Featured, Security
The attacks by Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast and the widespread killings by bandits in the Northwest are clear evidence that the war against terrorism and banditry is far over
By Anayo Ezugwu
THE recent protests by residents of Yantumaki Community in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State over incessant attacks by armed bandits have indicated that not even the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari is safe. The residents on Tuesday, June 9, poured on the streets protesting against insecurity, following the kidnap of a health worker and his daughter.
The health personnel, identified as Mansir Yusuf, was said to have been kidnapped alongside his daughter around 1: 00 am by unidentified gunmen. The kidnapping happened after Atiku Abubakar, district head of Yantumaki Community, was shot dead by gunmen at his residence.
The protesters, mostly youth and underage children, also blocked highways, castigating the government over security negligence ever since their district head was killed. “There have been no security personnel at the community since the district head was killed. We are protesting to call the attention of the government before these gunmen commence daily attacks on our community.
“Now, (they) killed our district head, and came back again. This means that they will be coming, since they are not facing any challenge anytime they carry attacks. The government needs to do the needful before the situation went out of control,” a senior community leader was reported to have said.
As if the protest has provoked them, on Tuesday, June 9, bandits launched fresh attacks on several communities in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State. The communities attacked include Kadisau, Maigora, and many nearby settlements. The bandits were said to have broken into houses and shops and carted away food stuff worth thousands of naira. As a result of the attack, some 200 attackers on motorcycles killed at least 20 people, who tried to resist the looting of Kadisau village.
Hundreds of people have been killed last year by criminal gangs carrying out robberies and kidnappings in northwest Nigeria. In May, the United Nations said the violence had forced about 23,000 refugees across the border to the north into Niger.
In Kaduna, many farming communities are being forced to abandon their farms over attacks by bandits in the state. On Tuesday, June 2, two farmers were reported to have been killed by unknown gunmen in their farms in Bakali village, Giwa Local Government Area of the state when they went to clear the area.
Sani Bakali, a farmer in the area, said: “We have had to abandon our farms because we are being killed daily. The bandits just storm the farms kill people on sight and leave. The recent attack happened on June 2, around 11.am, when farmers had gone to clear their farms. The bandits attacked and killed two of them. Now our farms are there, but we cannot go to the area for fear of being killed by these bandits.”
In Borno, at least 80 people have been killed in an attack on a herding village. According to security sources and residents, Boko Haram drove into remote Felo village in Gubio district, about 80km from the regional capital of Maiduguri, on Tuesday, June 9, opening fire on residents.
A community leader said the attack occurred as men and children watched over their cattle at a watering hole outside the village. “Our people were caught off guard by the gunmen who surrounded them. It is an open field with nowhere to hide. They couldn’t escape, they couldn’t outrun the vehicles,” he said.
This is story of insecurity in Nigeria under the watch of President Buhari. Many security experts believe that these unrelenting attacks showed that the country has become a free-field for Boko Haram, herders, bandits and kidnappers, who slaughter thousands unhindered. From Kaduna to Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Kogi, Zamfara, Niger, Katsina and Enugu, it has been tales of massacre by killer herdsmen and bandits. At a point in Benue State, the killer herdsmen controlled some local governments like Gwer West, Gwer East, Logo and Guma.
All these incidents point to the fact that Buhari has failed to keep his promise of tackling insecurity. The government came to power in 2015 with the promise to tame insecurity, but Nigeria continues to degenerate. The inability of the government to tackle terrorism is one of the biggest failings of this administration.
It also deflates federal government’s persistent claims of degrading Boko Haram. Under Buhari’s Administration, Boko Haram became the deadliest terror group in the world, with thousands of Nigerians killed in the last five years. Even in the Internally Displace Persons, IDP camps, people are persistently attacked and killed by Boko Haram.
But Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, Chief of Army Staff, has insisted that the federal government is winning the war against insecurity in the country. He said not less than 1,429 Boko Haram terrorists had been eliminated in the last two months that he physically joined the operations in the northeast.
Speaking after briefing the president on Monday, June 8, Buratai said some 116 accessories of the terrorist group, including coordinators, informants, as well as logistics couriers, had been arrested within the same period. He said the armed forces had performed tremendously within the period in review.
The chief of army staff also said the intelligence corps of the army, the operatives of the Department of State Services, as well as components of the Civilian Joint Task Force, CJTF, had cooperated to achieve the successes recorded. “The troops are putting in their best and that has resulted in the tremendous successes we are recording.
