- Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau (rtd) urged security agencies to act quickly on intelligence gathered to combat insecurity
- Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd) has described coups in African countries as “organised crime”
- Both former military leaders stressed the importance of working with the US and other African countries to combat organised crime
Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau (rtd), a former Chief of Army Staff, urged security agencies on Tuesday to always act quickly on intelligence gathered to combat insecurity.
Another former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd) has described coups in African countries as “organised crime.”
The two spoke at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre in Abuja as part of an international conference on “Organised Crimes” hosted by the Tukur Buratai Centre for Contemporary Security Affairs in collaboration with Igbenedion University Okada in Edo State.
Speaking on the conference’s theme, “Organised Crimes Network as an Emergent Threat to National Security,” Dambazzau said it was critical for Nigeria to work with the US and other African countries to combat organised crime such as terrorism.
He said;
For instance, US has two bases in the Niger Republic, and they have the bases there for their own interests. It is also important that we partner with them in order to leverage on whatever technology they have and whatever they deploy, their drone bases and their sources of intelligence.
If we’re able to partner with them, we’ll be able to capture actionable intelligence and we will be able to deal with them. Of course, monitoring or having intelligence is not enough, if we don’t develop our capacity, because we must be able to have the means moving in terms of emergency.
If you monitor something without getting to that thing, it means nothing to you. Intelligence without action means nothing. We must be able to equip our security agencies, train them on the capacity, they must be able to act. Not just to monitor but they must be able to act on time in order to deal with the situation.
On his part, Buratai said the battle against organised crime required concerted efforts of experts, policymakers and stakeholders from diverse sectors.
The best way is for the military to remain within the constitutional bounds and also encourage the civil administration to do their best to solve the governance challenges or the developmental challenges of our country, he said.