Fatai Owoseni, the Special Adviser on Security Matters to Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, has blamed the recent Plateau State attacks on a lack of intelligence by security services.
Since December 24, the North-Central state has seen a series of attacks on villages, killing over 200 people and injuring many more.
Between Saturday evening and Tuesday morning, gunmen carried out attacks in Nigeria’s Plateau State, a region beset for years by religious and ethnic strife.
Speaking during an interview on “2023: Year Of Transition,” a Channels TV’s special end-of-year programme, Owoseni, a former Lagos State Commissioner for Police, said the attacks in Plateau should not be taken in isolation.
He said, “What has happened in Plateau show clearly lack of intelligence. Why won’t that be that? You have all the security institutions, they don’t work together. They don’t see their roles as complementary, there is competition.
“We must probably redefine what our internal security architecture is. We talk of internal security architecture, who is taking the lead?”
Recalling his service as the Benue State police commissioner in 2018, Owoseni stated that most of the non-state actors wreaking havoc in the North-Central were identified as insurgents coming from outside the country.
‘Self-Defence’
Also speaking on the show, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja dismissed calls for self-defence in the wake of attacks in Plateau.
While the development has elicited outcry in and outside the country, the Army Chief believes self-defence amounts to “anarchy”.
“I do not support that. I think that is a call for anarchy,” he maintained.
The latest attacks have also drawn criticism from several quarters.
“I am deeply alarmed by the series of attacks by gunmen on multiple rural communities in Plateau State,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
“I call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate this incident promptly, thoroughly, and independently, consistent with international human rights law, and to hold those responsible to account in fair trials.”