Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, disclosed that members of Boko Haram, incarcerated in prisons across Nigeria, continue to coordinate criminal operations with the assistance of some prison warders.
He said this during a sectoral debate organized by the House of Representatives in Abuja,
He highlighted that not all prison warders are complicit in these activities but acknowledged the challenges posed by the involvement of some individuals.
According to Musa, in the North-East, while debriefing some of the Boko Haram elements, they confessed how, from the prisons, they could plan operations and pass funds to the field with the help of some prison warders.
He stated, “They passed funds across and we asked how. The Boko Haram persons told us they use some of the warders. We are not saying all of them are bad, but they use some of the warders’ accounts to transfer money and the deal is anybody whose account it is transferred shared it 50-50. Those are the challenges.”
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The House had rescheduled the meeting from last week to today after the security chiefs could not appear for the debate in person.
Furthermore, the service chiefs present at the debate, including the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, and the Inspector General of Police, discussed the apparent underperformance of security agencies.
Speaking further on the purchase of equipment, Musa revealed that the high dollar rate had hampered the purchase of relevant equipment needed to fight insecurity.
According to him, all the items procured are bought with hard currency, none in naira, and that most times when funds are converted, only very little can be bought.
His words: “We don’t produce what we need in Nigeria, and if you do not produce what you need, that means you are at the beck and call of the people that produce these items.
“For example, during the last regime, about $1 billion was set aside for defence procurement. Out of that amount, over $600 million was for the procurement of aircraft. So, the whole money had gone.
“So many times when people see that funds are being released to the armed forces, they think it is so much but by the time you convert them to dollars you do not get much.
“One precision missile for our drone costs $5,000. So imagine how many we would be able to use and how many we can procure. So, those are the challenges.”
Emphasizing on the importance of good governance, he stated “We have realized that the magic wand to address insecurity is good governance. Anywhere you have good governance, insecurity goes down. The security forces can only produce 30 per cent. We can only provide an enabling environment. If other aspects are not addressed, it is a problem.
“People can’t eat. People are hungry. No matter how you tell them to keep the peace, they will not because they have to eat and it aids criminality.
‘’So, we must have good governance and everybody should have belief in the country that this is their country,” he added. #Boko Haram