The Nation Newspaper

Tag: gun

  • Gunmen kill commissioner in Borno

    Gunmen kill commissioner in Borno

    •Council chair shot dead in Adamawa

     

    Fundamentalist sect Boko Haram yesterday intensified its killing spree, which started at the weekend.

    Two government officials were shot dead in Borno and Adamawa states.

    Former Comptroller  General of Prison Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma, shot on Monday by gunmen in front of a mosque in Azare, Bauchi State, died in the hospital yesterday.

    But the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano unveiled the arms and ammunition it claimed to have recovered from the sect’s members.

    It also shed more light on its raid on the sect, which led to the killing of a top shot and the arrest of two others.

    The Borno State Justice Ministry yesterday confirmed the killing of Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General Zanna Malam Gana.

    Gana was shot dead in his home town of Bama.

    On Monday, security sources said the JTF killed Abu Qaqa,  the sect’s spokesman and arrested two other senior members.

    There has been no response from the sect on the claim.

    Gunmen on Monday night shot dead the acting Chairman of Maiha Local Government Council of Adamawa State, Lawan Datti.

    Some residents of Kochifa Ward in Mubi town, where the incident took place, said the deceased was shot around 8p.m in his home, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

    “It is a very sad incident. We buried him this (Tuesday) afternoon,” said one of his neighbours, who preferred anonymity.

    Adamawa police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim confirmed the incident, but gave no details.

    “All I can tell you for now is that the incident took place on Monday night,” he said.

    Kano JTF Spokesman , Lt. Ikedichi Iweha said a planned attack by the terrorist group was foiled.

    In a statement, he said the attack was planned to wreak havoc on Kano people.

    “It has equally further depleted the capacity of the terrorist group to operate. The JTF would like to use this medium to reiterate its resolve to continue to work assiduously towards the protection of lives and property in the state. “

    “The relative peace, which Kano enjoys today, can be attributed to the collective effort and prayers of the good people of Kano State. The JTF continues to count on you for the provision of information as it assures you of the utmost confidentiality in dealing with such information.”

    “Residents are therefore enjoined to go about their normal lawful business activities without any fear, as security agents are ready and will respond swiftly to any threat to life and property in any part of the state.”

    Items recovered during the gun battle with the terrorists  at their heavily wired IED hideout, include: Two  AK-47 rifles, two Pump Action rifles, one Berretta rifle, one smoke discharger, 433 rounds of 7.62 Nato ammunition, 80 rounds of 7.62 special ammunition and 2 AK-47 magazines.

    Others are: 36 prepared IEDs, 13 laptops, two motorcycles, four printers, one photocopier, one 33 slots Zenith disc writer, one TG 3900Ez generator set, religious books, large quantity of CD plates, two decoders, two satellite dish, one 21’’ television set, one DVD player, two bags of Urea fertilizer, one elite dry cell 12v battery, one blue gate UPS, One stabiliser, 10 hand held Motorola radios and five battery chargers.

    Jarma died yesterday afternoon at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi (ATBUTH), Bauchi while receiving treatment as a result of injuries he sustained from the gunshots.

    The former prisons boss was shot near his house in Azare headquarters of Katagum Local Government area of Bauchi state by unknown gunmen as he was coming out from the mosque after observing the Ishai prayer.

    The gunmen also killed one of his security guards, a prison warder and injured one when they opened fire at the security guards in Azare.

    Chief Medical Director of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Dr Mohammed Alkali confirmed the death of Alhaji Jarma in a telephone interview with reporters.

    Alkali said that the former Comptroller General of Prisons was transferred to ATBUTH from Federal medical centre Azare on Monday night but died while receiving treatment yesterday afternoon.

    Jarma, who retired from the service as Comptroller General of Prison in 2002, contested the governorship election in 2003 on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) against Former Governor Adamu Mu’azu.

    Holder of the traditional title of the Jarman Katagum, the former Prisons boss  was educated at the famous Barewa College, Zaria, Kaduna State, was at the wedding of the governor Isa Yuguda’s son held at the Emir of Katagum’s Palace  a fortnight ago and was part of the marriage process.

