The Deputy Chairman of the Committee on National Security and Intelligence in the House of Representatives, Adejoro Adeogun, explains the issues with Nigeria’s security architecture in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU
Many Nigerians are blaming the intelligence community for failing to detect crimes until they are executed, especially with the recent attack on Kuje Prison by terrorists. Who is responsible for this?
If Nigerians blame the intelligence community for failing to detect crimes, they are justified because of the expectation that most of the acts of criminality being perpetrated across the country would be prevented with proper intelligence.
However, there were situations, like the Kuje Prison attack that you mentioned, where early warning intelligence was allegedly received but not acted upon. I read in one of the dailies – a statement attributed to a minister who said there were Department of State Services’ reports of imminent prison break but that the reports did not specify that it would be Kuje.
I considered that excuse untenable, considering that the recipient of the reports could have asked further questions or put two and two together to identify correctional centres with high-profile inmates.
That the correctional service failed to act on available intelligence was indicative of the laxity with which our agencies treat intelligence. So, much as Nigerians are justified in blaming the intelligence community, sometimes the security failures are the outcome of negligence by the recipients of shared intelligence.
Where the intelligence agencies have intelligence about an imminent attack and notify other agencies, but they fail to act on it. What happens?
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