Intelligence gathering and synergy

“The failure of these security agencies (the police, army, the state security services etc.) despite the huge yearly budgetary allocation is largely due to their failure in the area of intelligence gathering and sharing of such intelligence reports with other relevant security agencies.”

-Ahmed Adoke in his article ‘Intelligence Gathering-Bane of Nigeria Security Agencies’

One Wadume, a notorious kidnap kingpin from Taraba State has been in the spotlight for few weeks now. It was reported that the said Wadume was arrested in Taraba by officers of the Police Force on allegations of kidnapping, and on their way out of the state, military officers opened fire and killed three policemen, and a suspect in their custody, and facilitated the escape of the suspect from custody. The said Wadume has been re-arrested by police officers in Kano State, and has confirmed that indeed military officers did kill those policemen, and facilitated his escape.

When news of the unfortunate event hit the news wave, Nigerians were thrown into confusion as to whether these government security agencies actually work hand in hand for the common good of the country, or independent of one another, with different purposes from that of Nigeria. Events like this making the news in Nigeria with the level of technological advancement and the level of our democracy are why some advanced countries are wary about the country.

One thing I have come to understand is that we lack effective intelligence gathering and synergy between our security agencies and the armed forces. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) ought to create and operate a secure platform where intelligence reports from and security outfits in the country are collated and distributed to the relevant, sister agencies, whenever the need arises.

And for this to happen, there ought not to be overlapping of duties in the security agencies. The Nigeria Police Force has unrestricted powers when it comes to offences committed within the shores of Nigeria as provided by the Police Act, however, certain agencies like the Federal Roads Safety Commission, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and some State Traffic agencies have been created to simplify the duties of the police force; meaning the powers of the police has impliedly being restricted to investigation and apprehension of offenders.

Simply put, if the security agencies are proactive, not reactive, information and intelligence gathering will be seamless. The FRSC collates information relating to car owners for easy identification incase a crime is committed with a particular vehicle, such information is then sent to the secure platform for the police to use and track the said vehicle or owner and make arrest.

In another breath, due to the insecurity in the country, the military are now being placed in certain areas to curb crime, as such, where police officers would use a route manned and protected by the military, the military division ought to be notified of such operation, that way, when things go wrong in the apprehension of an offender, the NIA can even without a panel pin point who was at fault, and the officers on duty when the breach occurred.

Which begs the question, how would intelligence gathering and synergy have saved the lives of the police officers who first arrested Wadume? With intelligence gathering and synergy, every security agency including the armed forces would be aware of the operation even before the apprehension of the suspect. That way the command centre tracks the operation from when the police officers leave their base, to when the suspect is apprehended, to when he is transported, as such trigger happy officers would be wary to do otherwise because they know they are being tracked.

On paper, we might have something similar to intelligence gathering and synergy, but in reality it is not effective enough as technology has advanced beyond our analogue means of intelligence gathering. While discussing this topic with a colleague, he opined that with such a platform there is likelihood of a leak of the operation to the suspect thereby scuttling the operation in the first place.

I beg to disagree, intelligence gathering and synergy does not mean that every officer has access to the information at the command centre, every level has its own level of information passed to it, and every agency has its own information and intelligence to supply, the FRSC cannot be aware of information relating to an operation if the use of a vehicle by the suspect is not involved.

In sum, the security outfits including the armed forces owe it as a constitutional obligation to protect the lives and properties of Nigerians, and this involves doing everything necessary to get the job done.

Godspeed!

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