Olakunle Olafioye

The President of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), Dr. Ona Ekhomu has advised the Federal Government to adopt threat vulnerability integration in re-engineering the security architecture of the nation. The threat vulnerability integration (TVI) involves tactical threat analysis, strategic threat analysis and vulnerability assessment – to solve the nation’s current security challenges.

Presenting a memorandum to the Senate Ad –Hoc Committee in Nigeria’s Security Challenges, Dr. Ekhomu said that threat vulnerability integration involves the mapping of terrorist threats and capabilities both current and future against specific national assets and the vulnerabilities that could be explored by the threats to exploit the assets. He said that TVI would help to develop thresholds for preventive or protective action for assets. Ekhomu said that people are the greatest assets of the nation and needed to be protected effectively.

Related News

Ekhomu was testifying to the Senate Ad-hoc Committee, which organized a five-day intension forum with the theme: Urgent Need to Restructure, Review and Reorganize the Current Security Infrastructure of Nigeria. He told the committee headed by Senate Leader, Senator Dr. Yahaya Abdullahi that the current security architecture was “outdated, antiquated, antediluvian and patently ineffective. While government has expanded the number of security agencies – many with overlapping functions, our analysis of the risks and threats shows that the risks are not mitigated.” He said that the February 12th 2020 attack by so-called bandits in Kaduna State, which resulted in the burning death of a family of 16, was caused by observable and exploitable vulnerabilities. He said the vulnerabilities included absence of guardians (Military, Police, Vigilantes, etc.), absence of capable guardians (proper arms and equipment for the security agents), no air raid alarm, no rapid response, no force multipliers, impunity on the part of the bandits, etc.

Ekhomu, the first chartered security professional in West Africa referred the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee to Chapter 15 of his new book entitled “Boko Haram: Security Consideration and the Rise of an Insurgency” in which he came up with a novel solution to insurgency and terrorism which he described as risk mapping methodology. This is a risk-based approach which includes risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation planning, countermeasures implementation, and performance evaluation.

He said: the risk mapping methodology is an effective tool for identifying risks and addressing them. He condemned the present security infrastructure which is risk based.