The rising tide of insecurity is frightening. Bandits and kidnappers have seized the country by the throat. What is the answer to their menace? ADEBISI ONANUGA sought lawyers’ views.
Residents of Anambra West Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State would not forget April 6 in a hurry.
That Saturday morning, armed men suspected to be herders, invaded several farm settlements in the area, catching people unawares.
When they left hours later, six farmers were found dead, with others reportedly beheaded. Several others were injured.
A resident, Mr Orjiako Nnaluo, told reporters: “The herdsmen entered farm settlements in the area around 5.40am, killing people, burning houses and raping women.
“Before we knew what was happening, six people were already dead, about 30 left with varying degrees of injuries,” Nnaluo said.
Sometime last February, a taxi driver in Zamfara State, Aminu Magami, nearly died of fright when more than 20 gunmen, shooting into the air, blocked vehicles on an expressway.
“One of them ran towards my car. I just sat there and raised my hands, begging them,” he told the AFP.
Magami was taken hostage, held captive and tortured. He regained his freedom 25 days later after a ransom was paid by his family.
Ordinary Nigerians are not the only ones affected.
Before a World Cup match last year, Nigeria and Middlesbrough footballer John Mikel Obi was told that his father had been abducted for the second time, and threatened with death. He reportedly paid $28,000 for his father’s release.
“I thought that after the match I would probably find out they had decided to shoot him,” Mikel told The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Police records
According to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, 1,071 people were killed in crime-related cases across the country in the first quarter of 2019.
Six hundred and eighty-five were kidnapped within the same period.
Adamu spoke during the quarterly Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council meeting which took place in Kaduna State last April 30.
He said the killings were most prevalent in the north where 767 people were killed, with the northwest region topping the list with 436. While the north central recorded 250 deaths, the southsouth had 130.
Zamfara State was worst-hit as it recorded 203 homicides during the period under review. The Northwestern state has been terribly-hit with a wave of kidnappings and killings by bandits, making it the face of insecurity in the country over the past few months.
Growing concern
For many in the Southwest, North-central and Southeast geopolitical zones, herdsmen-farmers-related violence and kidnappings is an immediate threat.
Last Thursday, the Ohaneze Youths Council Worldwide instructed the Houses of Assemblies in the Southeast zone to enact laws that will end herdsmen menace in the region.
The group called for the return of the dreaded vigilance group, Bakassi Boys, with special mandate to engage the herdsmen.
The council’s President-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, in a statement in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State said this was necessary to stop the alleged killings and other violent acts being perpetrated in the zone by herdsmen. The group called for the establishment of state vigilance groups in all parts of the zone to protect it from further herdsmen attack and urged communities in the zone to be vigilant to resist further attacks on them by the herdsmen.
He said: “We will not take laws into our hands to fight back, but rather as a matter of urgency, we call for the establishment of state vigilant groups or the return of the dreaded famous “Bakassi Boys” with special mandate to engage the armed herdsmen.
How the attackers operate
According to Ohaneze Youth Council, over the years, the armed herdsmen had created routes in their bushes and forests where they either have temporary settlement or hideouts as a base for them to prepare to launch attack to their target local communities.
The group, therefore, called on town unions and community-based groups to be vigilant about the purported rumour of attack by armed herdsmen, never to allow them to take them unawares and unprepared.
“We will not fold our arms and allow evil to thrive by these notorious herdsmen. Never again should we allow them to strike unchallenged”, the group said.
1,123 herdsmen cells?
Much as the position of the Ohaneze was found disturbing, analysts observed that it was probably informed, in part, by a study published last month which suggested that there were 1,123 cells belonging to armed herdsmen in forests and highlands across Yoruba territories.
A pan-Yoruba group, Apapo Oodua Koya, (AOKOYA), which conducted the study, claimed that the cells were set up by armed herdsmen, some of whom speak French.
The cells are also “well organised” network with each other, and had lately adopted martial training, it said.
AOKOYA said it made the findings from a six-month study it conducted “using some of the best intelligence gathering equipment.”
Satellite images backing its claims, it added, had been submitted to governors of Southwest states and some traditional rulers.
