NIGERIA has acquired Strategic Intelligence Communication Network and Terrorist Monitoring and Surveillance Equipment. The equipment is to be handled and maintained by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA).
The disclosure was made by the Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major General Halidu Giwa, in his address presented at the Defence Advisers� annual conference which kicked off in Abuja on Monday.
According to the General, the nation acquired the equipment to place itself on a good pedestral and protect itself against being made a home to terrorists or being attacked by terrorists.
The nation, he said, would not wait until it was under the threat of terrorists before making moves to defend itself. The agency, he disclosed further, was prepared to curb the tide of violence and communal conflicts which could be turned into internal terrorism.
Internal security challenges like insecurity in the Niger-Delta, he said, had continued to threaten the social and economic wellbeing of the country.
With 2007 elections around the corner, the agency, he said, had identified flashpoints in the country and also taken various measures at curbing violence in identified places.
Under the establishment review programme of DIA, the agency, he said, had established nine intelligence cells in addition to its Lagos annex which had been converted to a cell.
The cells, he said, were located in flashpoints such as Port Harcourt, Lagos, Warri, Calabar, Ibadan, Onitsha, Sokoto, Kaduna, Maiduguri and Yola.
Plans were also underway to establish cells in other flashpoints such as Kano, Jos, Makurdi, Kainji, Gusau, Saki and Gombe, the DIA boss disclosed further.