What I said about insecurity -Kalu
Former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Kalu, has said that security agencies should take the blame for the recent bombing of a motor park in Kano in which people were killed, for failure to adequately protect life and property.
Addressing a group of Nigerians, made up of businessmen and politician, at the Legal Institute, London, on Tuesday, while making a clarification on his earlier comments on the state of insecurity in the country, Kalu said that if a group could successfully murder people with easy, as in Kano, 'security agencies must be held accountable for failing to rise to the challenge, especially as far as intelligence gathering is concerned.'
He said that the real issue is failure of the security agencies to protect life and property, especially those of Igbo who lost their lives in most of the terror attacks, insisting the performance of security agencies is not in consonance with the amount of money budgeted and spent on them. 'The practical results that we have seen do not match up with the considerable resources that the Federal Government has poured into the security departments. It is totally disheartening that the budgetary requirements for security are increasing in the same proportion as the Igbo are losing their lives and properties,' Kalu said.
The former governor said that everything should be done to arrest the state of insecurity in the country, including looking at security agencies themselves. The statement reads: 'For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Kalu's position is that the security agencies should take a hard look at themselves and their modus operandi.
They should be vigilant in order to ensure that the purported bad eggs that have infiltrated the ranks of various branches of national security agencies are not the ones responsible for the unending atrocities. 'It is quite right that the searchlight must be beamed in every single direction, including the security outfit, without fear or favour, as we grapple with the nightmare of terrorism and bloody carnage in this country.
The sophistication that has characterised the planning, execution and the general top class logistical operations of the terrorists have left many questioning whether some rag-tag illiterate and untrained religious fundamentalists are truly capable of, and singularly responsible for, all the slaughter and destruction that have been associated with Boko Haram. 'In a democracy, it is not only permissible for citizens to question everything; it is our civic duty to do so.'
Kalu maintains that it is not really important to waste too much energy on who is or not responsible for killing Igbo in their shops, buses, homes and churches, insisting: 'No one or group of people should gain the capacity to murder Nigerians in their dozens on a weekly basis. If such capacity is attained, then the security agencies must be held accountable for failing to rise to the challenge, especially as far as intelligence gathering is concerned. That is the crux of the matter.
'The failure of the security agencies up to this point to gain the confidence of Igbo, in terms of demonstrating true capacity and commitment to protect their lives and properties is what lies at the heart of the matter.
The practical results that we have seen do not match up with the considerable resources that the Federal Government has poured into the security departments. It is totally disheartening that the budgetary requirements for security are increasing in the same proportion as the Igbo are losing their lives and properties.'