Terrorists can’t carry out coordinated attacks again – SSS

The State Security Service has said the war against terrorism is paying off as terrorists have been weakened and can no longer carry out simultaneous attacks in the country. This is just as President Goodluck Jonathan disclosed that over N800m had been spent on training and retraining of SSS officers. The Director-General of the agency, Ekpenyong Ita, who said during the passing out parade and inauguration of 385 members of the Cadet Officers Basic Course 27 in Lagos on Saturday that terrorism would soon be a thing of the past in the country. Ita said the SSS had been able to help curb terrorism due to investment in human capacity development as well as cooperation from members of the public, sister agencies and the press. He said the fight against terrorism had further been boosted with the emergence of local vigilantes popularly called Civilian JTF and the state of emergency declared in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states. He said, “We can confidently say that we have decimated the terrorists’ top and middle level leadership and its foot soldiers thereby dislodging its centre of gravity. There is no doubt that our strategies have invariably affected the cohesion of the group as well as the chain of command, to the level that the group, for now does not possess the capacity to direct and launch simultaneous attacks on several cities or targets in Nigeria as had been the situation in the past two years. “We intend to build and consolidate on our successes in this war against the terrorists in order to create a conducive environment for democracy and development.” Ita said the new officers, who had undergone almost a year of training, were coming at a sensitive time in the nation’s history. He therefore advised them to remain focused and put the nation’s interest first. He said, “To our graduating cadets, you are coming into the service at a very auspicious time, when the service is being re-invented to position herself for even greater effectiveness in the global security landscape. You are coming at a time when the nation grapples with serious security challenges. You must collectively and individually contribute to the attainment of the service’s mandate.” Meanwhile, Jonathan who was represented by the supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, said the training of the service personnel was necessitated by the current security challenges facing the country. He said N800m was released for training this year, adding that in 2011 and 2012, the sums were N237m and N300m respectively. He said, “We will do more as peace and security are important to the economy. The Federal Government through the National Assembly recently passed the anti-terrorism law. “You have performed well but remember that your passing out today is the beginning of your job. Your training was necessitated by the current security challenges facing the country.” Also present at the event were Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole; Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio and his Cross River State counterpart, Liyel Imoke.