*Disproportionate security postings fueling insecurity in the East - Intersociety
The Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has criticized the choice of 17 Northerners as chiefs of various security agencies as unfair and lopsided.
Atiku was speaking at an interactive session with members of the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Lagos on Wednesday, according to Vanguard.
He said if elected president, he would ensure that every geopolitical zone of the country is represented in the leadership of the security agencies to achieve unity and give a sense of belonging to every part of the country.
According to Atiku, the “PDP will form a government of national unity. We will bring members of the opposition who would have lost and then, of course, we will move on from there. This is one of the ways to unify this country and we will now begin to move.
“Today, we have 17 heads of various security agencies. All of them come from the North; I will not do that. I will make sure that every geopolitical zone is represented in these security outfits. This is also another way you can unify this country and give every part of this country a sense of belonging.
"By the time you double the strength of the Nigeria Police Force, maybe you will be talking about 700,000 or so. You will have reduced unemployment. So, we will extend that operation to the armed forces. By the time you finish doing that, you will find that you would have taken more than one million people out of the unemployment market."
Atiku also stated that he intends to continue the economic strategies and policies the PDP adopted from 1999 to 2007 which aimed to liberalize the economy and encourage the private sector to produce wealth and jobs.
“Liberalizing the economy is broad. Empowering the private sector is broad, and of course, continues with the privatization of our public enterprises. In other words, (we will create) a more private sector-driven economy,” he said.
Disproportionate security postings making security challenges worse in the East- Intersociety
Atiku's comment on the lopsided appointment of security chiefs by Mohammadu Buhari's administration is coming in the wake of a special report by the human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) detailing its findings on the government's choice of high ranking defense and security postings to Eastern Nigeria.
The Intersociety report was released on the 14th of November, and signed by the group's principal officers: Emeka Umeagbalasi, a researcher and criminologist,
Chinwe Umeche, Obianuju Joy Igboeli and
Chidinma Udegbunam.
In the report, Intersociety disclosed that its investigations show that the disproportionate security postings in the East are worsening security issues in the region.
The statement read in part, "There has been the systematic policy of disproportionate and discriminatory internal security and defense high ranking postings by Nigerian Government and the country’s internal security and defense establishments.
"This has been the case in the East since 2016. In investigations carried out by Intersociety in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022, it was observed that about 95% of the heads of security and defense formations in the East have been allocated to senior security and defense officers from outside the East who are mainly Muslims; clear evidence of the Government of Nigeria’s “structural violence” against the East.
"This is to the extent that the current GOC, 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt is Major Gen Aminu China (Northern Muslim), GOC 82 Division, Enugu is Major Gen Umar Musa (Northern Muslim), 34 Brigade Commander, Obinze is Brig Gen Sani Suleiman (Northern Muslim), 14 Brigade Commander, Ohafia is Brig Gen Adegoke Adetuyi (South-West indigene), Brig Commander, 2 Brigade, Uyo is Brig Gen Abubakar Wase (Northern Muslim),
"Commander, 302 Artillery of Nigerian Army, Onitsha is Col M.B. Abubakar (Northern Muslim), Air Vice Marshal Ibikunle Daramola is Air Officer Commanding Ground Tactical Command, Enugu; CP Mustapha Bala Mohammed is Commissioner of Police, Abia State (Northern Muslim),
"CP Ahmed Ammani is CP, Enugu State (Northern Muslim), CP Muhammed Ali is CP, Delta State (Northern Muslim), CP Mohammed Ahmed Barde is CP, Imo State (Northern Muslim), and CP Aliyu Garba is CP, Ebonyi State (Northern Muslim). These are just to mention but a few.
"As a matter of fact too, none of the four serving Police AIGs in the East in charge of Zone 6 Calabar (Kamaldeen Kola Okunlola), Zone 13 Awka (Abutu Yaro), Zone 5 Benin (Lawan Jimeta) and Zone 9 Umuahia (Isaac Akinmoyede) is from the East.
"It is further observed that at least 90% of the principal officers in all the military (army, navy, and air force), police, and spy-police formations in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Cross River, Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Anambra and Abia States are in the hands of non-Easterners who are mainly Muslims.
"The totality of these explains the high incidence of hateful and discriminatory policing and soldiering in the East, particularly in the South-East; to the extent that the ethnically and religiously lopsided security and defense chiefs in the East have designated citizens bearing Igbo-Christian names irrespective of their age bracket or gender as “criminal class," Intersociety noted.
Politics and Opinion
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