Akani Alaka writes on unease among residents of Abuja and Nigerians over rampaging terrorists as President Muhammadu Buhari’s ineptitude spurs impeachment threats from embarrassed Senators.
Fear. Confusion. Anxiety. These three words sum up the state of mind of residents of Nigeria’s federal capital territory as they are now bombarded daily with messages warning of plans by terrorists to attack some areas of the city.
Indeed, residents of the city have been on tenterhooks since terrorists successfully shoot their way into Kuje prison on the night of 6 July.
The terrorists who deployed bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and general-purpose machine guns succeeded in freeing 600 inmates, including 150 Boko Haram fighters detained at the facility, described by Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior as the ‘the most fortified’ in the country.
The terrorist group, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) later claimed responsibility for the attack in a short video released the next day. ISWAP claimed responsibility for the attack the same day President Muhammadu Buhari, visited the custodial centre.
Like most Nigerians, the president, who spent 30 minutes assessing the extent of damage at the correctional centre, was shocked by both the scale and audacity of the attack. “I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?” Buhari who said he had asked for a comprehensive report on the attack queried in a chat with reporters at the end of the visit.
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Speaking in the same vein, Aregbesola had also expressed his disappointment over the successful attack by the terrorists despite the security provisions: “ Kuje is the most fortified in the country if fortification for security is the determinant of whether it is medium or maximum, it is medium by size but maximum by the security being put there. We have a platoon of security officers deployed here. We have the high grade of military and police and other security forces deployed for protection but strangely something happened most of which I cannot say on camera.”
Terrorists In FCT
However, security analysts had warned that aside from the fact that high-grade criminals have now been freed to roam Abuja and entire Nigeria, the successful attack on the prison facility confirmed fears that terrorists are lurking in bushes and hills that surrounded the Federal Capital. This was confirmed with the attack on troops of the 7 Guards Battalion in the early hours of last Monday in the Bwari area of the FCT.
The troops of the elite 7 Guards Brigade who provide security for the Presidential Villa and the FCT were said to be on patrol along the Kubwa-Bwari following threats of a terrorist attack on the Nigeria Law School located in the area.
The spokesperson for the Guards Brigade, Captain Godfrey Anebi Abakpa confirmed that three officers were lost to the terrorists while some others were injured.
“They were attacked, and the attack was successfully repelled. We had a few (men) wounded in action who have been taken to the hospital and receiving treatment,” the Guards Brigade spokesman said. At the moment our troops are still combing the general area to get rid of the criminals who have been threatening the general area,” he said.
However, Abakpa confirmed that the ambush attack happening within the general area of Bwari shows that the terrorists are actually within the location and possibly still trying to carry out their plans of attacking the law school in Bwari.
National Terror Plot Alert
However, a document indicating plots by terrorists to attack some parts of Abuja and Nigeria authored by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC further raised fears of Abuja residents.
In the leaked security memo, the NSCDC has said members of Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province, ISWAP are planning massive attacks in Abuja, Kogi, Kaduna, Lagos, Katsina, and Zamfara. The intelligence memo dated Monday, July 25, 2022 and entitled ‘Re: Heightened plots by terrorists to stage coordinated attacks in parts of the country’ was signed by D.O Mungadi, Deputy Commandant-General in charge of information.
“We have received credible intelligence that Boko-Haram and the ISWAP terrorist groups have mobilised fighters and high-calibre weapons, particularly Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launchers, Anti-Aircraft guns, and General Purpose Machine Guns which they intend to deploy for the offensive in Katsina State.’’
“In another development, two separate bandits groups are plotting coordinated attacks on North-West, North-Central, and South-West (Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kogi, FCT, and Lagos), respectively.
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“Consequently, the Commandant-General has directed you to scale up deployment in all strategic places, including schools, worship centres, and critical national assets in your respective states to checkmate any possible threats by these criminal elements. Please treat it as urgent,” the memo added.
In the wake of the memo, the Federal Ministry of Education ordered the closure of all unity schools in the territory. The FCT Education secretariat had also ordered all private schools in Abuja to be closed indefinitely by Wednesday, July 27, 2022. The bandits had also last Thursday evening reportedly engaged the military in a gun duel at a checkpoint in Zuma Rock Madalla, along the Kaduna-Abuja highway.
Return Of Terror To Abuja
As it has now become increasingly clear that their ‘safe haven’ is not altogether out of reach of terrorists who have made living a hellish affair for their compatriots in other parts of the country. To be sure, the FCT and its environs have not been free of activities of terrorists or if you like, bandits. Rural communities of Abaji of FCT Council Areas like Gwagwalada, Kuje, Abaji, Bwari, and their environs regularly play host to bandits who usually move scores of abducted villagers to nearby states of Niger, Nasarawa, and Kogi State.
Way back in 2011, a Boko Haram suicide bomber had followed the convoy of then Inspector General of Police to the headquarters of Nigeria Police Force in Garki Area 11, Abuja, less than a kilometre to Aso Rock presidential villa. Although the terrorist missed his target, the police chief, he succeeded in killing scores of people and inflicting damage to vehicles and other property within the facility.
