…says fight against crime consuming resources
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has said that terrorism, banditry and other transnational crimes were posing serious threats to regional security.
The president said that the proximity of territorial borders to the Sahel, had not helped the security situation in the country.
He, therefore, charged police and intelligence chiefs of ECOWAS member-states to forge stronger collaboration and cooperation, with a view to dealing with such security challenges.
Buhari made the observation yesterday in Abuja, at the 16th Annual General Meeting of West African Police Chiefs Committee (WAPCCO).
Represented by the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), Buhari said that the fight against crime and criminality, consumed a lot of resources.
He, nonetheless, insisted that in the last four years, his administration has sustained military operations against Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs), thereby denying them safe haven.
The President said: “The challenges of insecurity posed by corruption, terrorism, communal clashes, herders-farmers conflict, trafficking in drugs and humans, kidnapping for ransom, armed banditry, proliferation of arms and light weapons, money laundering and other transnational organised crimes, are some of the vices threatening regional peace, progress, and development. “Of course, we are aware of other threats to security such as climate change – which brings with it environmental degradation – extreme poverty. “However, as police chiefs, your focus is on security of lives and properties, in relation to law and order. “The porosity of our territorial borders, and proximity to the Sahel, also makes us vulnerable to all sorts of illegal criminal activities, and other threats to peace and security in the Sub-region.
“The fight against crime and criminality is vast and resource-consuming, transcending national, regional and global levels.” He further lamented that the activities of Boko Haram had created humanitarian crisis for countries within the Lake Chad axis, with the displacement of people from their locations. It was his considered view, that the need for greater synergy among the sub-regional police organisations had become more compelling than ever before.”
“The activities of the Boko Haram Terrorists affecting Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin countries such as Chad and Cameroon in Central Africa, have created new humanitarian problems, with the displacement of people from their communities, posing serious security threats within the region,” Buhari said.
It was against this backdrop, that he commended the initiative of the WAPCCO meeting, saying: “It comes at a time a lot of synergy among ECOWAS member-states is needed to fight against crime and criminality in the West African Sub-region.”
Meanwhile, the President has said that in the last four years of his administration, concerted effort had been made in degrading the potency of Boko Haram.
Also within the period, the President maintained that corruption had been fought with drastic measures.
One of such measures, the President disclosed, was through the strengthening of legislation. His words: “Nigeria, in the last four years, has taken drastic measures and spared no efforts in our resolve to fight corruption, and our quest to defeat Boko Haram.
“We have led vigorous military campaigns against the terrorists, by reorganising the Multinational Joint Task Force, which has dislodged them.
“Working with our regional and international partners, we have denied them safe haven within and around the Sub-region.
“We have also strengthened legislation against terrorism and corruption, while (empowering) the anti-graft agencies to be able to carry out their mandates.
“These measures have yielded much dividend in reducing financial crimes and acts of terrorism in such issues involving the rate by which they occur.” Yesterday’s meeting, which serves as the concluding session of a conference that began on Tuesday, was attended by ministers from ECOWAS memberstates, and other dignitaries.”
