A former Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro has advised the Federal Government to be global best practices and be “two steps ahead of the criminals”, by funding, training and equipping security agencies to achieve the desired results.
Okiro said this while fielding questions from journalists after a press conference he addressed in his capacity as chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of newly formed Old Seminarians Association of Nigeria (OSAN) ahead of its inauguration.
According to him, insecurity has continued unabated in the country because some security personnel may have been compromised because “for every 12, there must be a Judas.”
The ex-IGP, who was joined at the press conference by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Hon Chinedu Akubueze, said “What we are going to say won’t be different from what we have been saying. This security problem is nationwide and not limited to any particular sector or organisation. What we have to say is that the Federal Government really has to look into the security agencies and put them at par with what is happening in the outside world.
“In fact, the government should be at least two steps ahead of the criminals, if you are a security agent. What the government should do is to equip the security agencies and train them very well.
“The government should equip them, fund them. When we were small, we used to see policemen riding bicycles with baton. But that is gone, you can’t see policemen again riding bicycle with gun. You can’t even see a policeman again with Mac 4, it’s AK-47. As the technology is developing, criminality is also developing.
“Security challenges are not limited to Nigeria but worldwide issue, even in America. The current issue now is the use of technology in insecurity. The Federal Government should look at the security agencies and put them at par with their counterparts all over the world.”
As if he believed that some security personnel may have been compromised, Okiro said, “I will talk like a human being, for every 12, there must be a Judas. There must be a Judas. You can expect that also, that answers your question.”
The ex-IGP, speaking on the body to be inaugurated on Saturday, September 4, 2021, in Abuja, said, “We shall have as chairman of the occasions, one of our own, Femi Falana (SAN), who is of the class of 1975, Sacred Heart Seminary, Akure, Ondo State.”
He said Justice Centus Nweze of the Supreme Court of Nigeria from the class of 1977, St. John’s Cross Seminary, Nsukka would deliver the keynote address.
Akubueze on his part said, “The government is doing its best possible to address the security challenges in the country and it is our prayer that these challenges do not last forever. We will contribute our quota as Nigerians and ensure that these challenges end for a peaceful country that Nigeria has always been.”