The fight is still ongoing and over 1429 of this Boko Haram terrorists have been neutralised and we have arrested over 166 Boko Haram terrorists informants, their spies, couriers on logistics and their coordinators in the villages, the towns and even the forest. So, this is a tremendous achievement, our intelligence corps along with the Department of State Services and of course our good friends the civilian Joint Task Force, CJTF, have worked very hard to see that this is achieved and I assure you that things will continue to improve as the days go by,” he said.
Despite the achievements Buratai highlighted, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said after five years in the saddle of leadership, the score-card of the APC-led Federal Government was abysmally poor. Kola Ologbodiyan, publicity secretary, PDP, described the past years of the Buhari administration as not only wasteful and corrupt, but that it has taken Nigeria backward by 60 years.
Our party views the last five years of Buhari administration as wasteful and could at best be described as season of the locusts. The Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government has turned our nation into a wasteland, devastated her economy, shattered our national dreams, crushed the hope of citizens and set our country backward,” he said.
But Femi Adesina, special adviser on media and publicity to the president, said facts speak for themselves. “By May 2015, insecurity had badly fractured the fabric of the nation. No one could wager that the country would survive the next month, not to talk of another year. Bombs went off like firecrackers, insurgents ran riot round the country, other forms of crime and criminality held sway. Life was nasty, brutish and short.
“The battle has been taken to the insurgents and criminals. And they are being extinguished by the day, and very close to complete extirpation. The Buhari administration has rolled out the most significant response to Nigeria’s multifaceted security challenges, since 1999,″ he said.
According to Adesina, Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies have significantly scaled up their footprint across the country – Operation Whirl Stroke in the North Central; Operation Ex-Swift Response in border areas, several new forward operating bases, quick response wings, commando training schools, and so on, and deployments of Special Forces.
He cited this as a decisive winning factor in the war against terrorists, bandits, armed herdsmen and militia groups. He noted that investments in arms and weapons through government to government military deals with the governments of the US, China, Russia, Pakistan have helped to eliminate expensive and opaque middlemen.
“In April 2020, a first batch of 17 military vehicles (VT-4 main battle tanks, ST-1 wheeled tank destroyers, self-propelled howitzers etc) arrived from China, for the fight against Boko Haram. This is apart from the Nigerian Air Force acquiring 22 brand new aircraft since 2015 and expecting another 16 (including the 12 Super Tucano currently on orders from the United States Government, and due for delivery starting 2021).”
In the face of Buhari’s administration defense, many Nigerians believe that the government needs to take more concrete steps in addressing security challenges across the country. To address the end carnage, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, has suggested that the federal government should stop migration of foreign herdsmen to northern Nigeria.
He said the government must review the West African Protocols that allow for free movement to stop the migration of dangerous weapons carrying herdsmen to Nigeria. “Such movements of the herdsmen always cause conflicts and destruction of human lives. One can clearly see that these migrating herdsmen always move with dangerous weapons are the ones causing conflicts in most places around the North and the nation at large. And most of the dangerous weapons carrying herdsmen come from Mali, Cameroon and other African nations,” he said.
While lending support to Governor Ganduje, the House of Representatives called on the federal government to prevent herdsmen in other countries from entering Nigeria. Consequently, the House is to meet with heads of security agencies on how to check illegal entry by foreign herders.
At the plenary on Tuesday, Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the House, moved a motion that was unanimously adopted, entitled, ‘Need to Stop the Entry of Herdsmen from Other African Countries into Nigeria.’ The House urged the federal government to put a halt to the entry of herdsmen from other African countries into Nigeria.
The House also mandated the Committees on Police Affairs, Army and Interior to interface with the Inspector-General of Police, the Chief of Army Staff and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, respectively, on the best ways of policing and securing the Nigeria borders.
Moving the motion, Elumelu said it had become necessary to lend a voice to Ganduje, that a stop be put to the movement of herdsmen from other African countries to Nigeria, to curb the rate of crime and conflicts associated with their movements across Nigeria.
“The House is concerned that those herdsmen who are militant in nature have consistently instilled fear in local farmers and villagers living in the affected areas by the use of coercion, intimidation, brute force and extreme violence and, in most cases, leaving a large number of persons dead.
“The House is also concerned that the violent conflicts between the nomadic herders from neighbouring countries and local farmers is escalating by the day to more states of the federation, and if left unchecked, will further threaten the security and stability of the nation,” he said.
– Jun. 12, 2020 @ 16:35 GMT |
Tags: Insecurity: Five years of killings and bloodletting
