National Security Council orders disbandment of NATFORCE, declares it illegal

Nigeria’s National Security Council on Thursday ordered the immediate disbandment of the National Taskforce on Prohibition of Illegal, Importation/Smuggling of Arms, Ammunition, Light Weapons, Chemical Weapons and Pipeline Vandalism (NATFORCE).

The Council has also declared NATFORCE as illegal.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, the Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, and his Police Affairs counterpart, Alhaji Mohammed Dingyadi, directed the NATFORCE leadership to wind down its operations with immediate effect or risk being disbanded forcefully by security agencies.

Persecondnews recalls that the Senate had in July passed the Bill establishing the Commission, while the House of Representatives is expected to pass its version of the Bill on resumption in September 2022.

On the July Kuje prison break, Aregbesola said investigation into the correctional facility attack by gunmen is “still work in progress.”

Aregbesola noted that the Council also received reports from all Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police about the fatal attack.

“The Council is very satisfied with the performance of all security agencies; the country is moving to the phase of consolidated security.”

On his part, the Minister of Police Affairs, Dingiyadi, said there were other negotiators apart from Tukur Mamu, who has been arrested by the DSS.

“There are others involved in the negotiations with the kidnappers of Abuja-Kaduna train passengers; Tukur Mamu’s arrest will not stop negotiations.”

Perscondnews recalls that Mamu, who was the Abuja-Kaduna train kidnap negotiator, was arrested at Cairo International Airport in Egypt on September 6, 2022, on his way to Saudi Arabia for lesser hajj with his family members.

He was subsequently brought back to the country and immediately taken into  custody by the Department of State Services (DSS).

An ex-parte motion brought before the court by the DSS sought permission to further detain him for another 60 days.

The agency, in an affidavit filed at the court, accused Mamu of aiding both local and international terrorist organisations, and also being involved in terrorism financing.