The Nation Newspaper

Tag: terror

  • Presidency: suicide bombing last act of a dying terror group

    Presidency: suicide bombing last act of a dying terror group

    President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that his administration is taking measures to end Boko Haram insurgency, saying the attacks are like the last kicks of a dying horse.

    President Buhari, who spoke yesterday at the launching of the Pulaaku Radio in Yola, Adamawa State, said Boko Haram had been massively degraded and its surviving members on the run.

    The President, represented by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the war against insurgency had moved to the next phase, which is intelligence-driven, with a view to ending bombings.

    His words: “Instead of being hunters, they are now the hunted. In their desperation to stay relevant, they have resorted to using innocent under-aged children to carry out attacks.

    “But what we are witnessing now are the last kicks of a dying horse. Yes, these kicks may be dangerous, but they don’t last long.

    Progressively, they become weaker and weaker until the horse finally dies.

    “I have approved the establishment of an intelligence fusion centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to gather and share intelligence among security agencies in the country. This will go a long way in ending this campaign of suicide bombing.

    “We are building on the nationwide campaign we launched last year, with the payoff line: ‘If you see something, say something’. It simply means that we need everyone to be involved in getting the necessary information to tackle the terrorists. They are not ghosts, and some of them live among us. We must all support our gallant troops, many of who have paid the supreme sacrifice in this war, by providing information that can rid our communities of terrorists.

    “It is important for the media, especially radio and television, to continue to play their part in this war, by offering their platforms to communicate useful information to the populace. As part of our sensitisation campaign, which is still running on national radio and television, we put out those little signs that give up the terrorists, and which the people must watch out for. Help us communicate this information to the people.”

    The President described as most auspicious, the timing of the launching of the radio station. It implored it and others to donate airtime for the national sensitisation campaign.

     

     

  • Balance of terror in Rivers

    Chibuike Amaechi and Nyesom Wike are two of a kind. They both belong to Ikwere Igbo sub ethnic group of oil-rich Rivers State of Niger Delta. Both suffer from a ‘sense of entitlement’ syndrome, a common affliction among youths of this oil-rich area that remains underdeveloped despite accounting for 80% of the resources freely deployed by a dysfunctional centre to develop other areas.  As products of an environment where ‘self-help’, a euphemism for anarchy  has unfortunately come to be seen as an acceptable prevailing culture, it is no surprise both do not regard their periodic unleashing of their thugs and militants on hapless people of Rivers as a national embarrassment  and a disservice to high offices they hold.

    Amaechi first tried the self-help option to consolidate his judicial victory with moral victory over Obasanjo who wanted to play god by unilaterally disqualifying him after winning the River’s PDP governorship primary election in order to accommodate his favourite. All he did back then to win the sympathy of his people was to portray himself as a victim of an overbearing representative of dominant ethnic group. However, by the time President Jonathan was attempting to undermine his candidacy in a governors forum election, self-help strategy for him, had become an art. This time around, all he did was to identify with opposition’s grievances over government handling of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, the mismanagement of the Excess Crude Account and PDP fuel subsidy’s N1.6t fraud. He went on to defeat President Jonathan’s candidate, Jonah Jang of Plateau State by 19 to 16. Jonathan’s attempt to portray him as enemy of South- south to which they both belong for refusing to endorse him for a second term only earned him a bruised nose as Amaechi’s shrill cry and lamentation became “They have taken our oil wells from Etche; they have taken our oil wells from Kalabari; they have taken our oil wells from Andoni and they are battling to take over those in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni. We are losing our oil wells every day; if I speak, they will say that I am stubborn, but we have to defend our rights; part of the problems we are facing now is that we are fighting to protect our oil wells.”

    When five members of Rivers House of Assembly swearing in the name of their messiah, Patience Jonathan, the President’s wife, purportedly impeached the House Speaker supported by the majority of members with the connivance of the police, Amaechi, now a veteran of self-help tactics, invaded the house with his own thugs and policemen. He personally took charge not only to rescue his loyalist lawmakers but to teach the five lawmakers that they did not have a monopoly of violence. Okey Chinda, leader of the five lawmakers loyal to Mrs. Jonathan had his head battered with the maze and had to be flown abroad by PDP for medical treatment.

