Former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, has attributed the failure of the military in the North-East part of the country to the under-motivation of the soldiers.
According to him, Boko Haram is fast taking over parts of Nigeria and there is the need to snatch back the country from the clutches of marauders.
The former governor, who spoke last night on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme monitored by The PUNCH, also stressed that all the intelligence agencies of the government must be sanctioned for every Boko Haram attack, going forward.
The PUNCH had earlier reported that at least 43 rice farmers were beheaded by Boko Haram insurgents at Zabarmari in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State on Saturday. The attack is one of the horrific attacks carried out by the terrorist sect this year.
Reacting, Duke said, “Regarding the North-East, we have to strengthen our intelligence gathering, we need to motivate them, we need to motivate the soldiers out there but more importantly, we need to institute consequences into our nation.
“We talk about the killings in our nation and in each state, we have the police, they have their intelligence arm; we have the DSS, they gather intelligence; we have the Army, they gather intelligence; we have the Navy, they have an intelligence arm and we have the Air Force, they do the same. But these things happen and none of these intelligence bodies, about five, six in every state, know; they are all taken unawares and there are no consequences. And that is the problem, there most be consequences because they are paid to look out for the people.
“There is a need for the complete revamp of our security network. We can’t go on like this definitely; we are losing our country.
“The soldiers in the North-East should be motivated, they are under-motivated. We need to task them on intelligence gathering and strengthen their firepower.”
Duke also noted that there should be police presence in every five kilometres. “Presence is a deterrent,” he said, adding that crime is now sophisticated in Nigeria and so, unemployed graduates who can think more intelligently like the criminals should be injected into the force.
He, therefore, tasked the states to join efforts with the federal government on improving the nation’s security system by employing more hands in the security of lives and property.
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