…May Launch Fresh Deadlier Attacks * Anger, Frustration Trail Attacks
…Nigerians Demand Accountability, Knock Buhari For Inaction
There is definitely more to come from the daredevil terrorists running riots in Nigeria. Thrilled and emboldened by their accomplishments in executing deadly attacks on soft and hard targets in Nigeria, THEWILL gathered authoritatively, the terrorists have regrouped in a North-Central state close to Abuja shortly after Tuesday’s attacks on Kuje Maximum Correctional Centre, Abuja and the presidential convoy in Dutsinma in Katsina State same day. Their mission? To launch more coordinated attacks across the country.
Dependable security sources told THEWILL that immediately after executing their combined attacks on Tuesday, the leaders of the terror squads from Ansaru, Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) and Boko Haram have become emboldened to assert their claims to remake the country in their Islamic image. The capacity to strike and hold on to acquire enclaves has boosted their morale and they can see that the scale of power has tilted in their favour, the source said.
THEWILL investigations further revealed that many of the 69 officially declared wanted escapees from the Kuje jail break comprising confirmed Boko Haram commanders and hardened criminals, were ferried into an abandoned construction site in the North-Central state early on Wednesday morning to reunite with their fellow travellers in order to set the stage for their next attacks.
The abandoned construction site, THEWILL was further told, had been a formidable fortress for the terrorists, who have been operating several cells around the area for some time.
The terrorists think that, as the next line of action, they would have to work together to sustain the upper hand they have gained against the Nigerian state by their intimidating attacks.
The choice of the North-Central state, according to the sources, is simply for convenience and strategy. Many of their members have become entrenched in the state where they levy communities with audacity, raid and rape their women and confiscate poultry and foodstuff unchallenged.
Unchanged Landscape
After summoning an emergency National Security Council on Friday in the heat of the Tuesday attacks, President Muhammadu Buhari and his lieutenants gave no indication that salvation was on the way for Nigerians.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, some cabinet ministers and all security and service chiefs attended the meeting. Others present at the security meeting were Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha and Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari.
The Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, was represented at the meeting.
But Nigerians are not amused. It is a familiar path they have come to identify with the country’s leadership in similar situations.
“It is this kind of predictable reaction from the authorities that embolden the terrorists,” a source told THEWILL. “We expected to hear from the President that those he condemned for being lax in intelligence gathering during his visit to Kuje after the attack had been either fired or redeployed. Nothing and then the attacks would continue.”
A retired military officer, criminologist and criminal justice expert, Sir Olatunde Okelana, JP, confided in this newspaper: “It is unfortunate that our security architecture has been compromised. Our intelligence gathering has failed as a nation. The planning of the attack on Kuje Correctional Centre and the presidential convoy must have taken not less than six months and then the attackers struck within 24 hours of guard rotation. They had an insider.”
A United Kingdom-based security expert, Temitope Olodo, imagines two scenarios from the Kuje Prison attack, even as he described mixing high and low risk criminals as a threat to the country’s prison system.
Olodo, who spoke on an international news channel monitored by THEWILL on Friday, said the fleeing jail birds would either melt into the society and continue what they are used to doing or go back on a revenge mission. His views came as Sola Fasure, spokesperson of the Minister for Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, concurred with Okelana, in a statement last week.
He said, “After the Abolongo, Oyo State attack on a correctional facility in October last year, it became apparent that a new form of attack for which our system was not prepared had emerged. Our system was primed to prevent and foil internal disturbance and riots, not external attacks/invasions since the facilities were usually built around police and military formations.”
Nigerians Want Buhari To Sit Up
This unpreparedness by the government to tackle the issue headlong has led to fear for the survival of the country. Nigerians from all walks of life think that the Buhari-led Federal Government has failed woefully in its constitutional duty to protect the citizenry and provide for their well-being.
In Akwa Ibom State, respondents who spoke with THEWILL expressed the opinion that the only solution to insecurity in the country would be voting the right candidate as President of Nigeria in 2023. They are calling on Nigerians to be patriotic and take 2023 as a deciding factor to determine if the country would survive.
A political stakeholder in the state, Mr George Worthsword, said that what played up in the attack on the presidential convoy was clear evidence that the leadership of the country has failed in its duty to protect the lives and property of citizens.
A youth leader, Ubong Okon, sees unemployment as a major cause of insecurity. He believes that if youths are meaningfully engaged, insecurity will reduce and gradually become a thing of the past.
“The adage ‘an idle mind is the devil’s workshop’ is very true. When an idle mind is indoctrinated negatively, it will yield but if the mind is occupied with meaningful and profitable engagements, it is difficult to contaminate,” Okon said.
For the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Comrade Abayomi Arabambi, the recent attacks on the presidential convoy and Kuje Prison, Abuja, showed that the current All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government has failed woefully in its duty to secure the nation.
Arabambi said that with ISWAP claiming responsibility for the attack on the prison where 600 inmates escaped, it shows that the APC-led government is incapable of ensuring the safety of lives and properties of Nigerian citizens.
Arabambi, who expressed disappointment in the Police and Army, said Buhari was not only unfit in securing the nation but also failed to manage the economic affairs of the country and the result is poverty and unemployment.
