessed across the nation.
Adebomi, said that poor tooling was responsible for the under performance of the security architecture in combating the men of the underworld terrorising the country.
He called on the federal government to provide necessary military hardware required and ensure proper funding of the nation’s security formation, adding that all hydra-headed security threats could be easily surmounted if Federal Police structure is decentralised to give way for the creation of a state police.
He said a nation-state with wide territorial expansion and dense population like Nigeria can only guarantee the safety of lives and property of the citizens, if it spreads the dragnet of security to the grassroots.
Adebomi, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, gave the advice in a chat with NAN in Ado-Ekiti, on Sunday, August 4, 2019, calling on members of the public to be conscious of their environment and report suspicious persons and movement to security agents.
Adebomi, who tasked the security operatives, particularly in Ekiti, to step up surveillance and patrol in order to nip the rate of insecurity in the bud, said such could only be achieved if those with the deep knowledge of the terrain are integrated into the security architecture to gather information for proper actions.
He commended the various efforts of Governor Kayode Fayemi at stopping criminal activities and called on the people of the state to always support the government in this regard.
“I want to express concerns on the alleged killing of about 23 people at a funeral ceremony in Borno State last weekend by suspected Boko Haram sect. The news was disturbing and traumatising to me.
“Our government must do more in providing necessary facilities and sophisticated weapons that would be enough to its security personnel to tackle insurgency and Nigerians to be united to fight this battle.
“The various interventions of government at all levels toward solving the challenges of insecurity had yielded little results. So, we need to be sincere with ourselves by doing what is right.
Adebomi, who was a governorship aspirant in the state, described the recent meeting of traditional rulers across the country with President Muhammadu Buhari on how to end the various security challenges in the country as a welcome development, saying that the traditional rulers have greatest roles to play in securing the society.
“The decision of the Federal Government to install CCTV cameras on major highways across the country was commendable. But such must be done with high sense of security intelligence, so that there won’t be any reason for sabotage.”
