Nigerians Must Rise Against Those Threatening Nation’s Sovereignty – Arase
As Nigeria continues to battle organized crimes and other forms of criminality, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Dr Solomon Arase, has challenged Nigerians to rise and stand firm against those who threaten “the sovereign integrity of the Nigerian State.
Arase, a retired Inspector General of Police, said that no security agency can deliver on its mandate without the support of the people.
He therefore called for renewed vigour and inclusiveness in the fight against criminality so as to achieve the needed results.
Arase, who spoke at the International Symposium in Abuja on countering organized crimes in Africa, stressed that the will of the people must be strong since the people’s faith lies in the indivisibility of Nigeria.
Represented by Mr. Brighten Saagwe, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics of the Commission, Arase further said that it has become not only a statutory mandate but a moral imperative for security agencies to re-enact their old fighting force, re-strategise and redesign their tactics and promptly arrest and contain the growing insecurity challenge in the country.
According to him; “We shy away from whatever becomes necessary within the ambit of the law to provide the needed security for the citizens.
“Terrorism or crime has no conscience and spares no one, whether rich, poor, educated or uneducated and therefore, no matter what it takes, let us stand together and win this war against organized crime and terrorism.
The PSC Chairman noted that the supreme task for our generation is to give hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak and protection to the defenceless, stressing that organized crimes have negative effects on economic development of nations thus, the need to fight same. “Mankind must put an end to organised crime or organized crime will put an end to mankind. Keyboard of life, let us as a nation always keep a finger on the escape key to survive,” he said.
Arase advised that in this war against organized crime, there should be more synergy between security agencies as well as prompt criminal intelligence-sharing and suggested that Government should adopt a mix of both kinetic and non-kinetic approach for effective and result oriented security management.
The PSC boss assured that the Commission under his watch shall collaborate with other agencies of Government to fight organized crime in Nigeria.
A statement by Ikechukwu Ani, head of Press and Public Relations of the PSC, stated that the symposium with the theme: ‘Drug Crimes, Terrorism, Arms Trafficking, Marine Crimes, Environmental crime and auto theft’ was put together by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Integrity Watch and other partners.
