Besides skirmishes that skipped the eyes of the media, which insiders said were frequent, no fewer than seven officers of Nigeria’s security forces have lost their lives during different inter-agency clashes that occurred at various locations and periods in the country in the last four years.
Security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had at one point or another had a face-off which led to loss of lives and destruction of properties.
The clashes, according to findings, also left many officers and civilians injured, a development security experts spoken to described as “unfortunate and embarrassing.”
The experts attributed lack of synergy among security forces as one of the factors responsible for their inability to overcome security challenges bedevilling the country.
A former Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase and Major General Jeleel Ogunlade (rtd), blamed the protracted insecurity in Nigeria on the unhealthy rivalry among security agencies.
The duo spoke during a roundtable on Enhancing National Security through Inter-Agencies Collaboration organised by the Buratai Centre for Contemporary Security Affairs, Igbinedion University, Okada.
Arase lamented that the rivalry existed despite the fact that no individual agency could handle insecurity alone.
For the country to effectively address insecurity and achieve successful security policy implementation, he said relevant agencies must seek to promote cooperation.
He called for a review of the existing national security policy and apparatus that would instruct all military and paramilitary agencies to see themselves as partners in security.
On his part, Ogunlade blamed politics among the inter-agencies for the rivalry in most cases. He called for the enforcement of standard procedures of operations among security agencies.
Daily Trust on Sunday had reported how a recent stand-off between the EFCC and the DSS over the ownership of a property located at No 15A, Awolowo Road, Lagos, nearly resulted to another breakdown of law and order before the intervention of President Bola Tinubu.
Gladly, no life was lost during the recent incident where the operatives of the secret police prevented officials of the anti-graft agency from accessing their office.
The EFCC, however, described the development as “shocking,” saying the commission had cohabited with the DSS in that facility for 20 years without incident.
“By denying operatives access to their offices, the commission’s operations at its largest hub with over 500 personnel, hundreds of exhibits, and many suspects in detention have been disrupted,” the spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren had said.
But in a swift reaction, the DSS, through its spokesman, Peter Afunanya said, “For the avoidance of doubt, it is important to note that the commission does not use the 15 Awolowo Road DSS-owned property as holding facility for its suspects. As such, the service never hindered the commission’s access to its suspects anywhere.”
Not long after the incident, President Tinubu asked service chiefs to work together to strengthen the fight against
insecurity.
Tinubu gave the warning at a meeting he had with heads of security agencies. The meeting was the first by President Tinubu with the service chiefs, led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor.
Within the period under review, checks showed that the life of a police officer was claimed in 2021 during the rivalry that occurred among personnel of the DSS and the police.
Also, at least three personnel were killed in 2022 during three separate clashes that involved policemen and the NSCDC, soldiers, as well as the one between the police and some naval officers.
The sad tales arising from the rivalry among security agencies are yet to abate as three personnel have also met their untimely death six months into 2023, data compiled by Daily Trust on Sunday has shown.
Police blame junior officers, recommend joint training courses
In separate interviews with Daily Trust on Sunday, authorities of the military and the police explained that they were
postulating mechanisms that would curtail future occurrence of such “unhealthy” incidents.
Speaking to our correspondent, the spokesman of the Nigerian police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the clashes usually happened among officers with lower cadres, not senior officers.
Adejobi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, noted that the force was already working on how officers would attend
courses with personnel of other agencies in order to eradicate clashes.
He also said the IGP and the police management team would work out a template where those officers would also attend a social gathering together.
“Generally, the clashes always occur among the lower cadres of the forces, not with the senior officers. We are postulating what we can be doing to have a common front and courses for all the ranks.
“When you attend courses together, you can’t clash because apparently, you are going to stay together. If it is a three-month course, six months or a year, you dine, wine and suffer together. If you are doing all these together,
you cannot clash. And we need to respect one another. In our culture, apart from the rank, when you see an elderly
person, courtesy demands that you to respect him or her.
“It is an individual thing more than systemic. Every individual should know that we need to respect people’s opinion. We need to attend officers’ mess together for social gathering,” he suggested.
Military threatens sanctions against erring soldiers
The Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, said the military frowned at a situation where its personnel are involved in “unnecessary rivalry or clash” with officers of other security agencies.
