Insurgency: DSS restates commitment to national security

The Department of State Services has restated commitment to the war against insurgency in Nigeria’s North-East even as the Agency pledged to enhance national security.

The DSS Director in charge of Adamawa, Mr Babagana Bulama, stated this at the 2022 1st Zonal Quarterly Conference of State Directors of Security, North-East region, on Thursday in Maiduguri

He reiterated the commitment of the Service towards ensuring national security in line with its statutory mandate, adding that achieving national security also requires teamwork and inter-agency collaboration.

Bulama stressed the readiness of the Service to sustain harmonious working relationships with relevant stakeholders in national security management.

The director disclosed that available intelligence showed that the splinter Boko Haram terrorist group Islamic State of Africa Province was training suicide bombers in the North-East region.

Bulama said that the group was training suicide bombers to carry out attacks on security agencies and vulnerable communities.

“Although attacks by the insurgents in parts of the zone recently reduced owing to counter-terrorism operations by security forces, available intelligence has indicated that ISWAP is training suicide bombers with a view to carry out deadly attacks on security agencies and vulnerable communities.

“Most worrisome is recent intelligence on the convergence of elements of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), in the Lake Chad area, within Nigerian territory.

“These terrorists who fled Mali following increased military pressure from Russian mercenaries, see the Lake Chad area as safe haven and apparently, have come to support ISWAP to continue its terrorist activities.

“Furthermore, kidnappers and bandits have persistently exploited the vast ungoverned spaces (mountains and forests) in the zone as hideouts from where they carry out their nefarious activities.

“Investigations indicated that some of these criminal elements came from the North West and North Central zones where they were dislodged by security forces,” Bulama added.

While nothing that farmers/herders conflict had subsided due to completion of harvest by farmers, Bulama, however, said that there were still threats of confrontations between irrigation farmers and herders in riverine communities, especially in Adamawa and Taraba states due to struggle for water and pasture.

He further highlighted the collaboration between Ambazonian rebels in neighbouring Cameroon and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) among others that could unsettle relative peace in border communities in Adamawa and Taraba States.

Governor Babagana Zulum, represented by his Chief of Staff, Prof. Hussaini Marte, said the state government accorded priority to security, adding the government would continue to support and collaborate with security agencies to enable them to succeed in discharging their constitutional mandates.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Joint Theatre Commander, “Operation Hadin Kai,” Maj.-Gen. Christopher Musa and other representatives of security agencies lauded the effective roles being played by the DSS towards successful operations in the fight against insurgency and other crimes in North-East and the country at large.

They pledged a commitment to collaborate with the Service for more positive results.

(NAN)