SOUTHEAST SECURITY: WHEN THE PROTECTORS BECOME THE VICTIMS
Samuel Enyi Otsapa
Samuelotsapa@gmail.com
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080547886
A day after a staff member was killed and 23 students of Greenfield University, a private university in Kaduna State located on the Abuja – Kaduna Highway, were abducted by unknown gunmen, I travelled from Abuja to Kaduna. To say my heart relocated to my mouth throughout the three hours journey from Abuja to Goningora (the first Kaduna neighborhood as one enters from Abuja) is to put it mildly. As Kaduna boys, traveling on the Abuja – Kaduna highway was never a worry for us and many times we drove from Kaduna to Abuja twice in a day. But these days, once on that highway is enough nightmare because of two reasons; the continuing and rising spate of kidnappings and killings. Journalist and security analyst Babajide Kolade Otitoju has described the Abuja – Kaduna highway as the most dangerous Nigerian highway.
Back in the days, it took us less than two hours to commute from Kaduna to Abuja and vice versa. Today, it has become three hours – a factor that aids kidnappers, particularly in the Jere and Katari axis of the highway. A safer option for travelers is to use the train but typical with most things Nigeria, shylock ‘business’ Nigerian Railway Corporation workers have hijacked the ticketing process such that getting a train ticket has become more difficult than a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
On the Abuja – Kaduna highway, many Nigerians, including soldiers and policemen, have been kidnapped, their families had to pay ransom to the kidnappers before some were released. But the weird and amusing thing about this unfortunate narrative in our country is that often times, security officials would address the press and claim responsibility for the rescue of captives when the reality is that their families paid for their release. A good example is the recent abduction involving students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, Afaka, Kaduna State. According to reports, thirty-nine (39) students of the institution were abducted by unknown gunmen in March 2021 but on April 5th, the Kaduna State government announced that five of victims had been rescued by security operatives. Can the military conveniently explain to Nigerians how it rescued only five out of the 39 students? And why the others are yet to be rescued?
While Kaduna and other northwestern states like Zamfara continue to groan under rising banditry and kidnapping, the southeastern states of the country are beginning to witness their own share of insecurity. Last month (within 72 hours), unknown gunmen attacked police stations and a military base in Imo state. The first was the attack on the Imo police headquarters and the prison headquarters – both located close to the Imo Government House, the second was the attack on Mbiere Divisional Police Headquarters in Mbaitoli Local Government Area and the third was the attack on a military base in Ukwuorji where a soldier was burnt inside a car and four vehicles belonging to the military razed. In March 2021 in Abiriba, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia state, three policemen were killed by unidentified gunmen. According to the state police spokesman, the officers were ambushed, their patrol vehicle set ablaze and rifles belonging to the slain officers stolen. On April 22nd 2021, the Adani police station in Uzo-Uwabi Local Government Area of Enugu State was attacked by unknown gunmen and two of its police officers shot dead. Three days before this, gunmen attacked the Zone 13 police headquarters in Ukpo, Awka, Anambra state, killed two police officers and burnt several vehicles parked at the station’s premises. In the same April 2021, three police officers who were on a ‘stop and search’ operation along the Onuebonyi/Nwezenyi Road in Abakiliki, Ebonyi State, were killed by yet to be identified gunmen. After killing the policemen, the attackers went away with their rifles.
These mentioned cases of attacks on police/military men and security posts are only but a few of the many that happened in the southeast since the turn of the new year. The audacity and temerity of the attackers is the most jittering thing since these are hard targets. When criminals become bold enough to attack places like police/military bases; those who are saddled with the responsibility of protecting the lives and property of ordinary Nigerians, it is a sign and a pointer that security in the southeastern region in particular and the country in general is failing. After the attack at the Imo State police headquarters and Prison Correctional Headquarters where more than 1,800 prisoners were released, the immediate past Inspector General of Police accused IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) and the ESN (Eastern Security Network) for the attack but the proscribed groups have denied involvement in that attack and others in the region. If the IPOB and the ESN are not responsible, who is? On Saturday 24th April, a joint team of the police, DSS and the military raided the camp of the IPOB/ESN in Imo State and killed seven members of the group, including a top commander known as Ikonson Commander. Four security operatives also died in the shootout.
Concerned over the growing insecurity in the region, the governors of the five southeastern states of Imo, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Ebonyi met on 11th April 2021 where they launched a security outfit named Ebube Agu, which in the Igbo language means “fear of a lion”, to oversee and monitor the activities of the different vigilante groups in their region. According to Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ebube Agu is a child of necessity established to synergize the different vigilante outfits already in existence in the states to better protect the lives and property of citizens of the zone.
