CALEB AYANSINA

ABUJA – The Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha has called for a change of tactics adopted by the Nigerian Troops in the fight against insurgency in the north-east.

The former CSO said unconventional approach remains the best option to fight terrorism war, noting that the Nigeria Military had been demonstrating professionalism since the fight broke out by adopting conventional approach.

Al-Mustapha, who is the President of Al-Mustapha Peace, Unity and Development Initiative (APUDI), a non-governmental organisation, gave the counter-terrorism idea during a pre-conference on “Community Conflict and Youth Militancy in Northern Nigeria: Challenge of a Democratic Practice”, in Abuja.

“Conventional approach to a conventional mode of fighting in any country is exactly what is required of the military and other agencies,” he said.

However, Al-Mustapha explained that the situation in Nigeria is peculiar, therefore, it calls for total cooperation of all and sundry, including the media.

“But where you have insurgency and such vices classified as or leading to low intensity conflict in any country, as we have in the North-east, the obvious thing to do is to maximise information and secrecy,” he said.

The APUDI President, who insisted that the country had over the years promoted causes of insurgency out of greed and selfishness, stated that peace and security should not be compromised in any way.

His words, “If you look closely at our environment, I will say because of ignorance from private and public sectors, we have over the years promoted causes of insurgency, some deliberately, some out of greed, some out of selfishness, some out of ignorance, this is a fact, but when it comes to apportioning blames, that is another thing entirely, and that is what I do not do.

“When a country finds itself in our situation, where damage control measures are of the essence, at that point in time, all agencies should now look very well at their limitations in terms of their primary and secondary assignments and find ways to address the problem.

“Peace and security should not be compromised in any way by any security agency.”

Earlier, the Director of Training and Reorientation, APUDI , Prof. Danladi Atu, raised concern over a group of youths, operating along side with the Joint Task Force in the north east, popularly known as ‘civilian JTF’, saying they could constitute another problem in future, if they were not properly managed.

He revealed that the forthcoming conference would address the problems of managing the aftermath crisis of demobilising the “Civilian JTK” in the North-east.

According to him, the APUDI Safe House programme that would be established in the crisis-torn areas would help to take care the issue of post-insurgency trauma of victims of the insurgency.