S ome Nigerian security professionals have explained why security agencies have not been able to overcome the insecurity ravaging the country for almost two decades. This is even in the face of the agencies receiving advance intelligence on impending attacks by criminals.

In separate interviews with Sunday Telegraph, the men, who had been involved in countering insurgency at one time or the other while in service, said that the recent abduction of 300 staff and pupils of Saint Mary Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State and ferrying away of 25 pupils from the Government Girls Comprehensive Grammar School, Maga, Kebbi State, could be traced to lack of capacity on the side of security agencies, long years of neglect of the police as well as the complicated nature of asymmetric warfare.

It could be recalled that the Kebbi State Governor, Comrade Nasir Idris, raised an alarm that there was an intelligence report that the school would be attacked and troops deployed, only for the bandits to carry out their nefarious activities barely 45 minutes after the troops were withdrawn.

To a former director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, the failure of security agencies to act on intelligence could be traced to a lack of capacity. He said: “I know that some of the issues, like failure to act on intelligence, are due to a lack of capacity on the part of action agencies.

But the obvious one that is worrisome is the one that they have been deployed based on intelligence, and people were withdrawn. Who ordered the withdrawal and why? I expect the government to institute a high-powered enquiry to unravel the reasons behind the withdrawal.

Who ordered it? And for what purpose? ” He continued: “Again, the reason intelligence reports are not acted upon is a lack of capacity on the part of the action agencies. Capacity in terms of technology; capacity in terms of reach to such areas. Some of these places are ungoverned spaces, and when you get to these places, there might not be communication in terms of network failures.”

He finds a soul mate in Retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Olatoye Durosinmi, who said that Nigeria is paying the price for long years of neglecting the police. Durosinmi said 80 per cent of Nigeria’s security problems would have been solved if Nigeria had not neglected the police.

He said: “All these things are happening because of the total neglect of the Nigerian Police Force for a very long time. If the police had been properly equipped and the right number of people recruited and trained, with enabling technology, the police would reduce Nigeria’s insecurity problem by 80 per cent. We are paying the price for neglecting the police. “Nigeria needs to revamp the policing system.

The nation neglected the police for a long time. We are paying the price for the neglect of a very important agency of internal security.” Also, weighing in, a former Chief of Policy and Plans (CPPLANS) of the Nigerian Army, General Lamidi Adeosun (rtd), explained that providing intelligence reports was not enough, noting that how early they were provided and getting them across to the right people were equally important.

“If they claim intelligence was available, how early was it available? Who was it made available to? Who is supposed to act? If I have information that a school is about to be attacked, I pass it to vigilantes or the police. “The police would also do their assessment before they deploy to the place.

It is not that the deployment would be done immediately. Even if you want to visit somebody, unless the person has fruits or drinks, they would have to make preparations to host you. That is how it is in security, too. These people who are deployed have their specific tasks in all the places.

So, when this information comes, if policemen are deployed in a Local Government headquarters, maybe they have just one or two vehicles, and the incident is already happening somewhere, they have dispatched a vehicle with someone to go there.

“The second vehicle also has to be detailed for other places. If information comes that this (an attack) is going to happen, they would want to make their plan to source another vehicle before they can move resources to that location.

These are some of the little things underneath if intelligence does not come early enough, and to the specific body that is supposed to act and even the limitations of the body that is supposed to act.”