A former director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr. Mike Ejiofor has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to relieve the heads of some of the security agencies in the country of their positions.

Speaking on Wednesday when he appeared as a guest on an  Arise News programme, Ejiofor said their dismissal would improve the performance of some organizations in the fight against insecurity in the country.

He said a situation where high -profile military officers were kidnapped and killed showed the state of insecurity in the country, stressing that the tenure of some of the service chiefs had already expired.

Ejiofor said: “For me, if you continue to do the same thing the same way, you can’t expect a different result. Some of the Service Chiefs have overstayed. Their tenures have expired but they are still being retained.

He added: “So, I think it is time we need to try new hands but because of politics, I think the government doesn’t have the political will to do this.”

The ex-DSS boss warned that the country could not afford to play politics with its security as the bulk of the security concerns over the forthcoming general elections was caused by the actions and behaviour of politicians from the two major political parties in the country.

“Well, it is going to be a very challenging year. In 2018, you have listed the crises and challenges we have, which the government is trying to address but you know the problems and challenges we expect in 2019 because of the election.

“I believe they are self-made and self-inflicted because these could be avoided. You see the way politicians go about their campaigns. We expect them to campaign on issues but they are busy attacking each other.

“We should not forget that we have about 90 political parties but the prominent ones causing the real security challenges are the PDP and APC and the reasons are obvious.

“APC want to retain power, claiming that PDP has been in power for the past 16 years and PDP having left power for over four years want to come back. There is nothing wrong with that. That is democracy.

“But my fears are that as stated in our constitution, the primary purpose and responsibility of government is the security and welfare of the people. You can’t divorce politics from security but at the same time we can’t be playing politics with our security, which is exactly what is happening.

“People are playing politics with our security system which is very dangerous. Security is a collective effort of the whole people and it shouldn’t be left for government alone but the government on its part also has promised as one of its cardinal projects to provide security for the people but we are not there yet.

“You listed the challenges. You look at Borno State for instance. The Boko Haram is overwhelming the military. What are the reasons? You go to Zamfara, people are being killed daily.

“Herdsmen whom I don’t call herdsmen, I call them terrorists, who I believe are an extension of Boko Haram are all over the country and we are preparing for an election. The problems are so much and I think the earlier the government addressed the issues the better for them as we are going into elections.”