Galadimawa Massacre: Ekhomu calls for Police reforms - ITREALMS Online

ITREALMS:

President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu has called on the Federal Government (FG) to initiate urgent reforms of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to save police lives, reports ITRealms.

Reacting to the killing of seven gallant officers at Galadimawa, recently, he urged the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Idris to deploy his best investigative assets – human and technical to detect the actual perpetrators.

He also said reforms were overdue as evidenced by the rise in killings all over the country, intentional targeting of law enforcement officers and extremely high fear index in the country.

Dr. Ekhomu who mourned the killed police officers, advised the Nigerian media to honor and humanize the dead police heroes by identifying them, showing their pictures and telling stories about who they were and what they liked and what their goals in life were.  He said: “Nigerians deserve to know who these heroes were.

“No hero serving his fatherland should be left behind in the field of battle. All heroes are heroes” he declared, stressing that these men laid down their lives so the rest of us can live in a civilized society and must be honored for their sacrifice.

He called for a special tips hotline to take information on the police murders, urging the police management to provide a bounty of N20million for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.  “The killers are out there and somebody knows them.  In the sub-culture of crime, they brag about these gory incidents.  Someone somewhere has this information but does not know how to get it to the authorities,” he added.

Ekhomu who is a Security and Criminology lecturer in the University of Lagos said that the proposed police reforms must be aimed at transforming the security institution from its current dysfunctional state into an agency that can play an effective, legitimate and democratically accountable role in providing effective and measurable security services to Nigerians.

He described the current internal security architecture as defective and decayed. As the primary internal security organ, the police agency must reform to achieve its constitutional mandate of ensuring security for Nigerians. He said that service, integrity and professionalism must become the guiding principles of policing to regain public trust and respect.

He said that current police structures and processes need to be studied and improved for greater performance. He advised that reforms must be teleological and not hodge-podge.

He advised that Police reforms must balance the challenges of insecurity with the needs of development and the imperatives of human rights. He said that the NPF must continue to be depoliticized despite the government in power.

Ekhomu advised all policemen to display a keener sense of security awareness as they are exposed to vicious criminals who appear intent on spilling police blood.

He advised policemen on street duty to be professional, courteous and shun corrupt practices.  He advised uniformed policemen to be well turned out, be well-behaved, be attentive and know that they are constantly being observed by members of the public.

He advised policemen not to be careless with their personal security as life has no duplicate.

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Offa bank robbery is terrorist attack says AISSON boss

ITREALMS:

The President of Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu has described the recent deadly attack on five banks in Otta, Kwara State, as a terrorist attack, reports ITRealms.

“The attacks exhibited all the hallmarks of a spectacular terror attack including violent neutralization of law enforcement, use of IEDs, use of automatic weapons, large number of attackers, ISIS-style vehicular convoy, aggressive combat tactics, large number of wanton deaths, etc.” he said. 

In his reaction in Lagos on Wednesday, Ekhomu told ITRealms that the narrative of bank robbery was grossly erroneous and patently false. Stressing that it was a brazen terrorist attack aimed at causing mayhem, deaths and striking fear into the hearts of Kwara citizens.

He insisted that “the seizure of cash was a secondary objective.”

Pointing out that while it could be understood on the need for fear reduction on the part of the authorities, “it is not helpful to mischaracterize incidents thereby giving citizens a false sense of security.”

In a related press statement made available to ITRealms, Ekhomu argued that Kwara State had recorded incidents of violent extremism and terrorism in the past, and cited the case of the bombing of Ilorin township Stadium many years ago and cases of foreign espionage agents and their Nigerian conspirators detected in the state.

The security expert also argued that with the reported displacement of Boko Haram fighters from Sambisa forest and the mass release of Boko Haram suspects by the Federal Government, suspecting that a terror cell might now be active in the Offa area.   