Gusau said, “Normally, those things are uncalled for and we don’t condone them. Whenever such things happen, we always try to enquire in order to establish the facts as much as possible. This is to ensure that the relationship is
cordial.
“If you notice, whenever the Chief of Defence Staff is meeting all the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police is always there. This is just to tell you how cordial the relationship between the military and the police is. They always partner.
“We are all here to serve the same purpose. We don’t encourage those types of things. The CDS is very particular on any personnel involved in that type of skirmish.”
The dangerous trend
Specifically, on January 14, 2021, a police officer identified as Rauf Fawale and attached to the Osun State command, was allegedly beaten to death by three officers of the DSS over what was described as minor disagreement.
At the Mobile Base Owerri, Imo State, an officer of the NSCDC was killed, and a police officer was injured on April 25, 2022 when a fight between the police and his agency over right of way broke out.
In the same vein, one military officer met his untimely death on Numan road, Adamawa State during a skirmish that occurred between policemen and the military on May 30, 2022.
Not less than two civilians were injured on June 29 at Tombia-Etegwe roundabout in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital when military and the riot-policemen attached to the Bayelsa State Vigilante Service clashed over traffic.
On August 13 last year, one police officer was injured when a policeman and three soldiers in separate vehicles had a disagreement and refused to allow each other to pass at the Ajegunle spare parts market in Osogbo, the
Osun State capital.
Similarly, one police officer was injured when he was allegedly beaten by men of the NSCDC in Azare town, Bauchi State on January 10, 2023.
One police officer was also killed during traffic infraction between two naval ratings and some officers of the Nigeria Police Force at a satellite town of Lagos State on December 3 last year.
Skirmishes between the police and some naval officers also left some personnel of the two establishments injured at Enerhen police station in Warri, Delta State on March 10, 2023.
A soldier was stabbed to death by a policeman on March 12, 2023 at Ogijo and Odogunyan area of Ikorodu in Lagos.
The deceased’s colleagues also retaliated by burning down a police headquarters in Ogijo, a community on the boundary between Ogun and Lagos states.
Two police officers also lost their lives while many people were injured after a military man was stabbed in Taraba on March 20.
Relevance-seeking officers causing rivalry – Security experts
Commenting on the development, a security sector reform expert, Chukwuma Ume, faulted a situation where service
chiefs reported to the president directly instead of allowing the National Security Adviser to harmonise their reports and table to the president.
Ume, in an interview with Daily Trust on Sunday, argued that they would always want to impress or outshine themselves in front of the president when giving their reports in order to get more relevance, with a view to pressing for more budgetary allocation.
He, however, recommended that a unified or consolidated platform be established to avoid eye-service, adding that there is a need for proper coordination of service chiefs and other heads of para-military organisations.
“Let’s look at it from two or more perspectives. If the leadership of the present government, the president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, fails to encourage them to coordinate, collaborate and share intelligence,
this will continue to happen.
“Particularly, the leadership should not continue to do single-out praise or single-out commendation. In a system
where you always encourage all the service chiefs to report to you directly, they will always be falling over themselves to impress him.
“There is the need to create a coordination platform where they would meet and give a single report – a unified or a consolidated report that would encourage them not to try to outshine each other because the system we have now can be described as divide-and-rule system.
“If you listen to the police, DSS and the EFCC separately, they will always see themselves as rivals instead of seeing themselves as peers.
Up your game, experts tell NSA
Continuing, Ume and the programme manager at CLEEN Foundation, Ms Chigozirim Okoro, queried the efforts of
the National Security Adviser in quelling the development, while charging him to redouble efforts to put an end to such unwarranted developments.
“First and foremost, we need to have coordinated leadership! What’s the office the National Security Adviser doing? How often do they liaise or coordinate by the office of the NSA? That NSA is not a healthy management structure. You remember when various chiefs sidelined the NSA and went to relate with the chief of staff and sidestepped him, it is not nice! They want more budget, more relevance.
“The clash is being encouraged by the present structures we have on ground. That needs to change. Strengthen that coordination platform – Office of the National Security Adviser! Relate more with the NSA than giving each of them
audience.
“What’s wrong in you asking them to report to the NSA? Then, NSA will filter that information and relate with you directly. That was the intention of the person who created the office of the NSA but unfortunately, that has been
undermined,” Ume said.
@Daily Trust
