Amid escalating insecurity across Nigeria, Senate President Godswill Akpabio has sounded a stark warning about the tactics employed by criminal elements and stressed the urgent need for a national security summit to confront the crisis.
Addressing the Senate plenary, Akpabio highlighted the alarming trend of militants recruiting former security personnel, who, after being dismissed for minor infractions or disciplinary issues, end up training insurgents.
“When the Police will throw away trained officers for minor offences. When the army out of discipline sacks over a hundred soldiers, many of them will go into the training of militants and then the languages they were taught will now be passed to the militants,” he said, emphasizing the leakage of sensitive military knowledge to hostile groups in a video shared by TV Platinum.
Akpabio recounted a chilling experience from his time as a governor to illustrate the severity of the threat: “What should families look out for? When I was a governor I saw a situation like that. When you see 5-6 trucks loading people and bring them down, and they go to the abattoir to mingle around. They are going for a jailbreak. They have one of their colleagues in jail, and they want to spring a surprise. If you don’t address them on time, you will have a jailbreak.”
Akpabio emphasised the importance of reviewing recruitment and training processes for security operatives, as well as strengthening community policing and vigilante groups to enhance grassroots security.
He warned that without timely and coordinated intervention, the country risks worsening security breaches, including jailbreaks and increased militant activities.
The summit, scheduled following a motion sponsored by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, seeks to foster collaboration across all levels of government and civil society to restore peace and security in Nigeria.
As insecurity continues to threaten lives and livelihoods nationwide, the Senate’s initiative represents a critical step toward addressing the complex and multifaceted security crisis confronting Nigeria today.