 

“The authorities must thoroughly investigate the terror attack and give Nigerians a proper explanation of what happened on that day.  The actual perpetrators must be arrested and they must provide corroborative evidence of their complicity.  Investigators must resist the temptation of arresting vagrants and labeling them Offa bank robbers in order to look good.  When the real perpetrators are caught, the Police must resist the temptation to commit extra-judicial killing.  The story of the perpetrators must come out.  It takes a very evil psychopath and sociopath to lay siege to a police station and kill nine policemen in one fell swoop and then proceed to murder at least 21 others,” he said.

Ekhomu, who is the first chartered security professional in West Africa advised that there was an urgent need to conduct adversarial threat assessments and vulnerability assessments of Police facilities in the country. He said that the design basis threat (DBT) for these facilities must be determined so that the security architecture and engineering of facilities would be robust enough to address the threat. Design basis threat (DBT) is the threat (e.g. tactics and weapons, tools, explosives, etc.) against which assets within a building must be protected and upon which the security engineering design of the building is based.

According to Ekhomu, “the Boko Haram insurgency has shown that there are some terrorists who delight in killing police personnel.  The Offa terrorists did not have respect for police lives or human lives.  Police fatality must be reduced to the barest minimum so that we can have a civilized society.”

The current over-deployment of military personnel, with all the attendant risks is because police personnel are an endangered species based upon the actions of home grown terrorists.  

The Police agency and the Federal Government must ensure that persons or groups who harm police personnel pay dearly for such savage acts.

Ekhomu commiserated with the Inspector General of Police and the police family on the loss of nine police personnel and advised that they must be named, given heroes’ burial and their families compensated for their deaths in the line of duty.

Asserting, “Police lives must not be cheap.  We must honor their sacrifice and service to the nation”.

Nenye Dom/ED, Ops

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Missing Dapchi Girls: Special Task Force wanted - Ekhomu

ITREALMS:

A renowned security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised the Federal Government to set up a special task force to investigate and rescue the 110 school girls seized from Dapchi, Yobe State on 19^th February by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, reports ITRealms.

The task force, he said, should report to the National Security Adviser (NSA) including the credentialed and accomplished investigative personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, the Military Provost, Department of State Services, National Intelligence Agency, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Civilian JTF and academia.

Ekhomu, who is the President, Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), in a press statement made available to ITRealms, advocated the appointment of an intelligent tough- minded investigator to head the special task force.

“This leader must be reputed as brilliant, innovative and upright,” he suggested.

The expert, troubled by the similarities between the Dapchi mass-abduction of school girls and the yet unresolved Chibok mass-kidnap saga, warned that if not properly handled as a “hot pursuit” investigative case, the nation might face huge reputational harm from the incident.

Therefore, he warned against turning the incident into ‘political theatre’ where every politician becomes an investigator in order to gain relevance.

Ekhomu advised the Federal Government to adopted sound investigative strategies to speedily rescue the Dapchi girls and called for the immediate announcement of a reward of N50 million for information leading to the rescue of the girls.

Also, he said that money will induce people who have information to talk and urged for the establishment of a tips hot-line to receive information on the incident, stating that a confidential informant numbering system should be used in order to correctly identify and reward the informant who produces the clue leading to the rescue of the girls.

Ekhomu counseled the STF to adopt the principles of “fresh pursuit” or “hot pursuit” in this investigation, contending that mass-kidnap was different from the kidnap of a single individual.

The logistics to move, cater for and feed such a large group would prove to be a vulnerability that could be exploited by the investigators to find them.

He advised the investigators to quickly debrief any students who escaped their captors, pointing out that “These students will have important information and clues which could be helpful to detectives.”

A crime scene search, he said, is imperative as the perpetrators might have dropped clues and advocated the use of overhead platforms of the Nigerian Air Force in the hot pursuit, for more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions by flying over wooded areas of the Northeast.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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Insecurity: Ekhomu advises traditional rulers to protect communities

ITREALMS:

Renowned security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised traditional rulers to provide effective leadership in the security of their domains, as a way of fulfilling their part of the social contract with their subjects, reports ITRealms.

