General Christopher Musa, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff has advanced reasons why Nigeria slow legal system undermines the military’s efforts to defeat terrorism, banditry and organised crime and fuels insecurity in the Country.
He made the remarks on Channels Television where he lamented that troops often risk their lives to arrest suspects only for them to be released on technical grounds or face token penalties, thereby weakening the morale within the armed forces and encourage criminals to act with impunity.
“When people know they can get away with anything, impunity sets in and that is critical”, Musa said, ‘You risk your life, make an arrest, and then tomorrow you hear the item is released. Do you think that soldier is ready to sacrifice himself to go and make arrests again?”.
Referencing cases in the Niger Delta where seized oil vessels are returned to operators after minor fines, Musa stated that such behaviour compels the Nigerian military to adopt harsh deterrents such as destroying illegal bunkering vessels, a development that sends a signal that we will not allow it”.
He also highlighted steps that the Attorney General of the Federation and other stakeholders have taken in addressing the legal issues and other challenges associated with international fund by terrorist Organizations within and outside Nigeria.
Some of them have fund coming from outside Nigeria. We cannot do anything from within. The Local terrorists what they do normally is that they try to employ a few individuals, provide motorcycles for them.
“Those ones are remitting funds daily into some accounts, which are being tracked. They try to circulate these monies. That is why it’s difficult to track those monies. The NFIU has been doing so much. Apart from the intelligence sector, the financial links are also being followed. And arrests have been made.
“And I can assure you that the Attorney General of the federation and the National Security Adviser, NSA, are all working seriously to ensure that we address those issues”, General Musa stressed.
Asked what the ideological backing for terrorism foreign financial in Nigeria is about, he said, “you know criminals work together. Both terrorists and the bandits are working together.
“Again, because of politics. When there is peace, it shows the government is working, and when there is no peace, the government is not not doing well”, the Army Chief said.
