Adams Oshiomhole, a former Edo State governor, says some of the achievements recorded by the President Bola Tinubu administration would not have been made without serious intelligence gathering and coherent coordination by the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and member representing Edo North at the National Assembly said President Bola Tinubu is doing his best to address insecurity in Nigeria.
Oshiomhole noted that the security situation had improved compared to what it was before the APC gained power in 2015.
“Nobody is pretending that it’s all over, but let no one deny that progress has been made because I was in this country where we were forced to postpone national elections because Boko Haram had taken over and installed foreign flags in about 81 local government areas in the northeast.
“And I mentioned some of the things that have happened here. So, I have watched the number of people who have been convicted,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
“The only worry I have as far as those convictions are concerned is that I don’t know the power of the judges, where the law says he shall be sentenced to death if guilty of terrorism, and the judge sentenced the guilty to 20 years.
“I’m unable to understand that different judges rewrite the law passed by a parliament, but the business of the judge is to interpret.
“So those kinds of cases, I’m sure the President is also looking at those, that if you have killed so many people and in the end you are apprehended, why should any judge grant you any clemency that is not in their power in law to do? Only the President can exercise the power of clemency,” Oshiomhole added.
The former governor of Edo State argued that, but for serious intelligence gathering and coherent coordination by the Office of the National Security Adviser, some of the achievements recorded by the current administration would not have been made.
No Overnight Solution
The senator further noted that Tinubu had shown concern over the safety of Nigerians by replacing his service chiefs and ordering them to address the security challenges urgently.
Oshiomhole explained that, besides holding meetings, the President had directed the Inspector General of Police to recruit an additional 30,000 personnel as part of efforts to expand the number of policemen that could be deployed to carry out core police duties across the country, so that the armed forces would not be burdened with policing duties.
He also disclosed that following the abduction of the schoolgirls in Kebbi, the Senate accepted a motion advising the President to begin the process of recruiting an additional 100,000 men into the armed forces.
“So all of that shows that everybody is concerned that we must begin to do something differently, including recognising the fact that we have witnessed a huge increase in our population growth relative to the size of the Nigerian armed forces.
“But there can be no overnight solution. What we can question is, does this President care? Yes. Is he taking steps? Yes. Are people being apprehended? Yes. Are we beginning to see convictions? Yes. Has the problem completely disappeared? No,” the former APC chairman added.