    President Jonathan was also no stranger to self-help tactics. When Rivers State House of Assembly, with little encouragement from Amaechi suspended the chairman of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area which had become Wike’s recruiting base for thugs in readiness for the 2015 election, Jonathan responded by directing Joseph Mbu of Rivers State Police command to illegally take over the LGA, an action described by Dakuku Peterside, a federal legislator from the area at the time as ‘the height of lawlessness which each day moves us closer to anarchy’.

    The experiences Wike garnered as Amaechi’s faithful ally, trusted Chief of Staff and chief enforcer of his self-help tactics before politics threw them asunder came handy during his 2014 gubernatorial battle. By demonizing Buhari and APC as northern parasites trying to steal the resources of South-south, he was able to whip up such sentiments that some of his supporters were prepared to shed their blood. Wike has continued to hold on to power backed by a Supreme Court verdict and a threat to visit more violence on his opponents with his thugs and militants in the event of another re-run election.

    Amaechi and Wike’s last week clash in public was but a display of balance of terror by two friends turned arch-enemies. It will be recalled Wike as minister for education never skipped a weekend without being in Port-Harcourt to mobilise his thugs and militants for the 2014/15 election even at a period when the ministry he was supervising was in disarray with all federal universities and polytechnics on a strike which in the case of the polytechnics dragged on for close to a year

    It is not difficult to see the obvious parallel between Amaechi’s last week trip to Port Harcourt and those of Wike as minister of education. Amaechi came fully prepared. It was as if he was going to war. According to Wike’s spokesperson, Simeon Nwakaudu, who claimed his principal was attacked while on project inspection at Nwanja Junction on Trans-Amadi Road, Port Harcourt., “the Minister of Transportation had over 50 SARS personnel, soldiers and mobile policemen in his motorcade.”  He further alleged it was “the SARS personnel and soldiers in the minister’s convoy that knocked down the governor’s escort rider and attacked the policemen in the pilot car”. He did not however say how this translated to an attack on Governor Wike who did not arrive the scene until about 10 minutes later.

    On his part, the minister  claimed in a statement, that while being “accompanied  by cars of many of his supporters, the minister’s black jeep was intercepted and blocked at the junction by the security motorcycle outrider attached to Wike after two cars had passed through. Suddenly, gun-toting security men attached to Wike’s convoy surrounded the minister’s car, threatening to shoot”.

    The question to ask Amaechi is what he was doing in Port Harcourt with 50 SARS and a bullet-proof SUV and accompanied by several cars of his supporters if he was on a peaceful mission and not on a show of force. It will not be out of place to conclude that at a time Amaechi was expected to be working as a minister of transport, he was engaged in juvenile show of force probably to raise the morale of his thugs and militants just like Wike, his estranged ally did as minister of education.

    Beyond the assault on our sensibilities by merchants of violence and patrons of thugs and militants, our greatest tragedy is that Nigerians had expected from President Buhari and his APC, an end to the monumental wastes that defined the Jonathan era. Instead, we are daily assailed and assaulted by governors and ministers’ convoys of over a dozen expensive cars with lorry loads of security personnel, all at taxpayers’ expense. It is more tragic that these office holders and public servants are wasting resources at a time many states owe unpaid arrears of workers’ salaries.

    Leaders who consider themselves as legitimate representatives of their people have no need to run away from those they are elected or appointed to serve if they have nothing to hide. Most members of our current political class are too young to know we once had an organised society when our leaders like those of developed societies of Europe, take buses, drive their own cars and lived among those they served unlike today when what defines leadership of small sub ethnic group like Ikwere of Rivers State is balance of terror.