It stated this in a statement signed by its Secretary for Strategy, Col Abimbola Sowunmi, who is based in the United States, and Deputy Secretary for Publicity, Mr Ismail Abiodun.
According to the group, its public version of the report was edited “to preserve many confidential reports some of which have been passed on to some important Yoruba leaders”.
AOKOYA described itself as a coalition of several Pan Yoruba self-determination groups, including Yoruba Nationalist League (YONL); Association of Yoruba Retired Officers (AYORO); Federation of Ilaje Peoples (FEIP); Itsekiri Peoples Alliance (IPA); Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC); Oodua Revolutionary Coalition (OREC); Agbekoya and Oodua Students Alliance (OSA).
The group said: “We have taken our time to do an intelligence survey using modern equipment and Google mapping with elementary satellite imaging to know the number of armed cells spread across Yoruba territories of Kwara, Kogi, Lagos, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Itsekiri part of Delta State.
“Our findings are shocking. There are 1,123 cells run by armed militia. The cells are populated with armed men. Some of them are in military uniforms and in some instances we find young girls cooking for the men.”
AOKOYA also claimed that many Yoruba rich people were being quietly kidnapped.
It said: “We discovered that many rich Yoruba men and women were being kidnapped and they were compelled to pay ransoms. It is traditional that many of them fear to speak out and in cases where rape of women is involved, the victims are too traumatised to speak out.
“The Yoruba rich suffer in silence. They are raped. They are too traumatised to speak out. We reveal with pain in our hearts that the proprietor of a very big petrol filling station in Yorubland, one of the finest Yoruba businesswomen, was kidnapped. She paid a lot of money.
“Another woman, who runs an industry with speciality in ethanol, was kidnapped near Ayede in Ekiti State. She has since relocated to London.
“AOKOYA representatives have met some of these victims who have given confidential information.
“Another very rich woman in Abeokuta was kidnapped late last year on her way to Lagos. She was kept for two weeks. She paid a huge sum as ransom.
“The wife of a prominent pastor in Lagos was seized in February, this year on her way to Akure in Ondo State. She, in fact, paid N25 million to be free.
“Students of many of the highbrow private universities are victims.They know their parents are very rich. They target them and pick them up in towns and on the roads. Their parents pay in silence. The herdsmen have information of resumption dates of these schools and use the opportunity to target the students.
“The herdsmen threaten them that their children would be killed if they report to the police.”
According to AOKOYA, students of the Afe Babalola University, Babcock and Covenant universities are prime targets. Wives of traditional rulers, it added, are also targets, but are too scared to report to the authorities.
“In one instance, Yoruba billionaire, Bode Akindele, was accosted on the Ibadan-Lagos Highway. He managed to escape.
“We observe that they operate with intelligence networking with some contacts within the state security services that provide information for them and through an extensive network involving Maiguards.
“They go out to mosques on Fridays and churches on Sundays where they target and trail owners of exotic cars to their private homes from where they station agents who act as Okada riders, but who in actual fact, monitor the movement of these people.
“It’s a sophisticated network that has recently succeded in breaking into the network of some banks in order to know the rich and trace the addresses provided in those bank details. There are, in fact, too many instances to be mentioned.”
AOKOYA advised that denying “these facts” was unhelpful; rather, Yoruba leaders should” rise to the challenge and confront the issue headlong”.
Nigeria’s place in global crime
A December 6, last year report by the BBC said Nigeria ranked third in the 2018 Global Terrorism Index, trailing Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of insecurity terrorism among other crimes. While the country is in the first position of the index in Africa, followed by Egypt, DR Congo and Libya. It identified Maiduguri as the primary target for Boko Haram.
The report blamed increase of ’terrorists deaths’ on some religious extremists. It, however, noted that as at the period under review, the number of people killed by Boko Haram has gone down drastically.
The report also noted that hundreds of Nigerians have died as a result of attacks by suspected herdsmen during fights between them and farmers and communities. It listed states with the highest casualty as Plateau, Benue, Zamfara and Taraba.
The report identified Boko Haram as the most active terrorist group in Nigeria and until 2017, the deadliest terror group in sub-Saharan Africa.