He said: “Why should Buhari say he is really disappointed in the security apparatus of the country, disappointed in the army, disappointed in the police? Was he not the one who appointed them? When they throw caution to the wind by using ethnic considerations to appoint people to man the affairs of our security network, what do you expect?
“This has shown that APC is not only fraudulent, but also grossly incompetent and incapable of managing the affairs of Nigeria, as far as we are concerned…
“Buhari told us that he was going to change Nigeria from bad to better, but today we are at the bottomless pit of poverty and unemployment as a result of his incompetence. For bandits to attack the presidential convoy shows that our security architecture has collapsed. Nobody is guiding anyone; everybody is just running helter-skelter for the safety of their lives.
“The way forward (solution) is for a competent man to take over the mantle of leadership.’’
The general view from a poll in Plateau State is that before the Kuje incident and the attack on the presidential convoy, there was a festival of insecurity in Nigeria, especially since the Muhammadu Buhari Administration entered a second term.
Jail breaks, banditry, insurgency, kidnapping, and all manner of high profile crimes including an attack on a moving train, have distorted peace as much on the highways as in individual homes. From Plateau State in Central Nigeria to Zamfara State in the North-West to Yobe and Adamawa in the North-East, the story is that of shared misery and melancholy, no thanks to the heinous wave of organised crime.
Many are of the view that the Federal Government has been insincere and noncommittal in tackling insecurity in the country. This feeling is worsened by the belief that most of the crimes being perpetrated, especially insurgency, banditry and kidnapping on the highways, are carried out by Fulani elements who have become daredevils because one of them is at the helm of affairs. The Buhari Administration is perceived to be protecting criminals of Fulani stock, hence a widespread apprehension that even last week’s jail break in Kuje was done with official connivance and is only one example of state-sponsored terrorism under Buhari.
Two solutions are being considered by respondents very quickly as Nigerians desire to vent their frustrations over insecurity and worsening poverty. One solution is political and gaining general acceptance: Stop a Fulani and northern presidency in 2023 by acquiring PVCs and turning out en masse to vote a Christian and southern president. Secondly, there is a need for state police and community policing, including regional security interventions like Amotekun in the South-West in the desperate search to redefine, redirect and reload Nigeria’s federalism and unity of its component ethnic groups.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Ali Udume, blames the three arms of government for the country’s security challenges.
“What happened in Kuje (correctional centre) is unfortunate. It is a clear indication of failure on the part of those who should take care of the security and welfare of the citizens. The priority of the government is the security and welfare of its people,’’ he said and blamed President Buhari for the situation in the country.
Ndume frowned at the de-radicalisation policy of the government meant to reintergrate ‘repentant terrorists’ into the society and called for better trained, better equipped security men and women with gadgets like cameras and drones to work.
Meanwhile, the international community has reacted negatively to the developments. The United Nations and the United States Embassy in Nigeria have issued advisories warning their officials and citizens, respectively, to stay out of troubled spots in Nigeria, including Abuja.
FG Reacts
The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said that an alert has been sent to all checkpoints across the country. The Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, besides the military, have been put on notice.
In a statement on Thursday, Aregbesola admitted that correctional centres across the country could only contain internal attacks but cannot withstand external force.
“As we speak, security personnel are combing the whole area, up to a distance of 100km radius, looking for them. All checkpoints nationwide have been put on alert. More than 400 escapees have been brought in and more are still coming,” he stated.
With the disclosure by the government that 443 prisoners escaped after the Kuje attack, the country now has no fewer than 4,443 inmates on the run after nine successful jailbreaks in the last one year alone. According to Aregbesola, in an update last December, 3,906 inmates were still on the run.
Also, 18 jailbreak incidents have been reported since the inception of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration with nine successful attempts in Benin-City, Ibadan, Jos, Owerri, Abuja, Bauchi, Kano and Kabba.
Between October 2020 and July 5, 2022, correctional centres in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory have witnessed several jailbreaks.
According to the Ministry of Interior, a total of 1,993 inmates were freed from two Nigerian Correctional Service Custodial Centres in Benin City and Oko in Edo State in October 2020.
WAY FORWARD
Sir Okelana said we cannot continue in the past ways that have yielded no results. “We need technology for crime detection and prevention. We have to circularise our security system, improve on our human resources, intelligence gathering and equipment. Fighting crime doesn’t rely on human efforts alone. Artificial intelligence is recommended.“
The question of leadership under the situation is also the solution Senator Shehu Sani has offered.
Taking a bird’s eye view of the overwhelming security situation in the country following Tuesday’s attack of the presidential convoy and Kuje correctional center, he tweeted on Thursday: “THE Attacks on military formations, Police Stations, Prisons, Election commission offices are attacks on symbols, institutions and pillars of the state. They are not soft targets. The nation is at war with multiples of organised guerrilla terror groups aiming at power. WE NEED A LEADER!”
For complete solution to the pervading terrorism, Ndume suggests that the executive, legislature and judiciary must operate inter-dependently with transparency and accountabilty law making, their execution and interpretation all work for the common good of Nigerianns.
“The president ought to sit people down and get results. He should be talking to Nigerians and not his advisers. You mean people can come in here in Abuja, attack and get away with it.? The President should give marching orders to the National Security Adviser, NSA, the Security Chiefs to get the Kuje prison escapees.
The present scenario has also made the call for state and community policing to be timely as the government will be doing Nigerians a lot of good if the call is revisited.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