  • Kim Jon Un and end of balance of terror strategy

    To end the tenacity of the Japanese and their kamikaze bombing of United States’ ships in the pacific and their soldiers readiness to commit harakiri rather than surrendering in the face of overwhelming forces, the United States decided on the orders of President Harry Truman to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wiping out hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians and soldiers in 1945 thus ending the Second World War with a bang. With this, the genii got out of the bottle and warfare changed for ever. In 1945 the United States was the only nuclear power but by 1949 the USSR caught up with them. It took one or two years before the USSR developed bombers that could reach the United States which by then had bombers in European bases spread from Britain, Germany to Turkey. Thus began the arms race and American strategy of containment in the face of being outnumbered by Soviet and East European land forces. Containment relied largely on massive nuclear retaliation in the case of Soviet land attack on American forces and their allies in Europe. Decades later, the USSR’s strategy of putting nuclear missiles in communist Cuba led to the missile crisis of 1962 when the whole world faced the possibility of nuclear war between the two superpowers of USA and USSR. This brinkmanship was resolved when in a secret deal, President John F. Kennedy agreed with the Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev of Russia to move out its missiles from Cuba while the USA moved out its own from Turkey on the border of the USSR. From then onwards, the emphasis shifted to development of ICBM and nuclear submarines carrying Polaris missiles as well as developing and deployment in various silos in the USSR and USA intercontinental ballistic missiles. This military advancement gave both superpowers second strike capability. This is to say if the USA were to hit the Soviet Union, it would have had the capability to retaliate because all its missiles would not have been taken out or destroyed. Realizing the futility of further development after the failed attempt of President Ronald Reagan anti-missiles system to be deployed in space to destroy on coming intercontinental ballistic missiles, the so-called Star Wars programme, serious negotiations to limit nuclear weapons by the two superpowers began. The previous SALT (strategic arms limitation talks) moved to the START (strategic arms reduction talks) by which considerable reductions were made in the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers. In spite of whatever reduction that have been made, each of the nuclear weapons state of the USA and now Russian federation has enough nuclear weapons to bury the world six times over. The destructive awesomeness of nuclear weapons was captured in the statement of Albert Einstein when he said if there was a Third World War, the Fourth World War would be fought with sticks and stones meaning human civilization would have been destroyed and we would be back to the Stone Age. This was before China joined the nuclear weapons states in 1964 adding more explosion to the possible nuclear Armageddon. While the possible use of nuclear weapons in Europe was inconceivable because of the strategic balance then prevailing, it was not ruled out of consideration in other theatres of war outside Europe. For example, before China developed its own bomb, there was a move by General Omar Bradley of the US army and endorsed by his commander in the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur to prevail on President Harry Truman to authorize the use of nuclear weapons against China until he was relieved of his command in 1951.

    Because of the awesomeness of nuclear weapons, there has been no direct military conflict between the two major super powers since 1945. There have been proxy wars between the communist world and the USA and her allies as was the case in Korea (1950-1953) and in Vietnam 1955-1975). There have been other proxy wars in Southern Africa and South America. The main reason why there has been relative global peace was because of nuclear weapons since everybody knows that in a direct exchange of nuclear weapons, there will be no winner and the whole world will be victims. Those who survive being incinerated will die as a result of radioactive fallout. It is this fear of the consequences of nuclear exchange that has underpinned the theory of mutual assured destruction (MAD) and of nuclear deterrence.

    The relations between USA and Russian federation which inherited the nuclear arsenals of the Soviet Union have been based on this strategy of deterrence. When China joined the club, the same equation applied. Before the accession to the NNPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty), other countries such as Great Britain, France, India, Pakistan, covertly Israel and North Korea became nuclear weapons states. Iran has nuclear ambitions and apartheid South Africa actually became a nuclear weapons state clandestinely around 1975 but destroyed this nuclear infrastructure when it realized a black government of South Africa might inherit it. The new comers and prospective comers into the nuclear club argue that it is an insurance against being run over by powerful countries. This is the argument of Israel, Pakistan and apparently North Korea. But none apart from North Korea has threatened to use it to preserve itself or to threaten potential adversary especially the much more powerful USA. This has been the case since the young and impetuous Kim Jon-Un took over the reins of government in North Korea after the death of his father Kim Jon il.

    The Kim dynasty officially called the “Mount Baektu Bloodline” is a three generation lineage of North Korean leadership descending from the country’s first leader Kim il- Sung in 1948. Kim came to rule the country after the end of Japanese rule in 1945 led to its division into north and south Korea. He ruled with iron fist and led his country to the brutal Korean War in which he wanted to unify the country under his own rule and failed because of American resistance supposedly under United Nations auspices. Kim il Sung was succeeded by his son Kim Jon-il in 1994 and remained in power till his death in 2011. After his death, one of his teenage sons Kim Jon Un took over and began aggressive development of nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them. He has tested middle range missiles and once launched an ICBM over Japan and threatened to destroy American forces in Guam and Okinawa. The seriousness of this issue has led twice this year to unanimous condemnation of North Korea by the UN Security Council including the concurrence of China and Russia which usually do not see eye to eye with the United States.

