Boko Haram plan operations from prisons with aid of warders – CDS

Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, yesterday revealed that Boko Haram members held in prisons across the country still carry out their criminal operations through the help of some prison warders.

General Musa made the disclosure, yesterday, during the sectoral debate with service chiefs organized by the House of Representatives at plenary in Abuja yesterday.

At the parley, the service chiefs gave reasons the security agencies appeared to be under-performing, their challenges and how to overcome and secure the country.

The service chiefs present included Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, General Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Lt-General Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Air Staff, CAS, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar; Chief of Naval Staff, CNS, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; and Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.

The House had rescheduled the meeting from last week to today after the security chiefs could not appear for the debate in person.

According to Musa, in the North-East, while debriefing some of the Boko Haram elements, they confessed how from the prisons they could plan operations and pass funds to the field through the help of some prison warders.

He said: “They passed funds across and we asked how. They told us they use some of the warders. We are not saying all of them are bad, but they use some of the warders’ accounts to transfer money and the deal is anybody whose account it is transferred shared it 50-50. Those are the challenges.”

Speaking further on purchase of equipment, Musa lamented that the high dollar rate had hampered the purchase of relevant equipment needed to fight insecurity.

According to him, all the items procured are bought with hard currency, none in naira, and that most times when funds are converted, only very little could be bought.

His words: “We don’t produce what we need in Nigeria and if you do not produce what you need, that means you are at the beck and call of the people that produce these items.

“For example, during the last regime, about $1 billion was set aside for defence procurement. Out of that amount, over $600 million was for the procurement of aircraft. So, the whole money had gone.

“So many times when people see that funds are being released to the armed forces, they think it is so much but by the time you convert them to dollars you do not get much.

“One precision missile for our drone costs $5,000. So imagine how many we would be able to use and how many we can procure. So, those are the challenges.”

He said there is need for the Armed Forces to leverage emerging military technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and robotics.

Musa said: “Similarly there is need to exploit the contemporary global shift in the utilisation of space technology and cyber warfare for national defence and security.

‘’We have initiated the process of establishing a joint cyber warfare intelligence command where such emerging technologies will be exploited to enhance the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

“Security is not only the responsibility of security forces. Everybody has a responsibility to play. We cannot be everywhere. So, we need education and sensitisation programmes to educate Nigerians that security is everybody’s responsibility.

‘’If you see it, you talk about it. You just don’t keep quiet and say it is for the Police. Everybody has a role. In our neighbouring countries, if you enter there as a visitor, I give you 30 minutes, they would know you are a visitor. Before you know it, the gendarmes are after you.

“People tend to think it is not their responsibility. We are not magicians. We need to have a system where we train from schools, let every Nigerian understand that they should take ownership of security.
“We have realized that the magic wand to address insecurity is good governance. Anywhere you have good governance, insecurity goes down. The security forces can only produce 30 per cent. We can only provide an enabling environment. If other aspects are not addressed, it is a problem.

“People can’t eat. People are hungry. No matter how you tell them to keep the peace, they will not because they have to eat and it aids criminality.

‘’So, we must have good governance and everybody should have belief in the country that this is their country.”

He also fingered delayed prosecution as a challenge in the war against insecurity, adding that some terrorists found wanting had not been prosecuted.

His words: “For keeping them for a lengthy period, people are accusing the Armed Forces of keeping them against their human rights but we cannot prosecute.

“I have been in the North-East, there were a lot of Boko Haram elements that were captured and kept. We have kept them for five or six years. We in the Armed Forces cannot prosecute; we can only provide protection for them.

“Another aspect of the judiciary is this, you take risks, make an arrest, you hand-over, but before you enter your vehicle, the man has been released. Now you have risked yourself in doing that.

“By the time he is released, he goes to tell your family members that you are at risk. So, it gets to a stage where the security forces are not even willing to do anything.”