A Nigerian Non-Governmental Organization, Human Rights Agenda Network (HRAN), has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to immediately sack the country’s security chiefs, following the bombing of the UN office in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
In a statement, the group accused Nigerian security agencies of lacking intelligence-gathering capabilities, and called for their overhauling so they could become proactive.
“HRAN consequently calls on President Jonathan to sack immediately the leadership of Nigeria’s intelligence and security agencies and to overhaul the outfits to make them fit to respond to the emerging assault on peace and good governance.
“It is a glaring sign of critical gaps in security and intelligence that these groups of various shapes and grouse fail to be tracked and tackled.
“This is in spite of huge sums of money appropriated each year by federal and state governments as security votes. Clearly, the leadership of the country’s intelligence is proving a total failure and should not remain a day in office,’ the group said.
Nigeria has recently witnessed a series of explosions, for which the Islamic sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility.
But the security agencies, including the police and the State Security Service (SSS), have so far being unable to curtail the activities of the sect, which has been striking at places and times of its own choosing.
Some 23 persons died and dozens more were injured in the UN House bombing 26 Aug., the highest casualties in all the bombings in the capital city so far.