    The open threat by North Korea to hit the USA has elicited strong reaction from the pugnacious United States President Donald J. Trump who openly declared before the United Nations General Assembly in September that if provoked the USA will destroy completely the government and presumably the people of North Korea. Since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the possibility of use of nuclear weapons has not been seen anywhere in the world, not even in the eternal conflict between India and Pakistan which developed nuclear weapons in the fear of being attacked by each other over their rival claims of the disputed territory of Kashmir over which they have fought several wars since the partition of the British Raj into India and Pakistan 1947.

    The world is actually facing the breakdown of a long established strategy of world peace. This breakdown is occasioned by the apparent lack of fear of retaliation by North Korea, unless its leaders are engaging in a policy of dangerous posturing.  In a conflict between the USA and North Korea, there are several arsenals in the possession of the United States such as tactical nuclear bombs and neutron bombs that can be used to kill people without destroying physically the country. But of what use will the country be if its people are destroyed. Unless it is possible to take out its leadership surgically without the use of nuclear weapons, the present policy of North Korea may lead it to national suicide. If it can only moderate its rhetoric and behave responsibly as a nuclear weapons state, the country may survive. This will mean North Korea embracing the theory and practice of deterrence because it will be futile and dangerous for the USA to attack it if it is accepted as a nuclear weapons state. Then North Korea would have avoided the fate of Muamar Gadhafi’s Libya and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that were invaded because of not having nuclear weapons. It is to avoid this fate that is also driving the nuclear ambitions of Iran in spite of its protestation of pacific intentions and innocence.

    The United States’ policy and  the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty which is internationally subscribed to by most non-nuclear  weapons states  has failed in the case of North Korea because  of America’s non-pacific intentions to North Korea. It may also fail in Iran because of the same reasons if America  under President Trump walks away from the carefully negotiated international agreement between Iran and the P5+1 (USA ,China, United Kingdom, Russia, France and Germany). It is ironical that while working for a peaceful world, America’s policy of intervention or threat of intervention is driving some of its potential enemies like Iran and North Korea to want to acquire nuclear weapons as some form of insurance against invasion. While Iran can still be prevented from becoming a nuclear weapons state, it is too late to talk about denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula because North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons. The fear of course is if North Korea does not behave responsibly as a nuclear weapons state should behave, Japan and South Korea, for strategic balance, may develop their own independent nuclear deterrence with or without American encouragement and sadly, the world will be less safe.

  • Walking over terror

    •Amazing courage of a six-year-old boy badly injured by Boko Haram insurgents

    The welcome recovery of one of the youngest victims of the Boko Haram insurgency is a reminder of the fact that victories against terrorism are not won only on the field of battle.

    Ali Ahmadu, a six-year old Chibok boy who suffered spinal cord injuries when he and his mother were run over by fleeing insurgents three years ago, has begun walking unaided soon after undergoing an operation in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The speed of his recovery defied the predictions of his surgeons who thought he would need much more time and extensive physical therapy to leave his wheelchair.

    Ali’s ability to transcend the enormous difficulties of his lamentable circumstances is a tribute to a strength of character that is amazing in one so young. Reports have it that he and his mother did not have medical care for three days after sustaining their injuries.

    Plaudits must also go to the Global Initiative for Peace, Love and Care, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) which first publicised Ali’s plight, and the Dickens Sanomi Foundation and several philanthropic Nigerians who sponsored his transportation to Dubai and his medical care. In this regard, Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and his fellow-senators deserve special mention for their preparedness to donate to a worthy cause.

    The Boko Haram insurgency is the most devastating conflagration Nigeria has faced since the end of the civil war in 1970. As at February this year, the group is estimated to have been responsible for some 100,000 deaths and the displacement of about 2.11 million people. The six north-eastern states have suffered damage put at U.S. $9 billion.

    As grim as they are, these statistics do not take account of the emotional and physical damage suffered by victims like Ali, or the hundreds of men, women and children maimed and kidnapped by Boko Haram. Deprived of homes and livelihood, bereft of loved ones, and stuck in badly-managed internally-displaced persons (IDP) camps, the insurgency has created a class of citizens which are extremely vulnerable to poverty and want.

    There are thousands of casualties like Ali who have not been fortunate enough to come to public notice, and Nigeria is failing in its responsibility to give them the succour they so desperately need. This cannot continue, or it will result in the growth of embittered citizens who will have no loyalty to a nation that they justifiably feel has done so little for them.