Continuing attacks on security men and facilities in the southeastern region of the country is a worrying development and this is clearly a prelude to something more sinister which, along with the daily killings, kidnappings and general insecurity already in the country’s northeast, northwest and northcentral zones, may eventually lead to Nigeria becoming a failed state – if nothing is done to halt the ugly development. We recall that at the initial stage of its terrorism and insurgency, the main targets of the Boko Haram terrorists were policemen and police stations in states of the northeast and northwest – and the same trend is now rearing its head in the states of the southeast. The Federal Government, the five southeastern state governments and the ordinary citizens of the region must not allow the current insecurity situation to degenerate further – because attacks on security operstives is a developement that has the tendency to consume Nigeria.
In the search for lasting solution to the rising insecurity in the region and beyond the setting up of Ebube Agu, government must be sincere with itself. We remember that General Sani Abacha; a former Nigerian military Head of State, said that when a problem of this nature lasts for more than two weeks, it means that the government is involved – and who else should know about this than a man who held Nigeria by the jugular for five years and whose government assassinated opposition figures? Although the Federal Government and the southeastern governments may not be directly involved in the rising insecurity in the southeast region, government officials and agents are likely to be involved. This is not so difficult to figure out because there has been reports of the arrest of government appointees, policemen and soldiers conniving and supporting the activities of kidnappers, terrorists and bandits.
In Zamfara State, a serving soldier and his girlfiend were arrested for their roles in supplying arms and ammunitions to bandits in the state and last week while meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma accused politicians of sponsoring banditry and crisis in the southeast region. We urge the Federal Government and the governments of the five southeastern states to look inwards because the enemies of the region may be within. While it is now a cliche for Nigerians to point accusing fingers at the Fulani whenever kidnapping or banditry is carried out, we must know that not every attack is perpetrated by the Fulani. Therefore, while the federal and southeast state governments intensify their efforts towards tackling insecurity in the southeast and other parts of Nigeria, they must begin to beam their searchlights on their own officials and agents – because if a member of the family does not leave the door open, rats and cockcroches would not enter the house.
We must also reemphasize the call that the task of protecting lives and property is not the exclusive preserve of the government and security officials alone. The ordinary people, who are often the direct victims of these attacks, must begin to cooperate and collaborate with security agencies, particularly through the passing of timely and credible information. Some years ago, the Federal Government began a campaign of “see something, say something’ and today much more than before, Nigerians must begin to tow this line – because we cannot afford to withhold information and continue to suffer the consequences. All over the world, the best security agencies are as good as the information/intelligence they receive from ordinary citizens. Although there are 7000 police locations, 4,000 men in police commands and 3,000 men in area commands in the country, there is so much they can do without support and cooperation in form of information from the people.
In the attack on the Imo police headquarters and correctional service, report was that the armed men arrived at the scene in more than 10 vehicles. Before embarking on that attack, they had met at a location from where they planned the day’s operation and someone in that community must have seen them lurking around but no one passed the information to the police, the DSS or the military. Surprise is a very critical element in any attack and the absence of information from citizens is allowing these attackers succeed since the criminals know where the security posts are. Therefore, it behoves on ordinary Nigerians to accept the age old reality that they are also stakeholders in the security of their communities, states, region and Nigeria. America’s different state and county police departments, the CIA and the FBI rely heavily on information from ordinary people – and it is high time Nigerians began to tow this line.
While ordinary Nigerians become involve in the security architecture, it is important that government at all levels increases the four “Ms” to the security agencies, particularly the police and the military. These four “M”; men, motivation, material and money, are critical if the southeast in particular and Nigeria in general can quickly succceed in the objective of safeguarding lives and property. In a recent interview, Senator Ali Ndume was quoted as saying that “the military must be given more money, equipment and personnel to carry out their operations” and I totally agree with him. Penultimate month while receiving the Chief of Defence Staff in Portharcourt, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State also added his voice for the military to be better armed and equipped stating that it is the only way the country can confront terrorism, kidnapping and banditry with a blitzrieg. Much of the reactive approach instead of proactive approach to security in the southeast region and much of Nigeria is as a result of a huge deficit in men, motivation, material and money. When these four “Ms” are sufficient, there would be proper recruitment, proper training, proper remuneration and the availability of proper equipments to confront, combat and annihilate the enemies of Nigeria.
Since July 2008, the north has been under seige by Boko Haram terrorists and many of us had warned that if the insecurity in that part of Nigeria is not tackled, it would spread into southern Nigeria – and this is now happening. At the beginning of the Boko Haram terrorism, many southerners saw the problem as a northern ‘wahala’ and so they were unbothered but today, no region is spared. All hands must be on deck to tackle the rising attacks against security operatives in the southeast so as to prevent it from becoming a national problem. A stitch in time saves nine!
So thought provoking Sir. Somehow it feels like the ENDSARs protest sparked a Waze of rebellion and attack against security operatives.