Cross-border Cooporation Critical To Tackling Terrorism – Gen Laka

Major General Adamu Laka, the coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), has called for enhanced inter-agency collaboration and cross-border cooperation to stem the tide of terrorism.

Laka said this on Monday in Abuja at the opening of the Counter Terrorism Theory and Practice Course, which was organised in collaboration with the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, UK.

He said the course, facilitated by the Nigeria-UK Strategic Defence Partnership, had created an avenue for national development that embodies a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to addressing terrorism concerns in Nigeria.

According to him, there was no doubt that terrorism has a profound negative impact on the nation, citizens as well as international partners.

Laka said that terrorist acts and other criminal elements must be adequately tackled through continuous collaboration by security stakeholders.

He stated that no agency could solely achieve laudable success in the fight against terrorism, emphasising the need to collaboratively identify individual crucial roles and collaborate to record significant progress.

“It therefore stresses the need for inter-agency collaboration and cross-border relationships to stem this tide because terrorism recognises no borders.

“Given this, the NCTC-ONSA, in collaboration with the UK Counter Terrorism team, seeks to address counter-terrorism measures that could enhance the Country’s national security through this course.

“This course reaffirms a call to re-awakening for collaborative efforts which we all must embrace, as victory by one is victory by all of us and a greater victory for our entire nation, the African continent and the world at large,’’ he said.

The Head of the Counter-terrorism Network for West Africa at the British High Commission, Lawrence Devlin, said the engagement seeks to build upon the UK’s commitment to Nigeria to address shared security challenges.

Devlin said the course would address the fundamental themes in counter-terrorism, taking a broad view of the security challenges posed by terrorists in the 31st century.

The Course Facilitator, Dr Aaron Edward, said the course was designed to understand the contemporary terrorist threat better.

He said that the appearance of terrorism worldwide in different countries had various traits, which could become much more of a problem if not dealt with comprehensively.

According to him, understanding our security challenges can lead to a much more productive outcome and ultimately make our society safer.