    If the situation is to improve, it will have to mean immediate and verifiable improvements in the conditions of IDPs. Residents of the camps have repeatedly protested the lack of food, poor medical and educational facilities, as well as harsh treatment from the officials who are supposed to care for them.

    To aggravate matters, it appears that supplying the IDP camps has become yet another avenue for unbridled corruption, with the large-scale diversion of foodstuff and other supplies meant for the IDPs.

    As the most vulnerable Nigerians, the country’s internal refugees deserve the highest priority when it comes to ameliorating their situation. Special provisions must be made for their welfare both in the short and long-term.

    The supply of food and medicine must be guaranteed, and corruption punished to the fullest extent of the law. Local hospitals should expand their services to cater to the IDP camps. Volunteer nurses, doctors, teachers and counsellors should be encouraged to offer their services. Greater efforts must be made to involve the IDPs themselves in decisions affecting their welfare, and more attention should be drawn to the plight of traumatised victims of the insurgency like Ali.

    Nigerian businesses should make the betterment of the conditions of IDP camps a central plank of their corporate social responsibility initiatives; in this regard, the country’s high-brow hospitals should be ashamed that Ali had to be taken to Dubai for surgery.

    Victory over insurgency can only be complete when Nigeria ensures that its victims get the help they need.

  • Four killed in midnight terror attack in Delta

    A midnight gun attack on the Hausa community in Asaba, the Delta State capital, has left four persons dead.

    The Friday night attack by unknown people occurred at  Abraka market area of the city.

    The Nation gathered yesterday that the assailants who were armed with guns and other dangerous weapons stormed the settlement while residents were asleep, and started shooting indiscriminately.

    Dead were three men and a woman.

    Several other people were injured.

    A source who spoke to The Nation said the assailants also threw an explosive device into a mosque at Cable point.

    A resident was said to have picked up the bomb, and threw it into the river before it could explode.

    Witness said armed soldiers and policemen razed to the scene to give the invaders a chase.

    The security agents took the injured persons to the hospital for treatment and deposited the bodies of the dead at the mortuary.

    The State Police command confirmed the incident and said it had arrested two suspected IPOB members in connection with the incident.

    Police spokesman, DSP Andrew Aniamaka said detectives were on the trail of a third suspect simply known as “Last Burial”.

    Aniamaka said the suspects were arrested from their hiding place in the rafters of a major hotel in Abraka area in Asaba-the Delta State Capital.

    He said: “The Delta Police Command has in the early hours of Saturday, 16th September, 2017 arrested two suspects namely: Abraham Ndudi ‘m’, 24 years old from Kwale, Delta State and Okereke Ifeanyi ‘m’, 21 yrs from Ogbaru in Anambra State for their involvement in the dastardly shooting and killing of four persons at Abraka market, Asaba yesterday, Friday, September 15th, 2017 at about 10.45pm. The suspects, who were arrested from their hiding place on the ceiling of a major hotel in Abraka, Asaba, where they had fled into in their dire bid to escape arrest, are already helping the police in their investigation. Meanwhile, efforts are on top gear to arrest the third suspect, whose real name is yet unknown but simply identified as Last Burial”.

    The statement named those killed as Usman Abdullahi ‘m’, aged 45yrs, Ali Sidi ‘m’, aged 70yrs, Ibrahim Zubairu’m’ aged 30yrs and Hauwa (surname unknown), aged 22yrs.

    It said five injured victims are currently recuperating at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba

    The Police urged the public not “to panic or even contemplate any reprisal action as the law will surely take its course’.

     

  • REIGN OF TERROR

    REIGN OF TERROR

    In many parts of the world, travelling by road at night is an experience many relish. It is usually hassle-free expedition as one could simply recline in his seat and sleep away until one gets to his destination. In Europe, for instance, Eurolines and other coaches and luxury buses traverse the continent with passengers, many of whom prefer to make such trips at night. In South Africa, travelling through the vast land by night with transport companies like Greyhound and the others is always a pleasure.

    In Nigeria, it is a different ball game. Night travel in this part of the world could be likened to walking through the valley of the shadow of death, as evil perpetually lurks in the corner. While robbery attacks on night travellers is not a strange phenomenon, it has assumed an alarming proportion in recent times, particularly on the Lagos-Ore-Benin Expressway. Robbery attacks on commuters on the road has led to the loss of hundreds of lives.

