An ex-Naval officer, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, has said that the gate of the Nigerian Defence Academy is always left open every Friday.
According to him, this is to allow outsiders to freely go in to observe the Jumat service in the facility’s mosque.
This, he added, was the practice in most other military formations in Nigeria.
Olawunni, who spoke on the bandits’ attack that the NDA suffered on Tuesday, saying it was an aberration, said the practice exposed the military bases to criminals.
He said during an interview on ‘Channels Television’: “In 2017, I carried out an investigation by the minister of defence that wanted me to check what was going on with the training and the security there (NDA). I remember I spent about a week in the NDA with the commandant and the staff but something struck me: every Friday, the gate of NDA is thrown open and everybody has access to pray in the mosque.
“On Fridays, you are going to see the same thing happening across all military formations in the country…If you go to Defence Headquarters, I served at the Defence Headquarters as the Deputy Director, Defence Administration between 2015 and 2017, throughout my two years at the Defence Headquarters, I received visitors twice because of the strict security architecture there but every Friday, the gate of the Defence Headquarters is thrown wide open for everybody to come in and observe Jumat.
“That is the time the terrorists have the time to profile our security environment. It has always been the case. I have served the military intelligence for the past 35 years. Our problem is religion and socio-cultural.”
Olawunnmi also alleged that some of the sponsors of Boko Haram and bandits are in the Buhari government as well as in the NationalA ssembly.
He said the government knew then but was reluctant to deal with them, saying President Muhammadu Buhari was also involved in the politics of the crises.
