* Urges Tinubu to pay special attention to Nigeria’s borders
The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) of Nigeria has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pay closer attention to maintaining fool-proof security of the country’s borders, arguing that any nation that fails to safeguard its borders has unwittingly degraded her sovereignty.
HURIWA lamented that the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has openly admitted not getting the prior intelligence about the emergence of a new terrorist group known as Lukarawas, which it admitted exacerbated insecurity in the North-western part of Nigeria.
The Rights group, therefore, tasked the government to ascertain what might have led to this spectacular and disgraceful failure of intelligence by the Armed Forces as openly admitted by the spokesperson of the Defence Headquarters (DHQ).
HURIWA recalled that the Director of Defence Media Operations head, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, made this admission of not being aware of the incursion into Nigeria of the new terrorist movement into Nigeria while briefing newsmen on the operations of the military in Abuja Thursday.
Defence spokesperson Buba said that the new terror group emerged from the Republic of Niger after the coup that led to the breakdown of military cooperation between Nigeria and Niger.
He said that the terrorists began incursion into northern parts of Sokoto and Kebbi States from the Niger Republic and Mali axis, particularly after the coup in Niger Republic.
According to him, prior to the coup, there were joint border operations with Nigerien security forces, which kept the terrorists at bay.
“The terrorists took advantage of the gaps in cooperation between both countries and exploited difficult terrains to make incursions in remote areas in some North-western states to spread their ideology,” he said.
Buba said that the group was accommodated by the locals who initially thought that the group meant well for them, adding that they failed to report the movement to the military and security agencies.
He gave the assurance that troops had sustained Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) to degrade the terrorists.
According to HURIWA’s National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko,
the DHQ added that the terror group had continued to take advantage of the vast under-governed areas to hide and evade troops as well as harass the locals.
HURIWA described this admission of abysmal failure of intelligence on the emergence of the new terrorist group as a show of shame and a clear indictment of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency just as the Rights group is appealing to President Tinubu to implement strategies for effectively deploying technology to protect the country’s borders.
HURIWA also blamed the Nigerian Immigration Services and the Nigerian Customs for also not being capable of generating quality intelligence on the incursion of the new terrorist movement into Nigeria’s North West state of Sokoto State.
The Rights group said the admission by the Defence Headquarters of not been aware of when the new terrorist group made incursions into Nigeria is simply an admission of a colossal failure by the Armed Forces of Nigeria to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country.
The Rights group said it would have been cheaper to adequately secure our borders and prevent external incursions by armed groups and terrorists than embarking on counter-terror activities to dislodge them, which would cost enormous amounts of public funds.
“Government should probe if some top security and military officers are even encouraging the proliferation of armed insurgency for pecuniary benefits.”