How to curb banditry in Kogi – Ex-AIG Inalegwu

A retired Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police and one time Commissioner of Police in Kogi and FCT, Wilson Inalegwu, in this interview called for deployments of helicopters, drones and local intelligence to track bandits terrorising people in Kogi. He also called for synergy among security forces and patrols along the hotspots.

We have seen a  surge in insecurity in Kogi, with several attacks and kidnappings. As someone who had worked in that terrain as police commissioner, what do you make of the situation?

Number one, I think the security agencies need to take a hard look at Kogi Central and part of Kogi West, especially Obajana to Kabba. That road linking to Osara, that axis, must be given particular attention. And they need to build a partnership with the communities in those locations. I think the local government chairman and the grassroots people should be able to know those who are there.

The way to combat it is a lot of intelligence; lots and lots of intelligence. And every settlement from that Obajana junction, when you’re coming to those slum settlements, it’s important to infiltrate those locations and then take it through Obajana, up to Kabba.

And then you take it from Ajaokuta, that other road that leads to Okene. You’ve got to isolate the area, because I don’t know, but most of the incidents must be recorded in those areas. I’m not very up to date with the statistics, but I know that those locations, from when you are going from Lokoja to Obajana, that other place, that link, the other road from Okene going to Ajaokuta, you encircle those locations. And then from there down to Obajana, those areas must be put on the radar. So, I think the solution will be a relationship with the community. That, I think, is going to help. We’ve got to know who these guys are. The vigilante and hunters used to be very good, but they have a tendency to do it alone. I think the security forces should try to establish a relationship with them, because it’s an area where you have to deploy both kinetic and non-kinetic.

But I think the security forces first of all, should be in synergy among themselves and then, there must be synergy among the population. And I think the traditional rulers will play a key role. They know the bad guys in their families.

Why do you think we have had such heightened security attacks in Kogi in recent times?

I think there seems to be an influx from the pressure on bandits from Kwara, Zamfara, and even Maiduguri in the North East. And so that place becomes an easy place for them to congregate and cause war. You know, we are having issues, whether banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and all that. They are not ideologically driven. I think they just want to get money. They seem to be getting the money. And because they get more money, they are in a position to buy more sophisticated weapons.

What should be done to tackle the menace?

What I think the police need to do is to work closely with the military, work closely with the other security agencies, especially the DSS. And any arrest made, any rescue, there should be a lot of debriefing of the rescued victims. That is going to help. The food sellers across these locations I mentioned can also be good sources of intelligence because when somebody comes to buy a large quantity of food, it is something that must be looked into. And the government should breathe hard on the local government chairman. They must hold security meetings. Now that we are close to Christmas, it could be fortnightly.

You see, when you have those meetings and you meet the civil society, the market women, the cattle rearers, the hunters, the civilian JTF — when you are not discussing very sensitive things, when you just want to talk only operationally, I think it is important to bring them under the same roof. And then all that information coming can be analysed. The SA security should have an analytical team to analyze them so that they can support security forces. But I think it is good to have helicopters and drones to monitor the movement of these criminals. And of course, the hotels must be under radar. So, it is a whole-of-society approach, a whole-of-government approach. I think that is what will solve the problem.

Travellers have been their targets, what security measures can be taken to guarantee safety of commuters as we approach the festive celebration?

I think the state government and the police and other services should intensify vehicular patrol. So, one team should be looking at the next. And they should reconfigure the walkie-talkies so that those patrol vehicles are stationed along the way — maybe every 10 kilometers a vehicle — it is not too much, so they will be criss-crossing. So, if something is happening, they are quickly there.And then, there was something I did when I was there, and it didn’t happen. I think they should do a lot of decoy. It will help them to plan their patrols. So they will know how to allocate their resources.

Former Governor Yahaya Bello appeared to be hard on the bad elements during his time, do you think the current administration needs to be more decisive?

Yes. That’s what I was trying to say — that it should be an area of focus, particularly, Kogi Central. I was among the team with the former governor when we conducted those operations, when we were bringing down houses of suspected kidnappers and that sent a strong signal to the kidnappers. That is why I say we must work with the community. We must work with traditional institutions. We must work with religious leaders.

The religious leaders are not happy with what is going on there. They are not happy, but they are afraid. So the police have to be discreet. When you have information that somebody is happening, of course you go all out for the person.

But the whole solution is, the security forces must win the confidence of the public. Because it’s their collaboration, it’s their cooperation, and their coordination among security agencies, so that the little logistics they have, they will not duplicate them.

Do you suspect complicity among locals in some of these security breaches?

You see, complicity among the local population is a worrying, troubling matter. So there must be adequate surveillance. Surveillance by the intelligence community — the DSS, the police intelligence department, the military intelligence department — all these should work together to identify sources. The financial intelligence unit should also find a way of monitoring the income of people in those locations. When somebody starts living lavishly, sometimes he disappears from the community. But if you target the ward heads and the village and district heads to begin to monitor families — families with bad guys — they should start with the families with bad guys. Interrogate: This is your son, how is he? How is he doing all this while? He suddenly comes, he’s buying drinks, he’s carrying a lot of women. So that’s why I say the village heads, the ward heads — not only the district heads — they know all the families. They know the good guys, they know the bad guys. So all this will help.

Given the magnitude of this security challenge, do you see the need for maybe a joint military clearance operation within those areas?

You know, a joint operation should be a continuous thing. And it depends on the actionable intelligence available to the security forces. When they operate together, they tell the people that, look, if you escape the police, you can’t escape the military. If you escape the military, you can’t escape the DSS or the Civil Defence or the civilian JTF, or the hunters. When they see them together, it sends a clear message to these bad guys that the country is united against them.

And they just do that. So I think this is a period where there should be coordination. I have stated that before. But I say, once you have coordination, that means we don’t just prefer a theatre with limited resources. That means when we are operating — if the police are manning, the civil defense is on patrol, but they have a way of coordination — maybe they ought to be interoperable, which means the DSS can get the police, the police can get the military for that local area. But there should be constant joint coordination, community meeting either on field, or as a routine.

So what I’m saying is that they never take the local security architecture very seriously. That is, the local government may never hold security meetings. It is always episodic — when something happens, and they gather, and they just do it. But that consistency — you know that consistency to build this very pretty actionable intelligence — is always lacking. They just do fire brigade when bandits and kidnappers strike and when  the whole thing comes down, they just forget about it.

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