Defeat insurgents to avoid food crisis, El-Rufai tells DSS, others

Governor Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai has said that as the lead agency for domestic intelligence and counter intelligence, the Department of State Services, DSS, has a vital role to play in providing the reliable information needed by the police, the Armed Forces and other security agencies for the total defeat of dangerous insurgents.

Speaking at the second quarter, 2021 meeting of the Directors of the State Commands of the Directorate of State Security, DSS, in the North-West, held in Kaduna yesterday, Governor el-Rufai said as Director of the State Commands of the DSS in the North-West, they were all aware of the immense security challenges across the states in their region. “The consequences of these serious security deficits have devastated the rural economy, taken lives and property and made simple travel an ordeal across federal, state and local roads”, he said.

He said a total defeat of the insurgents was an urgent priority “in the face of the looming crisis that we face if our farmers do not go to the farms”, adding, “The rains are here but farmers in various communities are unable to go to their farms, that is when they are lucky not have fled their remote villages under pressure and attacks from the criminals. This cannot be allowed to continue”.

The Governor said that the security agencies needed to strengthen intelligence gathering, to establish not just the identities, plans and locations of these criminals, but to actively disrupt their capacity to organize and mount attacks on citizens.

“But it also very important to ensure that prompt and coordinated actions becomes the default response of the Armed Forces and the Police, to the profusion of actionable intelligence that is already available from the DSS”, he said.

Governor el-Rufai told the gathering that his government has invested significantly in security, apart from the usual vehicles, radio equipment and so on. “We have in the last five years been installing a Closed-Circuit TV system across the Kaduna Metropolis, we hope that this project will be completed within the next one year and with that, the police and other security agencies will be empowered to be able to take pre-emptive action to deter criminals”.

“We have invested in drones and we are investing in more drones, working with the Airforce and the SSS to see that these drones are deployed to provide additional intelligence. We are also building a forensic laboratory, to help the police and other security agencies in crime detection and prevention”, he said.

earlier in his remarks, the State Director of DSS in Kaduna State, Alhaji Idris Koya, said the periodic meeting was originated by the DGSS, Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi, to enable the State Directors regularly come together and brainstorm on the changing spate of insecurity bedeviling the North-West, exchange ideas and proffer possible solutions that would aid in containing temporary threats, effectively, efficiently and with minimum cost.

According to him, the region was currently confronted by security threats of kidnapping, armed banditry, insurgency, Farmers/Herders conflicts, arms trafficking and several other security issues that require concerted effort to address, including the pivotal input of the respective state governments.

While appreciating the Kaduna State Government for its support to his command, the Director said, “I will equally like to appreciate the mutual comradeship and Espirit de corps of our sister agencies, most especially the synergy enjoyed between the command and all of you that constitute a major segment of the consumers of our intelligence product”.