Defence Chief breaks silence on rising killings

Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, has linked the sudden spike in killings across the country to hidden political forces ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday night, Musa dropped the bombshell that the renewed wave of bloodshed, especially in the North-East and North-West, is being orchestrated by powerful interests desperate to discredit governance.

“Last year we recorded the lowest number of deaths. How come this year, suddenly, everything has spiked?” he asked pointedly. “Politics is coming, the election is coming. You cannot rule out the fact that some people are controlling these criminals to ensure there is no peace, and governance is discredited. But the funny thing is, how do you kill the people you want to govern?”

The Defence Chief warned that both bandits and terrorists are now working hand in hand to destabilise communities, emboldened by local and foreign sponsors. According to him, security agencies, including the DSS, NIA and NFIU, are tracking financiers of terrorism but prosecutions remain painfully slow due to legal bottlenecks.

Musa criticised Nigeria’s justice system for frustrating terror trials and demanded special courts, swifter prosecutions, and harsher punishments for those funding insurgency.

On external threats, he lamented Nigeria’s porous 4,000km border, which allows weapons from Libya, Sudan and the wider Sahel to flow freely into the country. He also cautioned against indiscriminate hospitality towards foreigners, warning that insurgents often slip in disguised as ordinary visitors before turning violent.

The Defence Chief further admitted that the Nigerian military lacks real-time satellite surveillance and precision weaponry, a gap worsened by global conflicts which have pushed up the cost of security technology.

However, he welcomed President Bola Tinubu’s recent approval of the Defence Industrial Bill, saying it would empower Nigeria to begin producing its own hardware in collaboration with original equipment manufacturers.