STRUGGLE FOR OIL WEALTH BEHIND INSECURITY IN NIGERIA - IGP

The inspector-general of police Mohammed Abubakar has blamed the craze for the control of the nation’s oil wealth for the current insurgency and other heinous crimes in the country.

Abubakar made this known yesterday in a welcome address delivered at the opening ceremony of a two-day national summit on “Security Challenges in Nigeria” with the theme, “Addressing Nigeria’s Security Challenges for Sustainable Peace and Development”.

The IG, who disclosed that the current insecurity informed a collaboration between the Nigeria Police and the Vanguard newspaper to put the summit together, said the impact was to strategise and overcome the challenges.

“The security situation in Nigeria, in recent times, has been a source of great concern to all patriotic citizens and to the international friends of Nigeria. The security challenges posed by the oil politics resonated with militancy in the Niger Delta, the rampant kidnapping in the south-east, communal, ethnic and religious crises prominent in the north; and the current terror crimes exemplified by the Boko Haram insurgency combined to inform the urgent need for a summit of this nature.

“The Nigeria Police Force is not alone in the dire quest for solution to the country’s security problems which tends to retard delivery of democratic dividends in some parts of the country. If the security problems are adequately contained, every other thing will naturally fall into its proper shape,” he said.

In his opening address, President Goodluck Jonathan represented by the minister of police affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade, acknowledged that it was time for Nigerians to seriously rise up and address the security challenges confronting the nation. He expressed optimism that the “political will” demonstrated by his administration would yield the desired result in the fight against terrorism.

The chairman of the occasion, former IGP Mohammed Gambo Jimeta,  in his remarks averred that the problems of insecurity currently afflicting the nation were self-inflicted and called on the ruling class to look into the plight of the suffering masses.

Jimeta further stated that unless the government of the day rises up to the occasion and ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians, the current insecurity situation may degenerate.

Source: Leadership