It, however, noted that the country’s counterterrorism efforts against Boko Haram have suffered a setback as other extremist groups have emerged, especially the herdsmen extremists”.
Observers believed that the activities of the herdsmen, kidnappers and other criminalities have created much insecurity in the land. It is their belief that it is responsible for the ‘drum of retaliation’ now sounding in the southwest and southeast. The result of the study undertaken by the AOKOYA leading to the discovery of 1,123 cells belonging to armed herdsmen in forests and highlands across Yorubaland also lend credence to the thinking that the activities of the herdsmen is geared towards Islamisation of the country and the West African sub-region, as recently claimed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. More worrisome to them, is the study that revealed that kidnappers operate with a high level sophistication, even with links traced to some of the security agents.
Given this state of affairs, how then can government tackle and end insecurity and restore peace back to the country?
Way out, by lawyers
Lawyers, who spoke to The Nation, noted that security is a constitutional matter and that the government should tackle it frontally. They are: Chief Paul Ananaba (SAN), Femi Falana (SAN), Law Lecturer, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Wahab Shittu, former Vice President, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Monday Ubani and Dr. Fassy Yusuf.
‘Stregthen security agencies, court system, implement state police’
Ananaba suggested several ways the government can stem insecurity.
According to Ananaba, “one of the primary duties of government is to maintain security of life and property which is fast eroding. “So, the government needs to strengthen the security agencies. It cannot be possible that this country cannot have peace or that security agencies cannot stem the tide of insecurity. Security is not only to be discussed, in fact the President is also security himself because he retired as a very senior security officer, so he understands what security is all about.
“So, a marching order should be given to security agencies to ensure that the tide is stemmed.
Now that we have got a report on the need for state police, the president should act on that early enough and quickly too.
“The court system is also important so that where there are breaches. The court can act quickly on issues of fundamental rights. We can begin to sieve those who are for us or against us by making sure that the youth are employed and that there is economic empowerment in the country.
‘’The National Orientation Agency (NOA) should begin to sing a new ideology in Nigeria that violence and insecurity is not good, not the way its been done now. It should be improved upon and increased,” he stated.
‘Failure of security is failure of governance’
Law lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Wahab Shittu said the first point to note is that the security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of governance.
He said: ‘’No matter how well we wish this administration, and no matter our professed love for the President, we would be failing in our duties if we fail to tell the President that failure on the area of security is failure of governance completely. Government needs to place the issue of security in the front burner.
“In that vein, I would like to say that the agenda of the government should be security, security and security.”
Shittu argued: “It is only when there is an atmosphere of security that good governance can take place, that the economy can improve, that they can even fight corruption and some other indicators of development.
“So, the government should immediately prioritise the elements of security because every part of the country seems to be thinking that life is no longer safe and that there should be no sacred cow besides security. I think the best approach to recommend is that the government should see and treat security as law and order issue; that anybody who tramples upon the security of our country is an enemy of the country. He is a criminal and should be labelled and treated as such. With the laws of the land maximally applied against violators, there should not be any attempt to protect any section or anybody, so long as such persons are guilty of threatening our security, peace and safety of the country.”
Ubani regretted that several solutions had been proffered, but that the previous and the present government seemed not to pay attention to these suggestions.
“We cannot over emphasise the fact that the primary responsibility of government is to protect lives and properties of citizens in the country. Whenever a life is lost, the government is implicated and whenever several lives are wasted, the government cannot escape the tag of failure,” he said.
The former NBA Vice President recalled that former President Jonathan’s government lost out in the election of 2015 due to its inability to tackle the constant bombings of insurgents and the invasion and capture of several Local Governments Areas in the Northeast region of Nigeria. According to him, under the present government, the criminal space has widened.
‘Southwest very lucrative for criminals’
“What complicates the entire narrative is the impunity and sophisticated criminal acts of kidnappers who have found the Southwest of Nigeria very lucrative for their trade. Horrible accounts of victims of kidnapping in the Southwest axis is terrifying and horrifying. Nigerians are inundated with such stories on daily basis, virtually everyone claim to know one or two persons who are victims of the crime!”
