Last Easter Sunday attack on Owerri, the Imo State Capital was one attack too many, because since the state was created in 1976, it has never witnessed anything like it.
The entire state is still shell shocked and speechless, while national gaze is on a state hitherto regarded as relatively peaceful amid galloping insecurity across the country.
What that unprecedented attack has forcefully succeeded in achieving is that it has unequivocally demonstrated that nowhere and no one is safe again in Nigeria.
In other words, it seems to have lent credence to seeming harsh opinions on the precarious situation of the country, the most damning of which is that Nigeria is a “failed country”.
And really, if the Government House/ Imo State Police/ Imo Prisons Headquarters(Correctional center) which is supposed to be the most secured and safest zone in the state can be so easily raided without the minutest resistance, then insecurity has truly enveloped us.
Perhaps it is because of the seeming questionable circumstances surrounding the attack that has made skeptics posit that there are lots of questions begging for answers.
For instance, some citizens are asking, how could an attack last for more than two hours in the heart of Owerri without any resistance or reinforcement? And where were the heavily armed arms squad personnel of the Prisons, their police colleagues that guard Police Headquarters, as well assortment of various security agents at Government House on the night of the attack?
Assuming they were overwhelmed, why did they not send distress call(s) to the military at Obinze Barracks?
There are indeed lorry loads of questions but, at the moment we think this is no time for blame game or name calling.
It is rather a time for serious action to unravel the mystery behind the attack so as to forstall a repeat here or, anywhere else in the country.
Against this backdrop, instead of the name calling gambit of the Inspector General of Police,IGP Mohammed Adamu who is already fingering IPOB and Eastern Security Network, ESN what is urgently needed now is thorough indepth investigation of the unfortunate incident.
Similarly, like we have severally advised in the past editorials bordering on security ,the intelligence capability of our security architecture seems to be at zero level. It should be scaled up urgently in view of its critical importance in crime detection and prevention.
In our thinking this is the time to incorporate cutting edge technology into our security architecture since the present reactionary strategy has grossly proven incapable of helping the situation.
Again, it is high time we started placing square pegs in square holes in security agencies. It has been alleged that meritocracy is no longer a criteria for occupation of strategic offices in our security architecture.
Surely, if that is true it means we can never defeat insecurity because no one plants cassava and wants to harvest yam.
The Owerri attack is a national embarrassment that should not happen again. So, rather than knee jerk approach common with our system, it should be thoroughly investigated, those behind it ,including their sponsors apprehended and made to face the law.
Once people start paying for their sins and crimes, incidences of this nature would nosedive and when that happens insecurity would drastically reduce.