     

  • A case for one man, one gun

    I would start by declaring that I am quite aware of the sensitive nature of the issue I have chosen to write about. I am also not oblivious of the criticism it may attract from many of our countrymen who believe that since Nigeria remains a baby at 52, its citizens must necessarily be infants endowed more with infantile emotions and temperament than discretion and sound judgment.
    I am talking about the need to grant responsible and emotionally mature Nigerians access to arms to defend themselves and family members in the face of increasing inability of government to live up to its basic responsibility of protecting the lives and property of its citizens.
    While British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, might not have had Nigeria in mind when he propounded his theory of state of nature in the 19th Century, no honest observer would dispute the fact that Nigeria today is a replica of the picture he painted of the human society before the advent of government. Life in that primitive society, he said, was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
    To be sure, the debate on whether private arms should be legalised is not new. But at no time was the issue as germane as it has been in the past one year or thereabout, considering the numerous sources of violent attacks on innocent Nigerians. The attacks had come mainly from armed robbery and hired assassination. Now, the people are contending with insurgent groups like the Boko Haram. In many of the northern states, for instance, churches have become desolate as Christians in those states fear that they could be attacked during service as has been experienced in states like Borno, Yobe, Plateau, Niger, Kaduna, Adamawa and Kano.
    The foregoing is besides the menace constituted by thugs who are in the habit of unleashing terror on workers and owners of new building sites. The Yoruba call them omo onile. Armed with all manner of dangerous weapons, they move from one building site to another, brandishing guns and other dangerous weapons as they make illegal and unreasonable demands from the owners of such projects. There is also the menace of kidnappers; a trend that has virtually brought the states in the South East to their knees. Ten days ago, it took a combined squad of the Inspector-General of Police and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Anambra State Police Command to unveil an intimidating armoury of a kidnapping gang that had terrorised the zone for years. So massive was the armoury that the Commissioner of Police in the state said the kidnappers were capable of defeating a small army.
    Early in the week, dare-devil robbers laid siege to Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the nation, killing no fewer than 10 people as they embarked on a shooting spree around the city after attacking a bureau de change, carting away about N150 million away. The robbers, who were said to number about eight, including two women, drove round in two SUVs. They shot at five policemen inside their patrol vehicle, killing two of them instantly while the third died in the hospital. A stray bullet was said to have hit a six-year-old girl in the eye while her grandmother was hit in the forehead as they watched television in their home.
    The Lagos incident occurred at a time that residents were beginning to think that the police in the state had finally found the winning formula against the men of the underworld. With a lot of support from the state government, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the state’s police command had taken the battle to robbers and incidents of robbery reduced remarkably. The sudden burst of robbers to the scene last Sunday, therefore, came as a shock to many. It pointed to the fact that the police are overwhelmed by the crime rate in the nation, not necessarily because they are incompetent but partly because they lack the necessary equipment. With the nation’s population standing at more than 150 million, the less than half a million policemen available in the country is a far cry from the United Nations’ recommended police strength of 222 per 100,000 people.
    The foregoing scenario has triggered the agitation for a state police in some quarters, but the fundamental question remains how states that are barely viable enough to pay their workers’ salaries would muster the funds needed to equip and maintain its own police? The only viable option we are left with, is to allow individual Nigerians to take their destiny in their own hands by making it possible for them to own their own guns and stop living at the mercy of heartless robbers, kidnappers and hired assassins.
    The fear that is often raised against this proposal is that it could lead to needless killings as temperamental individuals could open fire on their compatriots at the slightest provocation. But this line of reasoning is flawed because it presupposes that such trigger-happy fellows will get away scot-free, whereas we have laws that stipulate death sentence or life imprisonment for such an act. The average Nigerian is a passionate lover of life and would do anything to avoid an act that would lead him or her to incarceration, not to talk of being executed. The current setting in which millions of Nigerians acquire arms illegally is more dangerous because it leaves the law abiding citizens at their mercy. And because the guns in circulation are not registered, it is easier for their owners to kill and get away with it.
    The principle of one man, one gun sets up a scenario of mutually assured destruction. It inhibits the reckless use of gun, knowing full well that the man you set out to kill, his friends or neighbours could also be armed. Armed robbers operate with the brazen boldness they do because they know that the likelihood that they will be challenged during an operation is remote. An armed robber will think twice before invading another man’s house if he knows or suspects that his would-be-victim could be armed.
    Patriotic Nigerians need as many guns as they can muster to neutralise the ferocity of bloodthirsty criminals that hold the nation by the jugular. The alternative is to continue to live at their mercy because the security agencies in whose hands we have entrusted our lives and property have proved time and time again that they are incapable of standing up to them. Imagine how many lives could have been saved in Jos, Maiduguri, Adamawa, Yobe, Kaduna and Kano if ours were a country of one man, one gun. It may not provide the answer to bombs, but it is capable of inhibiting other forms of reckless killings.