… Urges Nigerians to report Kidnap cases to centre
The National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Centre, Office of the National Security Adviser (NCTC-ONSA), Major General Adamu Garba Laka, said the newly launched Multi-Agency Kidnap Fusion Cell (MAAKFC) would coordinate all kidnap for ransom rescue and prevention exercises and operations in the country.
General Laka stated this in his remarks at the commissioning of Multi-Agency Kidnap Fusion Cell in Abuja on Thursday.
He urged members of the public to report all Kidnap incidents to the center, saying it is well equipped to tackle all kidnapping issues.
Answering questions from journalists on ransom being paid by Nigerians to kidnappers, Laka said most Nigerians do not report Kidnap cases to security agencies until it gets out of hands.
” I won’t deny that Nigerians pay ransom to kidnappers, they do. The issue is that they report to us until it gets out of hand. Many of them pay ransom once, twice and even three times to kidnappers.
” When their family members are not released after paying ransom multiple times they now report to us and we rescue them.”
He said the centre is adopting new strategies to stem the tide of kidnapping but would not revealed them for security reasons.
Laka said that between 2022 and 2024, the United Kingdom, through the National Crime Agency (NCA) has partnered with the office of the National Security Adviser to provide capacity-building exercises as well as support to the National Counter-terrorism Center in a bid to set up a kidnap fusion centre.
He added that the output of this partnership led to a multi agency approach with over 15 law enforcement agencies and stakeholders working together to fight kidnapping in Nigeria.
Major General Laka further said that the United Kingdom and Nigeria enjoy a deep and long-standing security and defence relationship, underpinned by shared history, mutual trust and shared Commonwealth principles of democratic governance and respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as a shared desire to support regional and international peace and security. Hence, the inaugural UK-Nigeria SDP Dialogue signed by the two National Security Advisors of the two countries between 31st January and 2nd February, 2022.
The National Coordinator commended all the law enforcement agencies for working together to build capacity for the fusion cell, as well as the efforts in putting together a Terms of Reference and Standard Operation Procedure to guide the activities of the cell.
He however emphasized that the fusion cell is a 24/7 coordination centre and not an operational outfit which could duplicate efforts.
While giving a background on the Security Defence Partnership, NCA Operations Manager, Chris Grimson thanked the Nigerian government for the partnership and stressed the importance of having solutions tailored to the needs of Nigeria and implemented by Nigerians.