He also said that exercising purposeful leadership in security management of their respective communities will enhance the legitimacy of the traditional rulership institution and contribute to national security.

Speaking at the national conference on “Culture, Peace and National Security: The Role of Traditional Rulers” organized by the National Institute for Cultural Orientation in Ibadan on 30^th January 2018, Ekhomu, providing a roadmap for security in Nigerian communities captioned “A-Z of the Role of Traditional Rulers in Security Management”, urged traditional rulers to take ownership of the security management of their domains.

He told them to harness the critical resources available including law enforcement, military, youth age grades, prominent citizens from the area, etc. in the security architecture of the community. “The missing link is leadership – which the traditional ruler can provide”, he added.

Dr. Ekhomu, who is the President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON) urged the rulers to embrace and support law enforcement authorities in their communities by building and donating police posts where possible.

He further advised traditional rulers in rural communities to support public security personnel by providing foodstuffs, rent-free housing and farm lands for subsistence farming.

“Traditional rulers should establish liaison with security agencies as a way of creating force multiplication in the community,” he said.

On intelligence gathering, Ekhomu tasked rulers to engage in information gathering and escalation to the authorities for action. The expert said that if information provided to the public authorities is neglected and a security breach occurs, the ruler can then take the authorities to task, so that information supplied to the authorities in future will be acted upon.

“Traditional rulers must use their influential and privileged positions to forge a symbiotic relationship between the security agencies and his subjects”, he added.

He urged the royal fathers to undergo training in security awareness so they can pass on such information to their subjects – using the town crier where necessary.

On the tactical level, Ekhomu urged rulers to conduct demographic mapping in order to keep a record of ex-service personnel in their domains. He urged the formation of Threat Assessment Teams (TAT) “that may enable your community analyze imminent threats and how to respond to them”.

He advised royal fathers to maintain a record of security incidents in their communities to enable them conduct probability analysis of the occurrence of loss events, and produce reports for the political elites.

Ekhomu urged rulers to name and shame families of confirmed armed robbers, kidnappers, cultists. He praised Obosi town in Anambra State where the traditional ruler determined that violent criminals who are killed will not be given proper burial.

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Ekhomu urges Police vigorous tackling of ritual murders

ITRealms:

The President, Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has called on the Nigeria Police Force to reinvigorate its efforts at combating ritual killings in Nigeria as the frequency of ritual murders is becoming too high, especially in Lagos which prides itself centre of excellence, reports ITRealms.

In a press release issued in Lagos, made available to ITRealms, Dr. Ekhomu urged the Police to set up Special Ritual Murder Squads in various State Commands in order to focus the investigation, detection, arrest and prosecution of ritual killers.

He said that the high incidence of serial ritual killings demanded urgent action at the level of the police high command. According to the first chartered security professional in West Africa, citizens were rapidly losing faith in the ability of the police agency to detect and punish ritual killers.  This, he said was responsible for the increase in lynching of suspects as members of the public resort to violence to get redress for the heinous murders.

Dr. Ekhomu said that the human rights of persons murdered by ritual killers  “must be restored by security agencies through diligent investigation, detection, arrest and prosecution”.

Said he: “The conscience of Nigerians should be troubled by reports of recent ritual murders including that of  one-year-old Success lme in Calabar whose heart was ripped out from her small body for ritual purposes and was discovered in a Church along with other items for occult rituals. There is also the case of Pastor Samuel Okpara in Ahoada East LGA of Imo State who was kidnapped, killed and cannibalized by ritualists.  The pastor was reportedly beheaded and his liver and intestines used for pepper soup and plantain porridge. What a horrific occurrence?”

The world-renowned security expert also decried the excesses of the Baddoo murder cult in Ikorodu Lagos State that specialized in smashing the skull of its victims with grinding stone and dropping white handkerchiefs as calling cards.  He said that the Baddoo cult killings were a direct challenge to the Police agency, which he felt the police should confront head on.

