Former Oyo state governor Adebayo Alao-Akala in an interview with Vanguard says the army with all its sophistication can not easily win the battle against Boko Haram. He said this while responding to questions about the state of insecurity in Nigeria and what should be done to arrest the threatening situation
“With due respect to the army, no matter how sophisticated the army is, this is not a war they can easily win. It is one that everybody has to participate in order for the nation to win. What they should do is to make sure the police are well equipped to face the challenge. If you see when they started they first of all scared away the police. They are attacking police station all over the place just to scare them. And they allowed police to be scared by bringing in army, no! They should have fortified the police by giving them more money and vital equipment to enable them to face these people. The police are more widespread in this country than the army. We have police post in every locality, but soldiers are not everywhere. If you remember, at the commencement of the civil war, there was what they called police action first, but when they felt the police could not deliver, they brought in the army. Right now, there is a department in the police called CIB, Civil Intelligence Bureau. The CIB will gather intelligence report, which will not be sent to anywhere but used within the immediate environment and action taken immediately based on the intelligence gathered and analysed by the officers. If the police are in charge, they would send intelligence officers to mingle with the areas they consider as Boko Haram black spots to be able to gather vital information in dealing with them. So, my suggestion is that the police should be brought in; army should be in the background. Why we have mobile policemen is because of this type of situation, MOPOL is a sort of para-military and they are well armed and well trained to face this type of a threat to the society”. he said
