• NANS urges Tinubu to prioritise security
• Tinubu urged to sign Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Service Bill
• Shehu Sani laments activities of terrorists in Southern Kaduna
• Fulani groups finger cattle rustling as cause of Plateau massacre
• HURIWA seeks judicial panel to uncover conspirators in security agencies
As insecurity continues to escalate with spiraling attacks by gunmen across the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Emeka Anyaoku, has called on the Federal Government to go beyond platitudes and strengthen efforts at tackling increasing cases of killings and kidnapping in Nigeria.
Despite assurances by the Presidency and the military that trailed the dastardly Christmas eve massacre in Plateau State, which killed over 200 and displaced thousands, attacks have continued in the beleaguered Plateau, as well as other troubled hotspots in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Abuja.
Stirring up the government to arrest the worsening insecurity, Anyaoku noted that the ugly trend of killings had continued unabated because of lack of arrests and subsequent prosecution of perpetrators of the dastardly acts.
Making the call yesterday at the 2024 Summit and Award ceremony of the Old Boys Association of Merchants of Light School, Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra, the respected diplomat stated: “The Federal Government should devote efforts to find those responsible for these killings.
“What is particularly depressing is that these killings occur, and nobody seems to be held responsible and charged accordingly. The first thing the government should do is to deploy its agencies and forces to apprehend those perpetuating the killings because that is the only way to address the problem. If they are apprehended, prosecuted, and punished, that will serve as a deterrent to others,” Anyaoku stressed.
Anyaoku, an alumnus of the Merchants of Light School, advocated for endowment funds for educational institutions across the country. He said that such funds would provide alumni associations the opportunity to support their schools.
Making a similar call, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), on Sunday called on President Bola Tinubu to give more priority to the security of lives and property in the country. The association’s Senate President, Elvis Ekudina, made the call at a news conference in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Ekudina said it was important for the students’ body to lend its voice on the state of the nation. He urged the President to find a lasting solution to current security challenges ranging from kidnapping, attacks by bandits and attacks on security operatives. He added that there was a need for security agencies in the country to strengthen their intelligence gathering to detect future attacks.
As a proactive measure to stem the tide of attacks, the African Director, International Association of World Peace Advocates (IAWPA), Dr John Metchie, has urged President Tinubu to give assent to the Nigeria Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) Bill, to empower and embolden officers and men of the service in the fight against criminalities in forests across the country.
The NHFSS Bill has been passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, awaiting the President’s assent. Metchie, who is also the Deputy Commander General of NHFSS in charge of Technical Services, made the appeal to President Tinubu in a statement on Sunday.
Reacting to the Christmas Eve attacks on some communities in Plateau as well as similar assaults in other parts of the North, Metchie said a permanent solution is needed to ensure that criminals like bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, cattle rustlers, and ritualists, among others, are denied access to forests and farms where they hide before and after carrying out their nefarious activities.
The security expert noted that though signing the NHFSS Bill into law would attract additional financial burden to government, the cost cannot be compared to the unquantifiable loss of human lives, burning of communities and destruction of their ways and means of livelihood caused by incessant attacks, year in, year out.
The above he said, is in addition to the negative effect of insecurity, which he said is the primary cause of investor flight with serious consequences on the nation’s economy.
According to Metchie, the solution to banditry and other crimes and criminalities committed within forests is permanent deployment of well-trained professional hunters and forest security operatives across the country, to work with the police, army, DSS and other security agencies, especially in the area of intelligence gathering and sharing as well as apprehension of criminals.
Former federal lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, yesterday, shed light on the activities of terrorists in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Sani, in a post on his X handle, said people in Kajuru now live and survive each day with bandits and terrorists in the night.
Painting a gory image of the activities of terrorists in the area, the former senator recounted how over 50 farmers were kidnapped. According to him, the Emir of Kajuru was also kidnapped and released after ransom was paid three years ago.
He wrote: “Kajuru LG is one of the ‘favourite hotspots’ for terrorists in Kaduna State. Few months ago, over 50 farmers were kidnapped. Three years ago, the Emir of Kajuru was kidnapped and released after ransom was paid. It’s also the LG that hosts the Bethel Baptist High School, where students were kidnapped in 2021.
