Security agencies brainstorm over banditry, kidnapping in Kaduna

Following renewed cases of kidnapping and banditry in Kaduna, security agencies comprising the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Army, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Department of State Security (DSS) and other stakeholders have held an inter-agency workshop to form strong collaboration in addressing the issue.

• Maina: Court to hear Ndume’s bail application Thursday
• Kano missing Kids: Court remands 5 persons in correctional centres

Speaking at the interactive workshop as part of the activities marking this year’s Army’s operation code-named “Crocodile Smile” VI in franchise States of the Division, the General Officer Commanding, 1 Division, Nigerian Army, Major General Usman Mohammed, said the exercise has become routine for the Nigerian Army at this time of the year because it has evolved into an effective tool for confronting increasing levels of violence and criminality that usually characterize the concluding months of the year.

According to him, “Exercise Crocodile Smile was earlier conducted in the South-south and South-east regions of the country, but its remarkable successes informed a decision by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai to extend the exercise to other parts of the country.

“We are also bringing into focus the menace of armed banditry and kidnapping that continue to plague us and dominate some aspects of the media.

“As I wish to acknowledge the relentless efforts of security agencies that have prevented and foiled countless bandit attacks and kidnap attempts, the unfortunate incidents that have slipped through our guards are at the same time lamentable.

“These attacks and violation of citizens’ rights, are therefore a call for us as stakeholders in internal security to introspect and re-examine our strategies.

“The principal aim of this workshop, therefore, is to present us a platform to rub minds and interrogate our strategies towards comprehensively ridding our area of responsibility of criminality and violence”, he said.

Speaking on the theme of the workshop titled “Harnessing the Potentials in Inter-Agency
Collaboration”, the Keynote Speaker, Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, described synergy among security agencies as the backbone to overcoming security threats in the State and beyond.

“Synergy is critical because it is the backbone of all successful campaign against national security threats. As a government, I am here to amplify our support for inter-agency collaboration because no agency can be own its own without collaboration as working together, sharing information and intelligence is key and that is what we are advocating.”

He advocated the need to incorporate media into managing challenge to national security, saying “It is important for the media to know that when they give out credible and balanced information, it will help.”

“In a situation where there is a lot of exaggeration, a lot of misrepresentation, a lot of approaches that are far from realities, the media content will undermine national security”, he said.