Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, has said that terrorism provides cover for other crimes such as kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent acts to thrive.
Lagbaja, represented by Deputy Chief of Operations (Army), Major General Emmanuel Emekah, spoke at the 3rd Counter-terrorism and Counter-insurgency Seminar organised by the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC) in collaboration with Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA0, in Abuja, said that Nigeria was facing different forms of insurgencies from the six geo-political zones, adding that those involved had resorted to the use of terror in the pursuit of their agendas.
The COAS, who delivered a paper titled “Over a Decade of Terrorism, Insurgency, Counter-Terrorism and Counter Insurgency in Nigeria: An Appraisal,” noted that Nigeria has one of the highest terrorism threat levels in the world, according to Statista, 2023.
Lagbaja said: “This has been blamed on the fact that several terrorist and militant groups are active in Nigeria, leading to attacks on both civilian and military targets.
“Notable among these groups are Boko Haram and Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) in the North East in pursuit of a supposedly Caliphate initially physically, but now on a digital form.
“The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South East, pursuing a break away agenda from the country.
“Terrorism and insurgency in Nigeria have created cover under which other crimes and violence are perpetrated by criminal gangs.
“Armed robbers have found an alibi to loot banks, while politically hired assassins operate under the cover of terrorists like Boko Haram.
“The increasing terrorist activities of IPOB in the South East has heightened insecurity in the zone by giving criminals the opportunity to exploit the violent situation”.
Lagbaja said the largely cash based and informal economy operated in Nigeria had made it difficult for security agencies to trace the movement of illicit funds, especially funds meant for funding terror.
According to him, the cash and informal basis of the economy has made it easy for most terrorists funds to move outside the radar of the financial intelligence units and formal banking system.
He added that Nigeria lacked a comprehensive citizen identity and information data to track individuals, making it more difficult.
He said terrorists have become more localised generating their own funds within their immediate environment, through local entrepreneurship, smuggling, kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking.
He said that synergy among agencies and a whole of government approach was required to be able to track funding of terrorism in the country.
COAS also advocated for provision of good governance, unflinching sense of patriotism and pride in the country and enhanced capacity of security and law enforcement agencies to adequately analyse the security challenges.
Originally published in The Sun, Nigeria