First, I want to make it very clear that roadblocks are not the best security measures for checking the movement of insurgents at any given time. That is the more reason why you discover that most countries facing similar security challenges like Kenya do not block their roads; rather, they develop their security agencies to do more on intelligence gathering.
If the Department of State Security Services will restrict itself to its primary duty of intelligence gathering by disguising and monitoring the activities and movements of Boko Haram, kidnappers and other lawless groups and feed the police with such information, majority of those dangerous guys would have been out of circulation by now.
Rather than running after every criminal, in some cases, arresting people with little or no evidence to indict them, drag them to court and prosecute them which is not in the mandate of the DSS, it will be doing good to the nation if it can concentrate in intelligence gathering and sharing same with the police.
Through intelligence gathering and discreet investigation by the police and the DSS, we would not only be proactive in the area of security, but the sources of the mass circulation of illegal arms used in mass destruction of lives and property will be traced and minimised. People involved in sponsoring criminal activities such as drug trafficking, armed robbery and kidnapping will also be fished out and prosecuted.
All the roadblocks do not in any way stop insurgents and other criminals from moving about in the country. We challenged the military commanders supervising those roadblocks to release the statistics of genuine arrests they made at the roadblocks in the FCT and compare that to the number of innocent persons killed, raped and their money extorted by soldiers.
Most of these roadblocks are unnecessary. But since PMB has been convinced to swallow his words and recall them, the level of extortion and abuse of human rights at these roadblocks should be reduced.
Jibrin is a security consultant and wrote from EMAB Plaza in Abuja.
