Victor EzejaLabour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi has said the attack on the Kaduna-bound train from Abuja on March 28 this year was caused by failure to process available security intelligence to prevent it.
Obi made this assertion during a town hall meeting on Sunday, November 6, organised by Arise News Channel in partnership with the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe programme had in attendance, the presidential candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), candidate, Kola Abiola and Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, who represented the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
The town hall meeting according to Reuben Abati of Arise News who moderated the session was the first in a series to come ahead of the 2023 general elections and was focused on security and the economy.
The LP presidential candidate while responding to a question on what he could have done differently if he was the commander in chief when the Abuja-Kaduna train attack occurred said that if the earlier warning on the impending attack was acted upon, the terrorists would not have succeeded in carrying out the attack and abduction of passengers.
He said, “I believe that there was a failure of intelligence processing because before that incident happened, from the information available, there were already indications of insecurity within that rail corridor as well as previous attempts and intelligence that were ignored. So, there was a failure of processing and giving due attention to intelligence which I would have promptly dealt with.”
Obi insisted that the government’s actions and communication when the incident occurred were weak, adding that if he was involved, he would have been more proactive and constantly engaged with the families of the victims and showed empathy to them.
He stressed the need for improving security intelligence across the country and quick response in times of such security emergencies.
Kwankwaso on his part said that as former minister of defence, the incident wouldn’t have been allowed to happen. The NNPP presidential candidate said the Nigerian military is inadequate in terms of personnel and equipment to tackle insecurity across the country. He said that in the blueprint of his party there is a proposal to increase the number of military personnel to about one million and that of police to about 12 million in order to effectively police every part of the country.
He also stated that his government would engage in dialogue with any group bearing grudges against the nation to resolve differences and would allow the law to take care of those who refuse to embrace peace.
Kola Abiola of PRP said there is a need to overhaul the country’s security architecture to work better.
Okowa of PDP said there is a need for a coordinated security intelligence gathering system to be able to detect threats and implement strategic actions across security agencies in a collaborative manner to tackle insecurity. He stated that currently, there is a lack of cooperation among security agencies in the country. “I am a governor and see what is going on. We need to ensure that there is a coordinated arrangement among the security agencies,” Okowa stated.
He further advocated decentralization of the police force so that states should be able to have their own police. He argued that people at the grassroots have better knowledge about their areas and know exactly what to do at every point in time.
Okowa said he was not going to comment on whether Buhari was right or not in handling the train attack incident because he did not know the kind of intelligence at the president’s disposal.
He said that going ahead to attack the terrorists who abducted passengers would have caused collateral damage, and, however, stressed that what was needed was to prevent the attack in the first place.
He emphasized the need for recruitment of more security personnel and motivation of those in service.
“I think that we need to ensure that we are able to prevent these things from happening, but as of today, Nigeria is being overwhelmed. We need more boots on the ground and greater training. We also need to ensure that we provide adequate welfare and make the police force and other agencies more comfortable with better pay than what they are getting at the moment. But very importantly, we must attack the issues of unemployment; ensure that we educate our children. Until we get this two done, there will be a lot of people on the streets that will be recruited into this very deadly insecurity situation that we find ourselves in,” Okowa stressed.
The candidates gave a brief summary of their mission in tackling issues of insecurity and improving the economy when elected into office as president.
Speaking on the issue of insecurity and perception of political leaders by the citizens including those who engage in violence Obi said he has the record of being a governor who never borrowed or spent state funds recklessly.
Obi said “In a country where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty.
“During my time as a former governor, I served for eight eights. You can go to that state you will find that I never borrowed from any financial institution in Nigeria. I have never been invited or questioned about any missing money anywhere.
“The day I left the office, I wasn’t owing any contractor or supplier that has delivered his project, I was not owing pension, gratuity, salary. I left in three banks; Access, Diamond and Fidelity, over $50 million each for the state.
“I have never borrowed, I served faithfully and I left their money.
“The system can work if we do the right thing.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was conspicuously absent from the town hall meeting.
In a statement released earlier on Sunday, the APC presidential campaign spokesman Festus Keyamo, said that Tinubu currently, has a busy campaign schedule and would not be able to honour all invitations by TV and radio stations for such speaking engagements.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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