'No Enemy within the NIA’

‘No Enemy within the NIA’

Written by admin // October 9, 2012 // 0 Comments

By Farouq El- Siddiq

In a swift reaction to our cover story Revealed: National Intelligence Agency (NIA): The Enemy within! the content of which was extracted from a petition by anonymous persons that claimed to be concerned employees of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and published in our edition of 18th-24th September 2012, Vol. 2No. 147, five staff of the NIA, whom also pleaded for anonymity, have written to DESERT HERALD and denied all the allegations as presented by the group of concerned senior officers of NIA, saying there is actually no enemy at all and that it was a calculated attempt by the detractors of the current leadership of the NIA that are envious of the unequal achievement of the leadership of the NIA under Ambassador Ezekiel Olaniyi Oladeji. The officers said they have no business defending anybody but that as officers that knew the current leadership of the NIA very well and with their northern background they are in the right position and have the responsibility of putting the record straight and that they challenge anybody to verify their own claims either at the NIA or from any staff of the agency. They said “the fact that the faceless petitioners even accepted the bitter fact that Oladeji has introduced a number of reform programmes aimed at repositioning the service to meet up with current global security challenges ridiculed the content of their baseless claims against his leadership. It is important to refresh the minds of your esteemed readers on the history of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). The history of the NIA dates back to 1986 when former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida fulfilled his promise in June 1986 by issuing Decree Number 19, which dissolves the NSO and restructuring Nigeria’s security services into three separate organizations under the Office of the coordinator of National Security. Since its creation till now, the NIA has had 7 Director Generals including the current DG, these Director- Generals includes, Albert K. Horsfall 1986 to 1990, Brigadier-General Haliru Akilu (Rtd) from 1990 to 1993, Zakari Y. Ibrahim 1993 to 1998, Godfrey B. Preware, 1998–1999, Uche O. Okeke 1999–2007, Emmanuel E. Imohe 2007 – 2009 and the current DG, Ambassador Ezekiel Olaniyi Oladeji from 2009 till date. “The DG has introduced unprecedented reforms never in the history of the NIA as stated by the petitioners themselves. The claim of tribalism in a professional organization like the NIA and with all the experienced senior officers working with the DG is the most ridiculous claim we have ever heard on the NIA. It is not possible for such to happen in the NIA even if the DG intends to do it. The claim exposes their naivety of the working at the NIA”, they said. The five officers also revealed that “it is during the administration of Oladeji that all officers no matter their grades are allowed to express their views, suggestions, complains and even constructive criticism openly or anonymously for management’s consideration through a dedicated suggestion boxes and email address for those that feel uncomfortable to drop their complains in the suggestion box”. DESERT HERALD findings on these claim reveals that the NIA indeed has provided such suggestion boxes and dedicated emails and that staff of the agency are indeed contributing and are happy with the unusual policy aimed at repositioning the agency to meet international standards. The officers further stated that “for the record, these channels which give total immunity had long been in existence to accommodate divergent views, irrespective of how revolutionary, confrontational or antagonistic they might be. This channel (suggestion boxes and emails) is well known to every member within the establishment and is widely used. Just go and take a look at the organization; how it was completely restructured by Mr. Oladeji. The petition is mischievous and we believe it was sponsored by those desperate to have Oladeji’s seat”. They said “for those that don’t know and the petitioners there is no enemy within in NIA rather than those spreading lies and falsehood for their selfish aggrandizement. Just take a look at the National Intelligence Agency’s role is solely for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence which it has been doing dutifully and with all intent to make world class intelligence agency in the world.” Right from the time it was established till now, they said, intelligence gathering has become very fundamental to the NIA just like any other Intelligence Organization in the world, more than ever before to the international community, especially with the pervasive insecurity all over the world created largely by terrorism and trans-national criminal activities. It is in this light therefore, the rejoinder observes, that “the developed world, particularly countries like Britain and United States of America has fortified the MI5 and MI6, the CIA and FBI respectively. Perhaps, this is the time to actually appreciate our own, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which has existed in the past twenty –six (26) years. Right from the time of creation in 1986 by the Babangida Administration till now, the National Intelligence Agency has continued to be at higher level. The intelligence agency knew and understood its objectives, and operated with candor. We have been able to penetrate and compromise any ethnic group, trade unions, and even the Nigerian Bar Association and the Academic Unions to the point that all the movements of these groups were checkmated before they embarked on activity that might destabilize the government. It was an effective intelligence work and collaboration between us and our sister security agencies such as the NSA, and SSS Operations department”. DESERT HERALD learnt that under Oladeji the NIA has achieved more than ever before in terms of maintaining and making sure that Nigeria became the core combatant and dominating force within the African continent. Its major role as an intelligence agency under the current DG is being responsible for the collection, analysis or exploitation of information and intelligence in support of law enforcement, national security, defence and foreign policy objectives. The NIA has also provided analysis in areas relevant to national security; gave early warning of impending crises; served national and international crisis management by helping to discern the intentions of current or potential opponents; it has also done so much in providing information on national defence planning and military operations; protection of sensitive information secrets, both of their own sources and activities, and those of other state agencies. National Intelligence Agency under Olaniyi Oladeji, our investigation revealed has been working to oversee foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations; “just as it is indisputable that the safety of lives and property must be at the top of this and any other administrations’ list of priorities, without a secure environment, neither good governance nor the consequential benefits that flow from it can be expected or planned for. Therefore based on this, our core objective we have been delivering, such as in generating source material to enable the Commander-in-Chief to make considered decisions on matters of national security,” the officers said. They added that since the rationalization and depoliticization of the national security services, the NIA under Oladeji has remained firm and efficient in intelligence collection and analysis capabilities. “While the agency is on, we disagree with those that give the wrong impression that our work is being hampered by its deficiencies in intelligence collection and analysis capabilities, these are pure lies as the agency is strictly an intelligence that does covert operation and we cannot come out to sing out to the public what and how we are collating information from sources and that will hamper our activities and success. We have also been putting enough reform, training of personnel and cooperation among in the agency to march up to expectation, many which are geared toward being better positioned to respond appropriately to the various security challenges currently confronting the country”. In his response, the publisher of DESERT HERALD Malam Tukur Mamu said what was published in the said cover story was purely the content of the petition sent to it by the anonymous concerned officers and that further investigation on the allegation was not done because all efforts to reach out to the agency for response was not successful up until the time of going to press. He said as far as DESERT HERALD is concerned what was presented to it by the anonymous officers is just an allegation and that the agency has the right to be heard. Mamu said even though there was unsuccessful attempts to hear the side of the agency before going to press, considering the sensitive nature of the petition which was written to President Goodluck Jonathan and sent to DESERT HERALD, the paper tendered unreserved apology to the NIA for the failure to hear their side before going to press and for the fact that some of the allegations that was later investigated by the paper is not true. But Mamu emphasized that there is nothing wrong with publishing the piece of the petition since the paper did not alter a single content of the petition in the cause of her report.

Similar posts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This Week Edition of DH

Facebook Fans

Twitter

Archives