Ntufam Mba Ekpezu Ukweni, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has said that the Nigeria’s security apparatus should be disbanded because they have failed Nigerians, which made them to resort to self-defence.
Ukweni, who spoke with DAILY POST on Friday in Calabar, Cross River State capital, regretted the attitude of the nation’s security personnel, hence, his support for the launching of Amotekum by South West Governors.
He, however, urged other regions in the country that have not done same to form their own security outfit with a view to protecting their people from being attacked and killed.
He said, “I must be frank, I do not have confidence in the Nigeria’s security system, it has failed us, we all know that, let us not hide it, it has failed us. For how long has Boko Haram been on, for how long has kidnapping been on, for how long has Niger Delta Militant has been on?
“Instead of Government taking steps to ensure that these people are brought under the law, they are negotiating with them, that shows weakness, that shows incapacity to secure the people, they carry money meant for the development of the country to negotiate and give them to buy more weapons and continue in their criminality, so, I too don’t have faith in the Federal Government securing the country.
Speaking further, Ntufam Ukweni said “We know that the defence of the territorial integrity of Nigeria is within the powers of the Federal Government, but the various state governments up to the local government and respective villages have responsibility to ensure that there is this usual saying that security is the business of everybody.
“So, they know what the basic problem is in their respective states and the region and that is why they decided to take those steps to enable them secure their states and their places, so I don’t see anything wrong in them taking steps to ensure that there is security of lives and property in their areas.
“Some of us have been advocating for the issue of amendment of our constitution and the Police Acts to make provision for the state police and even local government system of securing their respective places.
“We have been talking about the Boko Haram and I said people who are in Bako Haram are from communities and we know they are from respective communities, there is no how new persons come into a community without the other people knowing that a stranger has come in.
“So, if there is any crime committed in a community, the people know the new person who has committed the crime, so, let them take steps to secure their areas.
On using it as a political tool, the SAN said “Does anyone complains about the federal government alleged use of security officials for elections, during the last elections, army, police and other security agents were allegedly used, so why wouldn’t people complain?
“The security apparatus in the country should be disbanded because people in government use it to their advantage, those agencies were not created in actual fact to serve individual, they were created to serve the country.
“Let us realize that the real purpose of being in government, first and foremost was not for ourselves but for the people we are to serve. I don’t see anything wrong in having state police.
“In most of our villages, it is not the Police that secure the people, the Police are only there when these people apprehend the suspect, they hand over to them and what do they do it is not good to say, collect bail money and end up not doing any other thing.
“My advice is that the primary purpose of government is to ensure the welfare of the people, once they fail in that, the government has failed, they should take appropriate steps to ensure that there is security of lives and property.
“Each state has it’s peculiar security problem, so if the people in the south west have in their pro-active nature decided to take steps to ensure security of their environment, I give them kudos and nothing wrong constitutionally to protect yourself,” he stated.
