The Department of State Service (DSS), has identified insecurity as a major threat to the 2019 general election.
DSS Director General, Lawal Daura, raised the alarm in a presentation he made before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria.
The committee is headed by Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan.
Presenting a 38-page report at the Senate Plenary on Wednesday, Lawan said Daura told the committee that Nigeria may witness violence “with all the hate speeches and insecurity prevailing in the polity.”
The lawmaker quoted the DSS boss as saying “the country is getting more divided like never before due to the lack of synergy between the traditional institutions and the security agencies, as well as hate speeches that have dominated the political space.”
Lawan further explained that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Buratai, on his part, identified the country’s major security challenges to include Boko Haram threats, militancy, cultism, secessionist and extremist groups, inter-ethnic, religious and communal violence.
Buratai was also said to have expressed concern over inadequate intelligence information sharing mechanisms among security agencies, inadequate resourcing of security agencies,administration of criminal justice system, porous borders and poor border controls, poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunities and cultural and social impediments.
Lawan said the committee observed that the security agencies require professional skills, equipment and technology to contain security issues, adding that the agencies lacked critical equipment and where they existed, they were obsolete.
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