Soldiers, Police Descend On South East As Security Situation Worsens

The acting Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba in Enugu State on Tuesday, May 18, launched what he called ‘Operation Restore Peace’ for the South East region. In launching the operation, he called on security personnel to deal ruthlessly with persons creating insecurity in the region. Recent events in the South East region have seen attacks and burning of police stations and facilities, with reports showing that across most of the South East and parts of the South-South regions, police personnel have taken off uniforms and work in mufti. Several Nigerians have condemned the attacks on the police and its facilities, with concerns expressed, that the increased attacks on the police could result in massive lawlessness and anarchy in the region. However, efforts towards finding a solution to the security crisis in the South East seem to be emphatic on the use of absolute force. It is unclear how much intelligence work has been done by the security services to find out who is entirely responsible for all the attacks on security facilities in the region. A meeting called by President Buhari to discuss how to deal with the crisis of insecurity in the region was held in Abuja on May 11. At the end of the meeting, it was disclosed that a special security strategy was devised during the meeting. This strategy was not disclosed publicly. It is important to state that participants at the meeting did not have any single person indigenous to the South East attending the meeting in any official capacity. This has of course raised the concern that Nigeria’s security challenges must be confronted mostly with intelligence information and understanding of the true ramifications of the problem, following from which the rightful solution may not be difficult to identify.