Irked by the brazen attack on Nigeria’s premier military institution, Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) by “Unknown Gunmen” on Tuesday in Kaduna, a retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, has fingered an insider collaboration.

He also calls for a stop to the use of military institutions as Praying Grounds on Friday, saying that the practice has allowed criminal elements to spy on military installations nationwide.

Speaking on Channels Television breakfast programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ on Wednesday on the topic: “Tackling National Security Challenges”, Olawunmi insists that such an audacious attack on a respected military institution like the NDA could not have been possible without an insider collaboration.

According to him: “It’s my belief that such attack on NDA could not have happened if some individuals inside did not collaborate with the invaders. As an Intelligence Officer, I know that no operation will succeed without the external body having inside collaborators”.

Olawunmi who is a Professor of Global Security Studies revealed that such collaborators are either induced with money or blackmailed to cooperate with the external invaders, pointing out that the military high commands should go after all those involved in the NDA attack.

The former Nigeria’s Military Defence Adviser in France however, asked the authorities not to go too far in search of how the water passed through the stem of pumpkin as long as military institutions are being used as Friday Praying Ground.

Said he: “I am surprised that the gates of our military barracks and installations are still being used as Friday Praying Grounds. Just anybody including terrorists are allowed unfettered access to the military formations every Friday for prayers.

Curiously, the gates of these sensitive military institutions are still being thrown wide open every Friday for the public to flood in for prayers. It has to stop immediately”.

Meanwhile, Commodore Olawunmi has lashed out at the federal government, saying that the ship of the nation is drifting dangerously towards the cliff if nothing urgent is done to halt the slid.

According to him: “it’s clear our country is at the precipice security-wise. It has not been this bad. It will take some time for anyone coming after the present administration to pull the country out of the woods. There are many things going wrong here. There are people in the present government that I was part of their interrogation over security issues”.

The ex-top Intelligence Officer blamed Nigerian journalists for not doing enough to hold political leaders to account, saying; “there is nothing that is going on in the society that journalists don’t know but they have chosen to keep quiet now”.

Asked if he allowed journalists to report everything they know of the military when he was in the service, Olawunmi said: “Military intelligence is not a secret cult. I have trained journalists when I was heading military information department and I made information available to them”.