BREAKING: Mike Ejiofor: Crisis In Plateau State Cannot Be Tackled Without Knowing The Cause Of The Problem

Former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, has said that while Nigeria is not suffering from a shortage of intelligence to tackle insecurity, the ongoing crisis in Plateau State is yet to be solved because there is no clear information on what is causing the problems in the state.

In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, Ejiofor expressed grave concern over the deteriorating security situation in Plateau State, describing it as a crisis shrouded in mystery and worsened by conflicting narratives and government inaction.

Referring specifically to the recent wave of violence in Plateau communities, Ejiofor lamented that the perpetrators remain unidentified, with no clear understanding of their leadership, goals, or structure—making resolution extremely difficult.

Ejiofor said, “Intelligence plays a major role in this fight against insurgency. And you know that the state security service itself has been charged with provision of intelligence to other security agencies. Now, I’ve said this many times without number that we’re not lacking intelligence in terms of supplying to the operations, but I think in the case of Plateau State, for instance, I think it has become a major problem to everybody. Because before you solve a problem, get a solution to the problem, you should be able to identify the causes of that problem.

“What is happening in Plateau State seems to have overwhelmed everybody. Because, one, who are the leaders? They are not known. What are their aims and objectives? Nobody seems to know. We’re all speculating. Everybody hazards a guess. The governor will come, it’s ethnic cleansing. Others will come, it is an issue of land, and all these things. But I believe, too, that the state security service has a profile on some of these people, which should be shared. Commissions of inquiry have been set up. What has happened to those commissions of inquiries? What is the outcome of those inquiries? So these are major problems. We should be able to identify what the problem is before we start looking for solutions.”

Ejiofor then advocated for the establishment of a “first line of defence” made up of retired security personnel, local leaders, and town union structures, who could be mobilised and armed under police supervision to support the overstretched national forces.

He said, “Now, if you look at the intelligence gathering, people make up the community, provides the intelligence. And if these people, the terrorists or jihadists, as the governor has classified them, come at night to kill innocent people, it becomes a problem. I have not been to this particular area, but I understand it is a mountainous area where these terrorists occupy, and come out from that place. Don’t also forget that they cannot operate in isolation of some of the unpatriotic indigenes of that area. So it’s a major problem that the government has to address. And I think one of the solutions I think we should look at is the issue of first line of defence… that’s getting the communities involved.

“I can tell you that if we get the communities involved, they will be more committed. A place like Plateau and Benue State, for instance, where we have a reserve of retired officers, you get them together, form a group at the local government level, at the state level, harness all of them, bring them together. They will be able to provide the intelligence in conjunction with the state security staff to fight this.”

“This group of people should be out. Because if you gather them without the necessary arms, they cannot do anything. They should be armed and regulated by the police. Like I said, the professionals who are retired and still active should form the bulk of this group of first line of defence. Because if you say they should just go to the police, and these people running riot come in with sophisticated weapons, it becomes a problem,” he added.

On the growing threat of terrorism and kidnapping across the country, Ejiofor warned that criminal networks have evolved into profit-driven franchises, with ransom funds possibly being channelled to invisible backers rather than the visible abductors.

“There are still local funders of these groups. If you take the case of kidnapping for instance, people collecting hundreds of millions, 50 million, 30 million, and you see that they are looking haggard, they are looking unkempt. So that means there are people behind them that they are giving this money. So it has become a franchise. It’s a major problem. And I think the government has to take these issues of insecurity, And it’s not only peculiar to Benue and Plateau. You have cases of kidnapping in the Northwest. The issue of IPOB in the Southeast, The festering cases of Boko Haram in the Northeast, especially Borno that is upcoming again, there is upsurge of these incidents. So we need to identify the funders, people behind all this.”

Ejiofor concluded by warning that Nigeria must stop repeating failed strategies and start implementing policies backed by actionable intelligence and ground-level support.

“We cannot continue to do the same thing in the same way and expect a different result,” he said.