Security Agencies Trade Blame Over Bombing

Hugo Odiogor

26 June 2011

Inter — Inter-agency trading of blames may have taken the centrestage among the security forces as they battle to survive a possible sanction from the Presidency over what Presiden Goodluck Jonathan described as “Intelligence failure” that orchestrated terrorism unleashed on Nigeria by Boko Haram.

Sunday Vanguard can confrim that all is not well between the police high command and the other security agencies, especially the Office of National Security Adviser (NSA) and the State Security Service, (SSS), over which of them should take the rap for the “intelligence failure” which the fundamentalist terror group in the north has exploited to its advantage.

The ‘intelligence failure’ climaxed penultimate Thursday when a suspected Boko Haram insurgent exploded bombs at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, killing a policeman and wounding several others.

Before then, members of the sect had practically been on the rampage in Borno and Bauchi States, throwing bombs and killing people.

Sources said the police high command is not happy that the Office of the NSA broke a meeting the inspector general of police, IGP, his deputies and commissioners had scheduled to hold last Tuesday when the NSA scheduled a parallel meeting and summoned the IGP to demonstrate his power.

A top police source told Sunday Vanguard that the Office of the NSA did not even deem it proper to give the IGP prior information of another meeting that necessitated the police boss being summoned and would not be bothered if the IGP had other engagements but rather chose to force him to abandon his own meeting.

“This was pure display of military impunity and must be checked if we must work to achieve the desired results”, the source explained.

The police believe that the Office of the NSA is seizing the opportunity of the Boko Haram slap on their face to posture that it is on top of security matters in the country.

“But the truth of the matter is that nobody should capitalize on this unfortunate embarrassment to hound the IGP out of office If the president said the Louis Edet House bomb blasts were a product of “intelligence failure”, then no security outfit should posture to cast the other in a bad light and certainly none of them should claim to be above reproach on security issues”, the source pointed out.

He added: “The level of collaboration in sharing of security information is abysmal and fraught with suspicion. Some people believe that some security information will hurt some personalities from their zones, so they want to be protective; some of them leak sensitive security information to prime suspects to aid them in escaping justice.

Sometimes, we see some agencies want to lord it over others and claim superiority just to gain the attention of government. We expect some of these things to manifest because, even in foreign climes, they happen but the question is whether they are in the interest of the country”.

Security Asset

A retired assistant director with the SSS, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard on condition of anonymity, said, “We must face the fact that we have mismanaged our nation’s security asset and we are now paying. The president must firmly decide on a course of action to take to save the nation the huge cost in human and financial resources that are being wasted in the name of security.

“What we have today is an improper definition of functions and interpretation of the role of security agencies in the country. For instance, the State Security Service (SSS) was set up to gather intelligence on security situations that will compromise state and national security. It is a federal agency that was supposed to gather intelligence on the activities of nations, institutions, organisations and individuals that are detrimental to the interest of Nigeria.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was set up to deal with similar threat to national economic security interest. The police was statutorily charged with maintaining physical security through protection of lives and property. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was created to perform similar function on domestic front.

Defence Military Intelligence was created to take care of defence security information both within and outside the national domain and it provides the armed forces the raw materials to articulate defence policy and action”, the erstwhile SSS boss said.

“The National Civil Defence Corps was created as a midway to the demand for National Guard, but it lacks focus and direction in the entire security organogram as the other security agencies tend to treat it as inferior because it started with former service men and women. The National Security Adviser was supposed to supervise all the various security agencies and sift the daily security information provided by the various agencies to be presented to the president.

What is in issue is whether the NSA has provided the required leadership? The SSS has become so embroiled in political activities as we can see in their being used to screen political office seekers at the expense of their core duties”.

The under-performing of the security forces was captured by a US trained security expert, Mr. Bob Inyang, who said “the police focuses more on physical security which entails deployment of personnel to handle security duties but, since the October 1,2010 bombings, it has not thought it proper to deploy men to such public buildings as the NNPC.

The method of handling physical security has changed as the world relies more on the use of technology and use of external barricades”.

Security sources said Jonathan has failed to decisively challenge the nation’s top security operatives to do their work or be sacked.

The president had summoned the IGP to Aso Rock presidential villa over the police headquarters bombings which many in security circle believe was intelligence failure and unacceptable. There are insinuations of imminent shake up in the police arising from the incident. But police authorities are claiming that the other security agencies have not been exemplary.

Said Sunday Vanguard source: “What we have on our hands now is a case of urban terrorism, driven by a fundamental religious ideology; we need cooperation among all Nigerians to deal with the scourge. While the police may be at the centre of this security failure, we should also call into question the relevance of other security organs.

The Force Headquarters blasts were the fourth in the nation’s capital since October 1st 2010 incident which left in its wake casualties and several burnt vehicles”.

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