Security Agencies Compete Rather Than Cooperate, Says Charles Omole

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Thursday, June 13th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A security expert, Charles Omole, has pointed out competition among different security agencies in the country as part of the problems facing the fight against insecurity in the country.

He said rather than competing among themselves, the different security agencies ought to realise that they are fighting for the same cause and cooperate with each other.

“When you are talking about the police now, they have the thankless job of dealing with core criminality. They don’t have the resources to do it and all the other things that police do in other countries are being done by other agencies in this country.

“So that is the issue of overlapping mandates of different security agencies, they compete rather than corporate. More importantly, there is no legal framework in this country that compels any security agencies to share intelligence.”

He said that one of the easiest things the president can do is to give an executive order to make non-sharing of intelligence a punishable act.

He maintained that the fragmentation of the security apparatus in the country remains a major problem, saying “the fragmentation and competition means there is no visibility.”

The truth is the fact that you can come out of a prison in Sokoto tomorrow and go and enjoy the police in Lagos a day after. There is no way of knowing unless you declare it yourself because there is no central data base of these states.”

He said there is a need for a comprehensive security reform in the country whereby there a bit of harmonization.