ESCAPE OF KABIR SOKOTO: Distrust among security agencies exposed

The disturbing implications of this article are that the security services have been reluctant to do their work cooperatively because of "underfunding" -- a demand which seems to explain the huge security fund allocated in the 2012 budget.

Vanguard

22 January 2012

ESCAPE OF KABIR SOKOTO: Distrust among security agencies exposed

Kingsley Omonobi & Mitaire Ekpen

What many Nigerians  did not know by the time the country was celebrating her 51st independence anniversary on October 1st, 2011, was that the Nigerian military saved the country what would have resulted in the greatest Boko Haram attack and bombing spree in the FCT following ‘substantiated’ intelligence reports that the group had concluded arrangements to carry out suicide bombings inside the FCT by hitting at vital national assets to dent the celebrations.

Before then, successive bombings and attacks by the terror sect had severally been blamed on the failure of intelligence and lack of coordination among the nation’s security agencies.

With the benefit of hindsight, and what transpired between the Nigeria Police and the current number 2 man in the Boko Haram hierarchy, Kabiru Sokoto, during the week, leads to a safe conclusion that, perhaps, the military was right in going it alone by analyzing and taking prompt action on the intelligence it got at the time of the independence day celebration which then led to the successful operation of smashing the independence day bombing plots....

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In this regard, the President expressed dissatisfaction with the manner some State Commissioners of Police were approaching the issue of Boko Haram terrorism noting that this was why the sect members could still find their way into national assets like Police stations or Police bases and detonate explosions.

At the meeting that lasted for 3 hours, he told the senior officers, pointblank, that he becomes unhappy anytime there were reports of bomb explosions and people were killed. He further told the officers that the development continues to create a negative impression in the minds of potential foreign investors and the international community.

In one instance, the President frowned at the senior officers, telling them he was aware Nigeria has some of the best trained and experienced officers in all fields of security endeavor including counter terrorism measures, as had been testified to by international bodies like the INTERPOL.  But he was quick to let them know that it remained baffling that this expertise is not being put to practice for fatherland.

The excuse the Police gave then was that it was still suffering from the woes of underfunding and had not been able to access the funds budgeted for its services for year 2011, hence some of the shortcomings it was experiencing in the performance of its duties.

Having done a lot to redress the situation of the Police force under the leadership of Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, it was therefore not a surprise to Police and security watchers that the President wielded the big stick against the IGP by querying him for the embarrassment to the nation and threatening him with sack, when once again a Boko Haram kingpin, Kabiru Sokoto, vanished into thin air while in the custody of the Police. No matter.

The agencies are now more co-operative in the wake of the terror attacks that the country has been subjected to.

That, perhaps, explains why SSS were also on the trail of Sokoto. In fact, men of the SSS were said to have trailed Sokoto to as far as Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

Investigations by Sunday Vanguard revealed that men of the SSS swung into action with a view to helping the Police track down the terrorist

More importantly, according to information pieced together by Sunday Vanguard was the fact that there is palpable apprehension in the air now.

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