Insecurity: Expect massive shake up in security agencies, Presidency says, see why

In line with his dissatisfaction with the high rate of insecurity in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has again challenged the nation security agencies to rearrange their strategies.

President Buhari challenged the security agencies to rearrange their strategies in fighting insecurity in the ongoing battle against insurgency, banditry and other violent crimes in some parts of the country.

The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Mongonu (retd), revealed this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the National Security Council meeting, presided over by President Buhari at the State House, Abuja, yesterday.

The president, according to the NSA, reaffirmed his last directives to the nation’s security chiefs that their best effort was not good enough.

Onyxnews Nigeria reports that Monguno revealed that since the issues involved were operational issues, the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, “is working on something” likely to give a new direction to the security agencies.

The NSA also revealed that the council pointed out that proliferation of drugs is driving insecurity in the country.

Monguno said the manner of killings of their victims could only mean one thing, that the bandits, kidnappers and terrorists are out of their minds.

He said President Buhari noted that Nigerians have lost confidence in the security sector and he is determined to restore that confidence.

The NSA said his office presented a memo to the Security Council on the danger of drug abuse in the society as well as the need to urgently address the problem

He revealed that between 2011 and 2019, approximately 17 manufacturing laboratories of dangerous substances were located by the various security agencies and destroyed while an increasing activities of illegal cultivators of `Canabis’ were also recorded.

He said criminals had resulted to the use of illegal substances and dangerous drugs like Tramadol to unleash violence on innocent citizens in the society.

“Basically, what I told council was that this has taken on a worrisome dimension. Nigeria’s perception on the drug trafficking index has changed from the status from a transit hub to a production centre.

“Between 2011 and 2019, approximately 17 manufacturing laboratories of dangerous substances were located by the various security agencies and destroyed. That is a large number.

“At the same we have had increasing activities of illegal cultivators of Canabis in Nigeria.

“These people basically use extremely large space of arable land to cultivate this illegal substance, employing militia men to protect their farms and also their storage facilities.

“When you look at drugs, our main concern as security operatives is the ultimate destruction to the social fabric and economy of the nation.

“There is hardly any violence crime today in Nigeria that is not propelled by the use of these hard substances. And these hard substances have been coming in from all nooks and crannies,’’ he said.

Monguno believed that the reckless use of these dangerous substances had direct link to the insecurity being experienced across the country.

He, therefore, stressed the need for a collective, concerted effort to deal with the menace of dangerous drugs in circulation to safeguard the country from the bottomless pit of self-destruction.

The NSA boss disclosed that he later updated the Council on the security situation in the northwest and the north central, “in terms of looking at the issue of kidnapping, banditry and killing of innocent people.’’

“The Chief of Defence Staff, army chief, inspector general of Police, heads of the various intelligence agencies also gave synopsis each of the current security situation and what their various organizations and agencies are doing about these situations,’’ he said.