Senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, Ali Ndume, says lack of adequate security personnel and enough weapons is responsible for the delay in ending insurgency and other security challenges in the country, especially in the North- East.
Ndume, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, stated this while reacting to the spate of attacks by Boko Haram in the country, especially the attack on Mainok Army Base on Monday.
Ndume in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, on Tuesday, said it’s not as if the government had not been making efforts to put an end to Boko Haram, “but the efforts put in place to tackle the problem forced the terrorist to launch more attacks to show that they are still strong, and especially where they can get weapons. Just like what they did at Mainok.”
On claims that some people are working as informants for the insurgents, especially among the soldiers, the lawmaker said there was a possibility of this happening.
“This is not a war between two countries, it’s happening within Nigeria. Therefore it is possible they get information from some people and that is why we are facing these problems,” he said.
Ndume said more security personnel should be employed and redeployed to the region to strengthen the fight against terrorism.
He added that no part of the country is enjoying total peace.
Ndume said, “My advice is that since there is no region in the country that is peaceful presently, and this is due to the fact that security personnel are not enough and they don’t have enough weapons, some measures have to be taken.
“I have been saying this many times whenever a situation like this happens then there is a need to add more security personnel and more weapons also should be added.”
The lawmaker also said that some soldiers had spent over five years in one location and should be redeployed and new ones deployed to replace them.