Former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, has described the death of Retired Major General Rabe Abubakar, who died in the captivity of bandits, as a “sad commentary”.
“It is a very sad commentary on our country that serving retired generals are killed mercilessly or die in custody of bandits. It is very irritating, and we seem to be going on as if nothing has happened,” Ejiofor said during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday.
“And I’m in lack of words to describe the situation because when this thing happened, we thought possibly he would have been out of custody alive,” he added.
Ejiofor said the terrorists seemed to have achieved their aim of putting fear in the minds of Nigerians.
“Sadly and unfortunately, he died in the custody of these people and these bandits — terrorists — seem to have achieved their aim of instilling fear among the populace that if a general can be taken in and die in the process and nothing happens.
“The offensive against the terrorists, I’d rather say, is also sad and I just do hope that collaborative effort of all the security agencies with the intelligence, the State Security Service (SSS) in particular, will be able to bring these culprits to book,” he added.
READ ALSO: Retired Major General Rabe Abubakar Buried Amid Tears In Katsina
Decimation Of Terrorists
Speaking further on the breakfast show, the former director spoke on the decimation of terrorists as stated by President Bola Tinubu during his June 12 democracy speech.
According to him, Nigerians are not interested in the figures of the decimated terrorists.
“Again, having been aware that the President says 13,000 terrorists have been decimated, Nigerians are not interested in figures; we are interested in security of lives and property.
“Look at the whole situation, and people cannot move around, so until the state is secured, people are not interested in these figures of decimating, killing people and killing the bandits, terrorists and all the rest of them,” he said.
Impact Being Made By Nigeria-US Collaboration
Speaking on the collaboration between Nigeria and the United States to tackle terrorism in the country, he said, “I also believe that the Americans who have come here would have made a difference by helping us.
“I don’t think there is so much impact being made by the collaborative effort of the Nigerian government and the United States. So we should intensify our efforts to ensure that these people are brought to book”.
He noted that more technology should be deployed.
State Police ‘Will Help A Lot’
The former director stated that the state police will help bring down security challenges.
“On a score of 10, if we establish the state police, I think our security challenges will be brought down eight to 10. That’s my assessment. I’m not saying that state police will completely wipe out our challenges, but it will help a lot, and my reasons are obvious.
“The recruitment process of the state police, the composition, there are people from the same environment who know the terrain, unlike the current situation where you have people operating on different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds,” Ejiofor stated.
Abuse Of State Police
He, however, said that there should be measures to check the abuse of state police.
“Is there any institution that is not being abused in Nigeria? There must be a yardstick in areas of establishment that will check all these.
“I will give you an example to guide the National Assembly in the establishment of the state police. The recruitment process shouldn’t be a ground for political patronage where you will recruit only for political patronage”, he added.
The post It’s A Sad Commentary That Serving, Retired Generals Die In Custody Of Bandits — Mike Ejiofor appeared first on Channels Television.
