Security expert Dr. Ona Ekhomu has commended the Katsina State Governor, Aliyu Bello Masari for terminating the peace deal between the state government and deadly terrorists euphemistically referred to armed bandits,“as terrorists lack integrity.”
He advised the governor of Zamfara State who is currently considering renewal of the state’s peace deal with bandits to avoid the futile venture as it would not guarantee peace. Said he:“the recent massacre of 80 persons in Sokoto, 25 in Zamfara and over 120 in Kastina (this year alone) is enough indication that the terrorists are implacable foes.”
Dr. Ekhomu
In a press release issued in Lagos on Wednesday, Dr. Ekhomu advised the northwest states to apply the whole of government approach which they have used in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic to the issue of banditry as “banditry is a much more deadly threat than COVID-19”
Ekhomu who is President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON) said that the so-called peace deals with bandits were “products of poor policy and intelligence analyses by the state governments, as they don’t address the causal factors of the terrorist attacks (banditry) which include mass poverty, social injustice, arms proliferation, ungoverned spaces, and poor law enforcement.”
He continued: “it is common knowledge that these terrorists, assassins,kidnappers,rapists, cattle thieves and armed robbers are people of low moral character. So if you think that paying them a lot of money and signing a peace deal on paper with them will change anything, then you’re wrong. It is the nature of terrorists to be the personification of evil (mala in se). They can exhibit an infinite variety of human cruelty, depravity and greed.”
Ekhomu advised the northwest governments to urgently conduct threat assessments and vulnerability assessments of their jurisdictions, and create models of how the terrorists are conducting their campaigns of aggression so that they can predict where would be attacked. He said that federal government security forces could be called in as response forces once the aggressors are geo-located. He deplored the reluctance of state governments to spend money on security of their citizens, adding that: “buying patrol cars for security forces is a necessary but not sufficient condition for better security in the states.”
The intelligence analyst advised the northwest states to establish, fund, equip and empower their vigilance groups to defend the states. He said the Civilian JTF performance in Borno State has shown that the state must first defend itself before the federal forces step in.
The security expert warned that the northeast terrorists were “first cousins” of Boko Haram and should not be treated with kid gloves or appeasement. Said he: “the difference between them and Boko Haram is that they are economically motivated unlike BH which has religion as its grouse.”
He pointed out that the Federal Government was over-stretched by the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast and other grave security challenges nationwide, as well as distracted by COVID-19 global pandemic. He urged state governments to justify the confidence reposed in them by their citizens and meet the security challenge.
He advised Katsina Governor Masari to urgently reactive the Yan-Kasai vigilance group and “they must be geared for effectiveness – armed with shotguns and communication gadgets so that they would become force multipliers for the government security forces who will respond to distress calls and calls for service.”
Dr. Ekhomu further urged the northwest governors to adopt and implement the creative and synthetic security solutions outlined in his new book titled Boko Haram: Security Considerations and the Rise of an Insurgency.
He warned that the new trend of the terrorists executing district heads in Katsina State indicate that they may be planning to take over some real estate in a grotesque reprise of the macabre Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast.
Dr. Ekhomu concluded:“The constitution did not stipulate that the security and welfare of the citizens is the primary responsibility of the Federal Government only. It is the responsibility of government — which includes state governments and local governments. Northern governors must therefore uphold their part of this social contract.”