“Some five years ago, the Kaduna state government unjustly arrested the leaders and elders of the Adara ethnic groups and kept them in prison after their people were killed by terrorists. The latest one now has 42 kidnapped. In Kajuru, they live and survive each day with Bandits in the day and terrorists in the night.”
In another development, the coalition of Fulani groups in Plateau State has raised concerns about what they termed as the indiscriminate arrest and detention of their members by security agencies and asked that the Federal Government should fish out those posing as security agents to perpetrate the act.
The body made up of the MACBAN, GAFDAN, BAJOL FULAKU, JONDE JAM, KAUTAL HORE, LAWUL FULAKU and TABBITAL FULAKU at a press conference held in Jos on Sunday tasked security agents to be more professional in the handling of the issue of arrest of suspects, as according to them, innocent people are being arrested.
Reading the text jointly signed by state chairmen of the groups, the state chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Muhammad Abdullahi, said the coalition condemned the recent attacks that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives as well as the destruction of property worth millions of naira in villages of Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Mangu LGAs of the state.
His words: “The coalition of Fulani groups in Plateau also condemn the ongoing killing and rustling of our cows in the villages of Mangu, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs.
“In expressing our condolences to the families who lost their loved ones, we are also extending our sympathy to those whose cattle were either rustled or deliberately killed. We stand in solidarity with the state and Federal Government, security agencies and other stakeholders for their swift responses to prevent escalation of the menace.
“However, we feel it’s crucial to break the silence and shed light on what the Fulani herders have been enduring for many years in the state. As required by the law, whenever one is offended, he or she is expected not to take the law into their hands. On many occasions, our members get killed recklessly and our cattle rustled. It is on the record that these incidents are often reported to both the police and Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), to take necessary actions.”
Abdullahi further stated that some of their members have relocated to states like Bauchi, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Taraba and appealed that relief materials be extended to them too in IDP camps.
“Our concern about the crisis and its aftermath ranges below: Total neglect by authorities more especially of the humanitarian extract to visit our IDPs to ascertain their needs; absence of security personnel in our IDP camps making our people vulnerable to attack and unguided arrests by some unpatriotic security personnel; and restricting our cattle to a small area, making them vulnerable to livestock diseases, killing and rustling.”
On how the Plateau carnage started, he said: “The series of incidents began on December 21 when a herder, Bashiru Bello, was murdered in Kawel, Mushu Ward of Bokkos LGA by militia from Mangu LGA.
“Following Bello’s murder, the attackers proceeded to his house where they assaulted our members who were mourning, resulting in the death of eight Fulanis in Ndun, Tangur ward of Bokkos on December 23.
“All the eight bodies were recovered by the DPO of the Nigeria Police Force, Bokkos Division and Sector 5 Commander of OPSH in Bokkos. This incident is in the record of the security agencies.” He further disclosed that on December 24, 181 cattle were rustled in Mushu village, adding that to retrieve the cattle, three of the owners were killed.
“However, due to extensive efforts by security agencies, six of the rustlers were gunned down. The incident is recorded by OPSH and the police,” he stressed.
Worried by the unprecedented rates of armed kidnappings for ransom payments in the FCT and other parts of Nigeria, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for a judicial panel to uncover conspirators in security agencies. The group said it is disturbed by the trend that kidnappings have become a viable commercial franchise netting in over N100 billion yearly.
National coordinator of the group, Emmanuel Onwubiko, who expressed the group’s position yesterday, asked President Tinubu as a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to set up a national judicial commission of inquiry to be composed of credible judges and a sprinkling of representatives of private, public sectors and the civil society to investigate sponsors behind the trade.
He stated that the successes recorded by armed kidnappers and the sophisticated nature of the weapons these kidnappers wield, demonstrates without many shadows of doubts that the leaders of these various syndicates making a kill from this terrorism business are key influential persons in the different arms of the security forces.
According to HURIWA, the inquiry should also focus on why kidnappers are successfully using telecommunication to negotiate and receive huge ransom payments without the security forces ever flagging them down using the information technology equipment which the police claim to have procured for over a decade.
The rights group said the systematic collapse of intelligence amongst the security agencies is a symptom of the deeper issues of conspiratorial collaboration between these societal undesirable elements and some key officers in the security forces.