There was also a suicide attack on the United Nations building in the heart of the city as well as the bombing of churches and motor parks on the outskirts of Abuja which claimed hundreds of lives.
But such attacks inside the city had ceased since 2015 when the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was elected into office.
The government’s spokesperson usually cited the cessation of such attacks as evidence that the Buhari administration is succeeding in its bid to degrade terrorists and terrorism in Nigeria.
However, events of the last two weeks had indicated that residents of Abuja, like the era preceding 2015 will have to embark on extraordinary measures to keep themselves and their families safe from terrorists.
The security scare in Abuja became heightened as the anger of Nigerians was swelling over a video released by terrorists who attacked a train bound for Kaduna from the capital city on 28 March, during which they kidnapped scores of passengers.
The terrorists had released an 11-minute video in which they were whipping their victims and threatening to abduct President Muhammadu Buhari as well as Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El- Rufai.
The hostages had appealed to members of the international community to come to their aid because the Nigerian government had failed to rescue them from the hands of the terrorists.
The terrorists were also seen in the video, threatening to kill the victims if the Federal Government failed to meet up with their demands. They also claimed that one of the escapees of the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Kuje, Abuja had rejoined them in the forest.
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“This is our message to the government of Nigeria and just as you have seen these people here, by God’s grace, you will see your leaders; your senators and governors will come before us. These you are seeing here, we will keep some as our slaves and sell them off just as our Imam told you in the past,” he said.
Just like the Chibok girls that were sold off, we will equally sell these as slaves,” one of the terrorists seen in the video said. Distraught relatives of the abductees had converged on the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Transport in Abuja in protest over the failure of the government to rescue their loved ones for two days.
Terrorists and bandits have also continued with unrestrained killing, kidnapping, and pillaging in communities in the North-west and North-central parts of the country. Terror kingpins now regulate the daily lives of many communities, including imposing taxes on them and determining when they should go to their farms.
The country’s security situation has been worsening despite trillions of naira budget for security since the inception of the Buhari administration and Nigerian lawmakers were concerned enough to contemplate impeaching the president before they embarked on their annual long recession last Wednesday.
Angry Lawmakers
Senators, mostly of the opposition party had walked out of the plenary after Senate President Ahmad Lawan frustrated an attempt by Minority Leader, Philip Aduda (FCT), to open debate on insecurity that would have included the possibility of impeachment of President Buhari if the situation did not improve in six weeks.
Aduda had led the senators in the chambers across all political parties to stage a walkout, chanting: “Buhari Must Go” “Lawan Must Go”, as they filed out from the red chamber to the Press Corps to address journalists.
“At the closed session, we agreed that we will give the president an ultimatum and if he did not comply, we will move to give an impeachment notice. This was our agreement at the executive session but when we came out, the Senate President refused to inform the public of our resolution,” Aduda told journalists.
“Since that didn’t happen, we have come here in protest to let Nigerians know that we are with them, that we are worried. We staged a walkout from the chambers to register that the security in Nigeria is out of hand and urgent steps need to be taken so that the issues are addressed immediately,” he added.
The Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Smart Adeyemi, told journalists that the ruling party senators agreed with the impeachment notice on the President. “I think it is wrong to say opposition. It was a collective decision of the Senate, to give an ultimatum, the only difference from what the opposition is eventually saying is a matter of semantics. We said that we are giving the president six weeks, but they said they are serving impeachment notice immediately. We all agreed that we will move after six weeks.” The PDP caucus in the House of Representatives had also agreed to toe the line of their senior in the ultimatum and impeachment threat to the President.
New Strategy
The Presidency had dismissed the impeachment claim as laughable. It also added that the president was committed to finding lasting solutions to the emerging security threats, including those left behind by the PDP in the South-south, the North-east, and throughout the federation.
But the president had last Thursday also summoned a national security council meeting attended by all the armed forces and intelligence chiefs. The National Security Adviser, NSA, Major-General Babagana Monguno told reporters at the end of the meeting that Nigerians were tired of the security challenges facing the nation and gravitating towards self-help.
He also said that winning the war against terrorists would depend a lot on all citizens, including the civilian population, who are required to help the efforts of security, intelligence, and armed agencies with useful information.
He added that new strategies would soon be deployed by security agencies to tame the security challenges: “Again, the members of the armed forces have also made a commitment that in the coming weeks, they have already started working on a new strategy to deal with these snippets of violence and they have given their word, their commitment to the president that there will be a change in momentum, even though there might be certain institutional limitations, which they face, but they have understood the enormity of the responsibilities that they have.”
But it was not the first time that Monguno would be making such promises, hence, many Nigerians agree with members of the National Assembly that he and his principal should be shown the way out of the Aso Rock presidential villa.
“We are happy that the Senate has woken up after over seven years. We will wait and see if the security situation gets better. The Constitution provided sections for the impeachment of the president if he fails to protect the lives and property of its citizens. If a government cannot protect its citizens of what value it is,” Spokesman of Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed said.