Ekhomu commended the current internal reforms aimed at repositioning the police agency as an effective crime-fighting force. He advised police top management to sustain and reinvigorate the needed police operational reforms.

He praised the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris for the huge successes recorded by the police agency in busting kidnap cases.  He charged the Police top management team to devise creative strategies to detect and severely punish ritualists and killer cultists.

Dr. Ekhomu said that the economic recession in the land was not a licence to commit ritual murder.  He said that impunity was encouraging ritualists to commit murders because they believe they will not be apprehended or punished.

He advised Nigerians against late night outings.  He said that driving alone at night was also dangerous as a vehicular breakdown could result in abduction by ritualists.  

He advised commuters to always write down the identification markings of public conveyance vehicles which they enter and make phone calls to loved ones passing on the information. According to him, “ritual murderers always wish to be unidentified.  They want to kill people, but don’t wish to be apprehended. Once information about them has been passed on to someone else, it becomes difficult for them to do evil”.

He urged Nigerian to properly assess public transport vehicles before boarding in order not to board the “wrong bus”.  He said that there is strength in numbers.  So Nigerians should always go out with “a buddy”.

He advised women to carry whistles on them in order to raise an alarm if there is an attempt to abduct them.  According to him, the ritualists have to first kidnap and control a victim before carrying out the ritual killing.

He urged Nigerians to exercise utmost caution in order to avoid victimization by ritual killers.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Security challenges after fall of Sambisa forest by Ekhomu

ITRealms:

President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, Dr. Ona Ekhomu has commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the fall of Sambisa Forest, the headquarters of the Boko Haram terrorist group in Borno State, saying there are still challenges, reports ITRealms.

He also said that the capture of this important military objective is a significant achievement in the fight against Boko Haram terrorism and a major morale boost for the Nigerian military.

“Mr. President deserves high accolades for his focus, commitment and the political will that resulted in the fall of Sambisa forest” he said.

Dr. Ekhomu, a renowned security expert said that the Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai and the entire Nigerian military also deserved high praise for their prowess in battle which resulted in the desired outcome of routing Boko Haram terrorists from their last parcel of real estate and achieving this important operational milestone on the war on terror.

Ekhomu however warned that the Nigerian authorities should not be tricked into a false sense of security. “We shouldn’t think that it is over with Boko Haram. We shouldn’t think that they have been defeated and they are no longer a threat. That would be a big mistake. Boko Haramism is based on Salafist jihadist ideology. So, in addition to battle-field defeat, their perverted strict wahabbi ideology must be defeated before the war can be deemed to be over. If not, the conflict continues,” he added.

In press release made available to ITRealms, the security expert expatiated that BH is engaged in asymmetrical warfare against Nigeria, and does not need real estate to prosecute its terrorist campaigns. “In asymmetrical warfare, there are no front lines, no prescribed methods or means of conflict,” he averred.

Based upon the displacement theory of crime, the senior leadership personnel of BH are likely to have migrated to safer areas across the Nigerian borders (Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, CAR or Mali).  The field commanders should have gone into hiding in Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu. “This position is supported by the announcement by the Chief of Army Staff that a BH commander was arrested in Lagos last week.”

“BH terrorists do not wear uniforms and they look like everyone else in the general population.  So, it is easy for their foot soldiers to escape far from the northeast in search of refuge in the south or elsewhere. My fear is that with leadership, these guys can regroup quickly and resume their campaign of violence. We have seen this before in 2009 to 2010 when BH pretended that it had been defeated by General Saleh Maina in Maiduguri only for them to resume violence in Sepember 2010 by breaking out over 700 inmates from Maiduguri Prisons  -- mostly radicalized fighters,” he said.

Ekhomu advised the government security forces to remain in a state of high alert for the next 12 months on the BH problem. He urged the intelligence services to work hard to uncover terror plots and urgently intervene to save Nigerian lives. He advised the Police agency to be alert to the presence of criminals and terrorists in their jurisdictions. 

