Insecurity and hardship: How security chiefs secured confidence of Senators – Source

Fresh facts are emerging from Tuesday’s closed session between the Senate and leadership of the nation’s security apparatus.

This is just as the security chiefs led by the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, gave the Senators the achievements made so far by security agencies.

A very ranking Senator who was at the closed door session that lasted nine hours on Tuesday, told Journalists yesterday that though the lawmakers went into the meeting with a lot of misgivings and apprehension, the security chiefs allayed their fears and earned the confidence of the lawmakers.

The NSA, ministers and security chiefs took turns to give the lawmakers vivid accounts of their exploits and how they have averted major terrorist attack since President Bola Tinub took over in May last year.

The Senator who noted that Ribadu  gave the lead presentation by taking them through different components of the security challenges, explaining how they met the situation and the changes so far, however spoke about how wanton violence has significantly gone down thus pushing down number of casualties from attacks by armed groups.

The NSA was said to have told the lawmakers that  Boko Haram and ISWAP now resort to planting IEDs showing that they were regressing from their comfort zones, which he attributed the success in the fight against the Boko Haram to the gallantry of troops and the hard work of the Borno State Government.

According  to the Senator,  Ribadu who also told the lawmakers that 20 gunrunning networks were smashed and over 5,000 military grade weapons were seized and destroyed by government agencies, also disclosed to them that sporadic incidences of kidnapping being reported in most parts of the country were pointers that security kidnapping and banditry have now evolved into economic crimes substituting armed robbery as an easy means of making money through criminal means.

The NSA said that the country was today witnessing significant increase in oil production and ralative peace in the South-East region, which was hitherto bedevilled by activities of gunmen, due to concerted military and non-military steps,

The Senator said, “The Chief of Air Staff also gave an excellent account of how the air component of the war complements the work of troops on ground. He mentioned how they killed two key leaders of bandits Ali Kacalla and Yellow Janburos and how that has helped to halt interstate movement of bandits and logistics especially around Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara States.”

The ranking lawmaker who recalled the Inspector General of Police also spoke about routing out criminals in the suburbans of Abuja and how his men have checkmated activities of one-chance criminals in the capital city.

Despite the satisfaction expressed by most lawmakers who spoke at  the session,  others pointed areas of operational lapses that deserve attention and urged the service chiefs to ensure harmony and cooperation for maximum success.

The lawmakers also tasked the minister of finance to prioritise release of funds to security establishments.

It  would be recalled that at end of the marathon session on Tuesday,  the Senate leadership expressed confidence in the leadership of the security sector and applauded their effort in addressing the security concerns.