Insecurity: Senate moves to decentralise police force, condemns alleged corruption in security agencies

Senate, on Wednesday, approved the decentralization of the police force to achieve efficiency and tackle insecurity challenges across the country.

It, therefore, urged the executive arm of government to decentralise the Police Command structure with operational and budgetary powers vested in the zonal commands.

The upper chamber also recommended that all Joint operations should be carried out strictly in compliance with extant operational procedures provided in the Armed Forces Act.

These resolutions followed recommendations by the Senate ad-hoc committee on security challenges.

However, Chairman of the committee, Yahaya Abdullahi said investigations revealed that there were existing ill-defined operational boundaries and overlapping jurisdictions among security services.

According to him, “there is a lot of incoherence and inter-personnel conflict which have led to a lot of antagonism within the security organizations.”

The lawmaker blamed the high level of inefficiency among security agencies on lingering inter-personnel disputes.
“The absence or inadequacies of effective corrective mechanisms within those institutions allowed inter-personal disputes to fester thereby undermining the operational efficiency of the services,” he said.

He added that, “most of the agencies are working on isolation with very little, of any, coordination between them. This most unfortunate situations now can be seen from the recent face-off between the office of the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission which degenerated into open litigation in the law courts.

“Most recently, the public release of letters from the National Security Adviser’s Office to the Service Chiefs discountenancing their engagement with the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, bordering on security matters, is a loud testament of the level of disharmony, inter-personnel conflict and intrigued within the nation’s Security and Defence establishments.”

Abdullahi observed further that the alleged non-funding of the Office of the National Security Adviser since 2015 has undermined the effective performance of its coordinating function in the Security Architecture, and has led many agencies to question its authority and relevance in various fora, thereby adversely affecting inter-service cooperation and intelligence sharing.

He blamed the failure to define functions and boundaries between intelligence agencies on defective laws governing the operation of the Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).

The lawmaker added that, “the General absence of a performance, monitoring and evaluation mechanism within the institutions and services have undermined discipline and due diligence in the conduct of security related operations.

“Allegations have been rife that the quest for personal wealth acquisition has undermined institutional coherence and discipline and resulted in allegations of wastage of funds and squandering of appropriated resources. This is one of the sources of unhealthy competition and inter-personal rivalries within the various services.

“The security agencies tend to acquire modern technology and other force multipliers in isolation which resulted in the multiplication of incompatible platforms belonging to the different Arms of Services. This affected beneficial relationship and coherence of security operations.

“There is a general failure of governance to nip potential security breaches in the bud before they fester and result into serious security challenges,” Abdullahi stated.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, the security agencies while appearing before the panel, lamented inadequate funding.

He affirmed that that most security agencies institutions, particularly the Police lack well trained personnel, functional and well equipped training institutions.
He added that there is lack of proper acquisition and maintenance culture of the expensive equipment and platforms used for Defence and Internal Security operations.
Abdullahi warned that the continued importation of National Security equipment and gadgets undermines the security of the nation and amounts to colossal wastage when the equipments remain unserviceable due to lack of components and spare parts.

However, the Senate also advised the federal government to make full payment of allowances to officers and men involved in operations.

Other recommended incentives include introduction of effective insurance scheme, gratuity and pensions; as well as setup a National Defence Fund backed by legislation into which all Nigerian adults and businesses should make contributions for revival and investment in the National Defence Industry.