He called for the adoption of criminal profiling and aggressive community oriented policing strategies to identify BT terrorists in our communities. Ekhomu said that the Civilian JTF operatives in Kasuwa Shanu in Maiduguri who detected and prevented two female suicide bombers from accessing the crowded cow market and detonating their explosive payload outside without killing anyone but the bombers, was an example of this community oriented policing. At this crime scene on Monday (Boxing Day), neither the police nor the military were present, yet the Civilian JTF took action to save many lives and killing two suicide terrorists in the process.

He urged the FG not to assume that BH is interested in integrating into Nigerian society. He said: They are committed jihadists and extremists and will only hide as a survival mechanism, and strike when the opportunity presents itself.

He urged Nigerians to conduct background checks on individuals who they hire as security guards, gardeners, house helps, etc. He said that BH members are likely to speak little English and claim to be from Niger Republic, Chad Republic. Prior to hiring West African nationals, they should be asked to provide proof of permission by the Nigerian Immigration Service to work in Nigeria.

The security expert urged the Immigration service to better secure the borders and prevent the free movement of terrorists into and out of Nigeria. He also exhorted immigration officials to eschew petty corruption at the borders as it negates Nigeria’s national security interest.     

He also urged the military to sustain the man-hunt for Abubakar Shekau. He said that without forensic proof, it could not be assumed that Shekau is dead. This mistake has been made several times with Shekau, making him the proverbial cat with nine lives. He advised the military to deploy massive intelligence assets in search of Abubakar Shekau whose neutralization would signal the beginning of the end of Boko Haramism in Nigeria.

  

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Ekhomu urges intelligence officials to proactively prevent terrorists attacks

PR@ITRealms:

A renowned security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has advised Nigerian intelligence officials to focus on providing reliable warnings of impending terror attacks in order to save the lives of citizens from incessant bombings, militant attacks and other mass fatality events.

Speaking at the joint graduation ceremony of 77 intelligence officers at the Nigerian Air Force School of Air Intelligence Makurdi, Benue State, recently, Ekhomu who is the Chairman of the School of Management and Security said “this is a new day, and new page as you write the history of your life and your service to the nation. I have seen excellence on display here - certainly, in the intelligence analysis course.”

He said that while intelligence gathering was extremely necessary and important, robust intelligence analysis remained the cornerstone of good operational decision-making as analysts could ‘predict’ terror attacks with some degree of certainty.

Ekhomu stressed that as intelligence analysts, “You guys worked very hard with high level concepts and were able to conquer.  That denotes the quality of personnel and the quality of training that is available here in the Nigerian Air Force and most especially the passion that you have for service to the nation”.

He said that since intelligence analysis was important in averting “surprises” by the enemy, clandestine operatives and intelligence analysts must redouble their efforts to prevent attacks by terrorists by uncovering their plans and plots “thereby averting  intelligence failures”.

In his remarks, the Director of Air Intelligence, Air Vice Marshall Mohammed Usman said the “graduating intelligence Analysis Course Q1/2016 should realize that this course is aimed at equipping them for higher intelligence operations, as intelligence analysis is the hub of intelligence operations”.

The intelligence Chief urged the graduates of the Intermediate Intelligence Course (IIC) and the Basic Intelligence Course (BIC) to enhance the intelligence gathering efforts of the Nigerian Air Force.  He said that the current internal security situation in Nigeria has led to an “increased demand for organic intelligence gathering capabilities for the armed forces”.

Addressing the graduates, the Commandant of the Nigerian Air Force School of Air Intelligence, Group Capt. Raymond Nwankwo said the training was aimed at boosting the capacity of the graduants.

He emphasized that through capacity-building, the nation’s security challenges such as insurgency and terrorism would be successfully combated.

The Commandant stated that the introduction of Intelligence Analysis training into the School’s curricular was to ensure optimum performance of intelligence.

The graduation ceremony combined three classes – the Intelligence Analysis Course, the Intermediate Intelligence Course and Basic Intelligence Course.

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