Five ways to tackle the crisis
Ubani suggested a five-point approach to solving the issue. They are:
Don’t handle criminality with kid gloves: The government must call the criminals by their name. Those whose activities have graduated to acts of terrorism must be so branded and treated as such. Handling them with kid gloves sends a wrong signal and embolden them to intensify their acts of criminality with grave consequences to the security situation in the country.
State police: We cannot run away anymore from the creation of state policing. Some of the successes this government have recorded in tackling insecurity in the Northeast were achieved with the collaborative effort of the security agencies and the local vigilante personnel. The creation of state policing has become imperative, the locals know who the criminals are and they are ready to deal with this ugly situation if given the mandate, the support and the funding. I am not ignorant of the argument against state policing, that can be taken care of through elaborate provision of safeguards in our law books and creation of strong judiciary to mitigate the anticipated abuses in the implementation.
Adequate funding: Adequate funding of the security agencies and ensuring that the funds get to them for purchase of sophisticated firearms, training and re-training, kitting and for their welfare. Security agents fighting the criminals must know that in case of death, their families are assured of being taken care of and secured by government policies.
Tighten borders: Our borders are too porous and not policed enough to wade off criminals who come into the country to wreak havoc. Policy statements should be promulgated and put in place to secure our borders and stop the illegal inflow and outflow of criminals in the country.
Deploy modern technology: We are still tackling crime without science and technology in the 21st Century. We must integrate technology in the fight against criminals.
The first step in getting this done is to have a National Data Base for Nigerians and foreigners in the country.
The second step is to ensure that everywhere has CCTV to cover activities of everyone. With technology in place, it will be difficult for criminals to commit crimes and get away with it. Their chances of not being detected will be reduced considerably with technology in appropriate places and deployed in investigating of crimes.
With these and other measures not mentioned here due to space constraint, the government will go a long way in tacking the state of insecurity. Wish them luck as the take these suggestions serious.
‘Tackle poverty, unemployment, corruption’
To Dr. Fassy Yusuf, there are many contributing factors, including “debilitating poverty, unemployment – the magnitude that has never been experienced in this country, leadership quality, corruption in high and low places, political thuggery leading to army of thugs; proliferation of arms, disfunctionality of the system, among others.
“It is a simple axiom that when a country experiences abject poverty, youths that fall into this axis attempted to go into crime and criminalities and they include people who don’t have jobs or those who are willing to work, but don’t have access to work, and they cannot afford three square meals. Some of them, if not most of them, would find solace in crime and criminalities.”
Anciliary to that, he observed, is unemployment. “We have seen the state of the economy in the last 10 to 15 years and that may also dog-tail into our educational system that before now, was not teaching the people to have the capacity and capability to earn a living. Rather, our educational system was structured towards collar jobs.”
Yusuf regretted that majority of the nation’s policies “don’t address the realities of the moment, rather, that the country engages in bureaucratic policies; bureaucracy, no technology; no positive development that can move the nation forward.
‘’Another issue is cultism and drug addiction. When our youths have nothing to do, they end up going into cultism and drugs.
‘’To ensure a turn-around of the society noted to have been bedevilled by kidnapping, herdsmen, banditry, he suggested that the economy should be re-directed, re-jigged so that when the youths find job and are engaged, they would stay away from crime and other criminality.’’
Yusuf also suggested that corruption is at the root of the activities of the herdsmen.
He said: “How did they enter the country? It is corruption. Because they must have bribed some of our security men, the Customs, Immigration, the Police to enter the country. The herdsmen, how can they be carrying guns about without anybody stopping them? It means there is a problem with our security architecture.
“We have to re-jig our security apparatuses to curtail their activities. The Immigration, Customs, the Police, they must all be patriotic. They must jettison corruption. If they don’t, they would be the one to suffer form it at the end of the day.
“Then, our justice administration system must be overhauled – the police, the prison service and other agencies that have to do with arrest, investigating, interrogation and prosecution. They must speak with one voice and they must havwe a common purpose and a common direction so that Nigeria as a country must be a country of my dream and a country of your dream too.”