Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, General Chris Musa, has blamed the judiciary, the Nigeria Correctional Centres and a foreign country for the inability of the security agencies to contain the insecurity plaguing parts of the country.

General Musa made this comment when he finally led the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to brief the House of Representatives on the state of insecurity in the country.

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Present at the briefing were the chief of army staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja; the chief of naval staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogala, and the chief of air staff, Air Marshal Hassan Abubakar.

The Nigerian military and police egg-heads’ appearance came as the House last Thursday turned back their representatives, who had come for the sectoral debate on security, and insisted they must come in person.

At the commencement of briefing, Chief of Defence Staff Musa apologised to the House lawmakers and explained they they were out of Abuja last Thursday, hence their absence was not deliberate.

Speaking on the state of insecurity, Gen. Musa said the military and security forces had realised that the magic wand to address insecurity was good governance, stressing that “anywhere you have good governance, insecurity goes down.”

He said the military was able to achieve so much in the North-East because there was an element of good governance, even as he pointed out that security is not only the responsibility of security forces but everybody.

“Security is not only military security. We have food security, health security, social security and education security. All these always play a role. If we don’t put these things in place – good governance – there will be problems.

“In the North-East, we are able to achieve so much because we have an element of good governance. We have seen governors that are willing and doing things to make the people happy and that is why we are having the cases of success we are having,” Musa.

The Defence Chief also said that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) had remained the most potent threat to the military as whenever their vehicle steps on any of them, everyone in it is either killed or dismembered.

The four-star general also mentioned the porous national borders as one of its big challenges as people come in and out go without any checks, which is responsible for the movement of light weapons and small arms.

While blaming the judiciary as a hindrance to the war against insecurity, Musa said: “I have been in the North-East; there were a lot of Boko Haram elements that have been captured. We have kept them for five/six years. We the armed forces can arrest but cannot prosecute. Some of them have been found wanting but no prosecution.

“Another aspect of the judiciary is that you use all your effort to make an arrest, you hand them over, and before you enter your vehicle, the man has been released on bail. Now you have risked yourself in doing that, by the time he is released, he goes to tell the people the person that arrested him. Now your family members or you are at risk.

“We have the issue in the South-south. A lot of the ships, the last ship that was arrested was 10 years ago, the ship went and changed its name, changed its colour and came back again. By the time you hand over the ship, before you know it, it is released. I think that is one area we must look into. We must have a special court to look into it.”

He also blamed correctional facilities for insecurity, saying: “In the North East, when we were debriefing some of arrested Boko Haram members, they were telling us how, from the prison, they could plan operations out in the field.

“They pass funds across. They use some of the warders there. We are not saying all of them are corrupt. They use their accounts and the deal is that anyone whose account is used, they share it 50/50. Those are the challenges.”

The Defence chief further noted that in the South-East, Simon Ekpa, one of the leaders of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) currently hiding in Finland, had become a menace to Nigeria, stressing that Nigeria must act on the issue using diplomatic channels.

“Finland is encouraging him to do what he is doing. His utterances and actions are affecting what is happening in Nigeria. We should never allow that.

“Our foreign service should step in. It is either we invite the ambassador to come and explain why they are protecting him. And he is doing us more arm because by his utterances, a lot of people have been killed,” he added.

On his part, the Inspector General Police, Egbetokun, said the Force intended to join the military in fighting terrorism in the North East; armed banditry in the North -West and North Central; kidnapping, armed robbery across the country and reducing violent crimes in the country to the barest minimum.

The police boss said it was in a bid to achieve this that he announced the establishment of a special intervention squad, comprising at least 1,000 men in each of the states.

“These men will be specially trained. They will be specially equipped and ready for deployment at the shortest notice to any area of the country where there is crisis,” he said.

Egbetokun said police had found itself operating in very difficult environment with grossly inadequate manpower, operational logistics, training and funding.

He said in spite of all these inadequacies, the police had been doing its best to protect lives and property across the country, noting that no agency can perform above the resources available to it.

“In the last five months, we have made a lot of arrests. We have made a lot of recovery of illicit weapons. Some of these suspects are undergoing prosecution as we speak. But no amount of arrest that we make will solve our security problems. Today, we arrest 100, tomorrow 200 criminals are coming out.

“It is not possible to arrest all the criminals and recover all the weapons. But within the environment where we function, the police have done so well, and we are still doing so much. We appeal for collaboration. We appeal that Nigerians should please support the police,” Egbetokun said.

On his part, the Chief Naval Staff Ogalla said Navy was doing its best to secure the nation’s territorial waters despite the resurgence of sea pirates, oil thieves and operational challenges of manpower and funds, among others.

“The Navy is just about 30,000-strong for now. We are making efforts to expand the size of the Navy and train them adequately to be able to meet its objectives,” he said.

“With adequate support, we should be able to tackle activities of oil theft, pipeline vandalisation and illegal refineries irrespective of the weather,” Ogalla said.

Also, Chief of Air Staff Abubakar said the Force had embarked on a wide range of intensive operations aimed at not only decimating the criminals and denying them freedom of action, but also shaping the operational environment in the various theatres for successful ground offensives.

He said despite achievements recorded, the Nigerian Air Force experienced some challenges including rising cost of aviation fuel, delays in release of funds for procurements, complexity in targeting terrorists within the populace, porous borders and manpower disposition.

Similarly, Chief of Army Staff Lagbaja said insecurity in the country had reduced due to effective intelligence gathering and deployment of ground troops in areas of heightened insecurity.

He said amid teething challenges, the Army has soldiered on and established operational bases in the North-East, South-East, North-Central and the South-West geo-political zones to address insurgency, banditry and other criminal activities

Lagbaja also said the Nigerian Army had established a Forward Operational Base (FOB) designed to ensure that troops are adequately deployed to respond to emergencies.

He reminded lawmakers that the major responsibility of the Army is the defence of the nation against external aggression and the defeat of insecurity.

In his opening remarks, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen had said the session with the heads of security agencies was an important opportunity for them to brief the House on the progress made so far and other lingering challenges.