Timi Frank, a former deputy national publicity secretary for the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the US to deny visas to Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser (NSA), and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara State.
In response to accusations that the two are equipping Fulani bandits and other non-state actors in the state, he made this statement.
Frank urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to order a thorough investigation into the accusations in a statement released on Friday.
He cautioned that until the issue is fully probed, the United States should be cautious when providing intelligence with Nigeria.
The controversy, according to Frank, revealed “dangerous fault lines within Nigeria’s national security architecture” and was “a chain of official contradictions, confessions, denials, and reversals.”
According to Frank, Kwara State Government officials first verified that the suspects belonged to Miyetti Allah and were functioning under a federal security arrangement managed by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
“The Kwara State Government itself confirmed that the arrested individuals were part of a security operation linked to the NSA’s office, barely days after initial denials,” Frank said.
He continued by saying that a statement from the NSA’s office purportedly admitted that weapons had been given to vigilantes under “hybrid security operations,” in accordance with the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act, making the situation more serious.
According to Frank, “that admission was widely reported and was not immediately disputed.”
He did, however, criticize what he called a “sudden and suspicious U-turn” by the NSA’s office, which subsequently denied arming kidnappers, militias, or sociocultural groups, claiming instead that the people engaged were just vigilantes that the NSA was aware of.
Frank says there are substantial problems posed by the contradictory accounts. “Who gave the arms permission? These armed men were hired by whom? Why did official accounts change several times in a matter of days? “Is the NSA hiding something, or is the governor of Kwara State being honest?” he questioned.
Frank referred to the situation as a “national security scandal” and stated that the discrepancies could not be written off as media misunderstanding.
“As National Security Adviser, you cannot appear to defend or explain the issuance of weapons and then later completely deny it.” Such inconsistencies point to either egregious ineptitude or a purposeful cover-up, he claimed.
Frank urged President Tinubu to order an independent investigation into the NSA’s and Kwara State Government’s roles right away, look into the contradictory statements made by the NSA’s office, and make sure that any official found to have enabled or armed non-state actors outside the law faces consequences.
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