The Senate Committee on Air Force has urged the Federal Government to give the Nigerian Police more authority to combat insecurity in the country.
Sen. Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Chairman of the Committee, made the call on Tuesday while presenting his committee’s budget report to the Appropriations Committee.
He stated that there is nothing preventing the police from receiving the sophisticated equipment that the Air Force, Navy, and Army are receiving, as this would increase the police’s effectiveness.
“There is nothing preventing Nigerian police from acquiring some of these sophisticated vehicles and conducting roadside surveillance.”
“It’s not nice that they rush there only when it happens, and then the kidnappers are gone.”
“If there is a coordinated effort, the police will report an incident in this location, and an aircraft can continue to hover around those people.”
“This is due to the fact that they cannot outrun an aircraft.” The police should be able to get a good idea of where the bandits or kidnappers are while the helicopter is hovering, and then some helicopter intervention can help,” Na’Allah said.
Despite the acquisition of Super Tucano fighter jets, Na’Allah said Nigerians should not be hearing the rise of banditry and kidnapping on the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
“It’s an operational issue; it’s one thing to have the equipment; it’s quite another to use the equipment to meet the challenges that we face.”
“For a variety of reasons, kidnapping and banditry in Nigeria have defied this intervention.” One, just because you have an enemy on the other side of the fight does not mean you can take the fight to his location and finish him. These are things that appear from nowhere on a regular basis.
“To a large extent, the nature and character of a crime will determine the control strategy.” I believe that more should be done to empower the police officers on the ground to ensure that these areas are effectively secured.
“We want to live in a safe country.” We will continue to pray that security personnel will do more to ensure that Nigerians’ agitations and expectations are met,” Na’Allah said.