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Ex-DSS director to govs: Don’t dialogue with bandits, map out new strategy

A former assistant director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has urged governors across 36 States of the federation to map out new strategies, particularly using technology to tackle banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and other security challenges ravaging various states.

Amachree, in an interview with Daily Trust, was reacting to the comment made by Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, when he and some of his colleagues visited Minna, Niger State capital over the abduction of Kagara students and some staff of the school.

Fayemi had during the visit indicated that governors might consider dialogue, and called for proper coordination among the security outfits, adding that the synergy was required for optimal results in ending the security challenges bedevilling the country.

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“We also need to explore other avenues side by side with whatever the security institutions are doing if that means engaging in dialogue. We may not have a choice.

“We may have to do that, anything to help us to deal with this immediate crisis and then to begin to address on a much longer time basis, the root causes of this social dislocation responsible for what we are witnessing, all around us,” he had said on Tuesday.

But reacting to the comment, the former DSS official called on the governors to dialogue among themselves on how to stop attacking one another, and organise a three-day retreat with the military, security and law enforcement agents to map out a new strategy for the country.

“It is a welcome development that the Governors’ Forum has finally come alive to make some decisions. It is however not certain who they want to have a dialogue with? If it is among themselves, then it is a step in the right direction. However, if it is with terrorists and bandits, then I will advise against it.

“Giving in to terrorists and bandits by dialoguing with them is a position of weakness and portrays Nigeria as a failed state. Rather, the governors should have a three-day retreat with the military, security and law enforcement agents to map out a new strategy for the country.

“They should not lose sight of investing in new technology for unmanned aerial surveillance. Finally, there should be a massive public awareness of what is going on, as a way of involving the populace in this fight against terror,” Amachree said.End…

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