Activist and public affairs analyst, Dr. Lemmy Ughegbe, has said the recent arrest of five suspected terrorists, including two foreign nationals, by the Department of State Services (DSS) demonstrates that Nigeria’s security agencies are capable of delivering significant results when adequately equipped and supported.
Ughegbe stated this during an interview on Wednesday on Arise News while discussing the country’s security challenges and the role of citizens in addressing them.
According to him, Nigeria must acknowledge the seriousness of its security situation, noting that even President Bola Tinubu has publicly expressed concern about insecurity.
“We are in trouble as a country; we must admit that,” Ughegbe said.
Despite the challenges, he argued that the DSS operation should inspire confidence in the country’s security institutions.
“This very remarkable feat by the DSS shows that the agency, when allowed to do its job, properly equipped and properly motivated, has the capacity, not just the potential, to generate credible and actionable intelligence,” he said.
Ughegbe said the operation demonstrated the ability of security agencies to infiltrate terrorist networks, intercept intelligence and disrupt the movement of weapons among criminal groups.
“Being able to capture these five terrorists, including two foreign nationals, speaks volumes to the fact that we can be hopeful, even though there is still a lot of work to be done,” he added.
He stressed that intelligence gathering depends heavily on cooperation from members of the public, urging Nigerians to report suspicious activities within their communities.
“DSS officials are not spirits, they will not get information unless citizens provide it. If you have people living within your community whom nobody knows, there should be a way of quietly passing information to the authorities,” he said.
Ughegbe also blamed part of the security challenge on public complacency, saying many residents pay little attention to unfamiliar individuals living around them.
“Many of us live in areas where we do not know our neighbours. Yet terrorists and criminals can live within those same communities,” he said.
The analyst further urged political leaders and opposition figures to avoid politicising security issues, arguing that national security should take precedence over partisan interests.
“If we are all concerned about the state of affairs in Nigeria, then we must put the country first, there cannot be elections without citizens being safe,” he said.
Drawing comparisons with responses to major security incidents in other countries, Ughegbe called for greater unity in tackling insecurity.
“We need to get to a stage where we drop politics and focus on securing our country. Before politics, our citizenship and our safety must come first,” he added.
