Nigerian Army, main supplier of arms, ammunition to Bandits – Middle Belt leader

 

BY OUR EDITOR

The National President of the Middle-Belt Forum, Dr Pogu Bitrus, has accused the Nigerian Army of complicity in the supplies of arms and ammunition to bandits and insurgent groups in northern Nigeria.

Bitrus, in a no-hold-barred interview with VANGUARD, said the service chiefs, especially the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, have overstayed their usefulness in office and therefore should be replaced.

He also warned southerners to beware of RUGA, Cattle Colony, as Fulanisation agenda is real, saying Fulani from the whole West Africa could come and settle in Nigeria under the guise of RUGA.

“Service chiefs have overstayed their usefulness. Apart from the deplorable condition of security apparatus, there is this issue of people who ought to have retired still being kept on the job and it is not helping issues.

“For example, the Chief of Army Staff ought to have retired. But he is still there. If they were performing and things are going well, you’d say, keep them. But they are not performing. Every day, our military is being run down by insurgents; every day, we hear stories of places being recaptured by the insurgents; every day military equipment bought with tax payers money are being carted away.

“In fact, the main supplier of arms and ammunition to the bandits is the military because they over-run the military and take away the arms. We don’t need such people. In more developed countries, they would have resigned on their own.

“I’m surprised the Commander-in-Chief has done nothing, when this kind of monumental failure is being witnessed frequently. So, the better thing to do is to remove these people and get people who are better qualified and who will approach insurgency and banditry in a better way, to do the job. That way, we can address our insecurity problems in this country.

The Middle-Belt leader frowned at the way and manner the army is being used in the prosecution of insecurity situation in the country and the side-lining of the Police in most of the internal security operations.

He also frowned at the way some state governors are going about negotiating with bandits, who show up at such negotiations with arms in hand, describing it as unfortunate and a disaster.

He said there was need to restructure the Police so that states and local governments should be able to have their own police, saying this would be one way of solving the problem of insecurity in the country, since Nigeria is operating a federal system of government.

“I’m about 65 years and I grew up knowing two types of police: the local police and the Nigerian Police. The Nigerian Police force was only operating in urban areas but the other was operating in the grass roots. They were the police who identified with the people and they knew the people. They knew the villages and the bad people.

“All we are saying is, let the state have their police, let the local government have their police since we are copying the American system where it operates. Your native police will not see where your people are being killed by bandits and keep quiet and not defend them. And let’s see if the government is an accomplice in this criminality.

“Why should we be keeping a system that is not working? These bandits may even be operating two or three kilometres to a police or military check-point and when you tell them, they will say they have not been given instruction to go to the scene or to get involved and now, when the people organise to fight back, the police or the military will come in to stop them. That means there is collusion.

“So, as far as we are concerned, one of the ways to tackle these issues is to have a police that operates in the grass roots who can identify the people and check crime. These police will interact with traditional rulers at local government and ward levels and will find the forests where the bandits are hiding. Everybody in the area would have known that yes, in this forest we have these people and they are of this nature. Local police will be able to handle that.

“When you look at the security situation, you would see that many of the things which the police are supposed to be doing are being done by the military. Many of these things, like internal security, is supposed to be done by the police.

“The military is supposed to concern itself with the territorial integrity of this country. We have involved the military in policing jobs and everything has become a mess. Some of us have looked at ways of addressing these issues by creating more states. We are not saying that all states have to be equal. Even in US, which system we are copying, all states are not equal. California is richer than so many countries in this world as a state and yet, there are poor states in the United States being supported by federal might.

“If we want true federalism, such things must operate. But let us not keep pretending. Unless these changes come, Nigeria will continue to face problems and we will not make progress.

• More at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/09/why-middle-belt-is-opting-out-of-northern-arrangement-pogu-bitrus/