Poor law enforcement, corruption stalling fight against insecurity in Nigeria —Lawyer, Adegboruwa

A Lagos-based legal expert, Ebun-Oluwa Adegboruwa, has identified lack of proper implementation of policies as a singular factor undermining the successful fight against insecurity in the country.

The lawyer said this during an interview on a Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily, on Thursday.

The legal practitioner also blamed the crises on corruption in the country’s security sector.

Several questions had been raised as to the essence of huge funds expended by the federal government in the bid to end the security crises bedeviling the country.

According to Adegboruwa, various legislations put in place to address the menace had suffered poor implementation.

He accused the National Security Agency of not working in line with the Terrorism Prevention Act (2013), adding, that the federal government lacks adequate enlightenment on new developments.

“The problem with our laws is enforcement and various legislations enacted to redress this issue has not been enforced. The recent is the Terrorism Prevention Act 2013 in order to tackle terrorism, banditry and other challenges”, he said.

“As always, the challenge is implementation because the NSA is the head of tackling insurgency with the aim of gathering intelligence but the office is not working in tandem with the Act.

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“There is supposed to be an establishment of coordinating centres who report to the NSA but I don’t think the Act is being implemented and there is a need for the FG to be enlightened in line with new developments”, he added.

Adegboruwa also backed Governors advocating state policing in the country, stressing that the fight against insecurity was beyond the federal government and should be regional.

“Security cannot be only a Federal issue and this is the core of the problem. Only the FG can legislate and formulate policies on it while violence happens in the hinterlands outside the control of the FG. Implementation has to be regional but the Governors are powerless.

“Akeredolu decried this situation during the Owo massacre, noting the incapacitation of the Governors. Look at the Neighborhood Watch in Lagos, Amotekun and the Benue Security Agency but they are without weapons because only the President can grant license for firearms which makes the situation difficult to be redressed. The issue is political.”

He finally lamented corruption scandals under President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that huge security votes in Lagos were unaccounted for.

“Corruption has dealt with Nigeria as evidenced by the release of Dariye and Nyame. Buhari is not fighting any corruption. It is until Buhari leaves office before we unearth the scandal in the security sector with the humongous amount of money going under the table under the guise of security.

“In Lagos, it is over N1bn in security votes and it is not accounted for. There are committees of the NASS who should be supervising these security agencies but they are not proactive with their mandates which is why a lot of the security funds go unaccounted for.”

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