Participants at an annual summit involving retired Army Generals and Legal luminaries have called on the government to go after financiers of insecurity in the country.

The call is contained in a communiqué issued after a House of Justice Annual Summit and Golden Ball Banquet with the theme “Security Justice and National Orientation” held in Kaduna.

The communiqué signed by Barrister Gloria Ballason and Luka Ashafa Odita, Lecturer, Criminology & Security Studies, Kaduna State University, stressed the need for cooperation by Nigeria and neighboring countries in strategically resolving insecurity.

It said the recruitment process for security agents should be transparent and based on merit.

The communique asserted that, “the government and security agencies are aware of some of the persons sponsoring terrorism through intelligence gathering and reports but there has not been concerted efforts to deal with the lifeblood of insecurity, especially financiers of insecurity.”

According to the communique, absence of justice for victims makes some of them to transit into combatants, just as it criticized the policy of rehabilitation, recovery and reintegration programmes for offenders by the government while abandoning the victims in internally displaced persons camps which are sometimes re-attacked by the terrorists.

It lamented that Nigeria had repeatedly failed to hold electoral offenders to account, as electoral crimes were rarely punished.

The participants suggested, “The justice system in Nigeria and Africa should dispense justice according to law. The National Judicial Council and citizens shall hold the judiciary to account.”

It also suggested that judicial appointments should be apolitical and shall not devolve by family or filial ties or through any primordial sentiment.

The participants also noted that there are concerns about the diminishing authority and respect for the justice sector due to the capture of the judiciary by family dynasties, politicization of appointments and the profiling of the judiciary as corrupt.

Some of the notable participants at the summit included: General Martin Luther Agwai (Rtd), Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Professor Chris Kwaja, Sarah Reng Ochekpe, Group Captain Sadeeq Garba Shehu Rtd, Dr. Mike Omeri, Mr. Chima Christian, Barrister Audu Adamu Maikori, Barrister Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, SAN, and Commissioner of Police Kaduna State, Muhammad Rabiu, represented by ACP Badamasi Mus