The SSS and the re-arrest of Kabiru Sokoto
The SSS recapture of Kabiru appeared to have turned the concern that people felt about negligence of the police into a sigh of relief. Since the outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency some three years ago, Nigerians have been wondering at the seeming helplessness of our security forces to contain it. Warnings of impending attacks […]
The SSS recapture of Kabiru appeared to have turned the concern that people felt about negligence of the police into a sigh of relief. Since the outbreak of the Boko Haram insurgency some three years ago, Nigerians have been wondering at the seeming helplessness of our security forces to contain it. Warnings of impending attacks would be given. Those who spread the violence may operate in a town for hours, almost unchallenged, like they did in Kano recently, and melt like shadows into the city and no one would be able to arrest any of the perpetrators.
Nigerians were ruing what they consider the total failure of intelligence on the part of our security apparatuses to infiltrate the ranks of the insurgents in order to understand their mind; to understand what is it they really want; to know the mode of their operations; to establish who their possible sponsors are and other vital intelligence as to their links, their operational strategies and their hit men. There was absolutely no clue that could prove useful in any effort to eliminate or severely contain this dangerous group. The SSS however has broken this depressing chain, and fact should be saluted for this redemption of all the forces.
Although the SSS will not divulge the type of efforts that they put in to nab this alleged high profile Boko Haram member, it is reasonable to conclude that sophisticated intelligence gathering equipment was involved. It is also not in the character of an organisation like the SSS to engage in some chest-beating when they pull off an operation such as this one, but I think we should celebrate the SSS for this operation, and to the leadership provided by the new Director-General of the SSS, Mr. Ita Ekpenyong.
The image of the Nigerian police has sunken so low that if a police officer should come asking for the hand of any man’s daughter, the father would be reluctant to approve. The police are seen as being undisciplined and highly corrupt. Now that soldiers are increasingly getting involved in operations that strictly meant for the police, they too are beginning to acquire a negative image and fast losing the respect awe they once enjoyed among Nigerians. The paramilitary services do not fare any better in the estimation of the average Nigerian.
The nature of their job that the SSS personnel do requires some aloofness in relating with general public, but from what some of us see of the unit, they are a shade higher than the others in many respects. They carry themselves with a greater degree of comportment. They appear more professional. I also hope that the great Nigerian disease of tribalism and nepotism has not eaten the innards of this service. An organisation that is not disciplined and which has no internal cohesion and esprit de corps cannot be successful.
We hear that our security agencies have become largely ineffectual because their top hierarchy have acquired the obnoxious habit of sharing money meant for informants among themselves. It is common knowledge that in modern intelligence work, no security agency, not even Israel’s MOSSAD, can succeed without a vibrant informant system. Security men are not spirits. They need the help of all to be able to curtail the activities of criminal elements who also are not spirits but men and women who live among us.
The greatest challenge facing Nigeria at the moment is undoubtedly security. And without a feeling of safety and security no one can be in any position to enjoy any other benefit of citizenship. That is why the SSS should not rest on its oars. We will not celebrate the re-arrest of Kabiru too much unless the SSS use him maximally to supply the kind of information that will lead to the decapitation and scattering of the group that poses such a mortal threat to the country. Unlike the police we do not hope that the SSS will let out a story one day that he has either escaped again or that he was killed while trying to escape. Nigerians will like to hear from Kabiru some of the details we have been longing to know about how a sect that became radicalised only three years ago has become such a fearsome fighting force. What is the source of their awesome strength? After much information has been expertly ferreted from him, he should be made to face the law. The SSS should not be involved in his or any extrajudicial killing for that matter, which would be counter-productive.
Alibi wrote this piece from Abuja