    The most recent of such attacks occurred at a spot between Ore and Efusu penultimate Monday with a contract driver with Lagos-based media organisation, Complete Sports, Mr. Suleiman Tajudeen, escaping death by a whisker. The dare-devil robbers who waylaid him actually shot him in the head, thinking that he was dead.

    Narrating his ordeal, he said: “I was driving towards Benin, between Ore and Ofusu when I saw their (robbers) wooden barricade and I stopped. As I tried to reverse, they (robbers) shot at me and I fell. When I fell and the vehicle stopped, one of them said I had died. So, they dragged me out of the vehicle, searched me and stole about N48,000 and my Nokia phone.”

    Tajudeen’s case was far from being isolated as the expressway has virtually been taken over by robbers who attack and kill commuters at will. The incessant attacks by robbers have led to series of protests by commercial bus drivers who lament the loss of many of their colleagues to robbery attacks on the road.

    In the early morning of July 1, commercial drivers used their vehicles to block the road for more than 12 hours as a way of drawing the attention of the government to their plight. On that fateful day, a pregnant woman and a bus conductor were killed by robbers. A few weeks after that, a driver with a transport company Apeli-ape had had his hands shattered by robbers’ bullets to the extent that the two hands had to be amputated.

    Most notorious section

    Although the last incident occurred at the Ore-Ofosu axis of the expressway, the most dangerous sections of the route, according to the drivers, are the Benin Toll Gate and Okada town axis. Mr. Innocent Oyebuchukwu, a luxury bus driver who had plied the road for more than 40 years and currently works with one of the leading luxury bus companies, narrated the harrowing experiences of commercial drivers as well as commuters on the road every night. He said it was in protest against it that they decided to block the expressway on July 1 after another fatal attack by robbers.

    He said: “Why we did that was that the way they attack us suggests that their mission is more than robbery. In normal robbery incidents, they would use something to block the road. When you reach that location, you would stop and they would rob you. But these ones, the kind of guns they use, and sometimes, they number between 15 and 20 persons. They hide inside the bush, and immediately they come out, all of them will start shooting directly at the bus, just to kill the driver. They have killed some drivers, conductors and passengers. It has become a regular occurrence.

    “That was why we blocked the road. Some top security officials in that area later came out. There was even one top navy official whose name was Ibe, who was travelling along that route at that time. He also came out. He was even the one who pleaded with us to remove the barricade and promised to take up the case.

    “From 11 to 12 midnight the previous day, we were there till 12 noon the next day. When the incident happened, we blocked the road around 1 am to 1 pm in the afternoon of the same day. It was when we agreed to clear the road and we were already leaving that media men came there.

    “The week after that, one of our drivers was also attacked. On that day, as we were coming, we did not see any oncoming vehicle. The road was empty. I was coming from Benin Toll Gate and I did not see any vehicle coming from the opposite direction. I knew that something was wrong. So, I and about three or four buses behind me—Chisco, Izu Chukwu and two Young Shall Grow buses—slowed down and were moving slowly.

    “When we approached the spot where the policemen parked their armoured tank, we saw buses parked. We then parked and joined them. It was after we had parked that we saw somebody lying down. They said he was a passenger. He had been killed. We stayed there until around 2 pm again. It was after the dead body was removed that we opened the road.

    “There was supposed to be highway police patrol teams in the day time and in the night. Apart from that, policemen are supposed to be detailed to man some flash points on the road. They are there always, but any time there is a robbery attack, you will not see them again.

    “On the day the last incident occurred, almost nine of the teams were parked at Ogbemudia Farm, in the bush. As we were coming, we saw them but yet there was robbery. The driver of the vehicle that was attacked said when he drove past the robbers amid heavy gunshots, there were policemen in front, but they were driving away from the area the robbery attack was going on.

    “After the robbers had killed one of the passengers, the driver managed to escape from the robbers. Immediately he left that point, he saw the police patrol very close to the scene of the incident. He said he overtook their vehicle and finally stopped at the place where they parked their armoured tank.

    “That was why they blocked the road.”

    Asked to explain what he meant when he said that the nature of the attacks made them to look more than mere robbery, he said: “Once they attack the bus, they will ransack the bus, search every passenger and collect their money. Sometimes, after they must have finished stealing, they will still take some passengers away.

    “If they see somebody in the bus who they believe is affluent, they kidnap the person and call the family to come and pay ransom. And before they rob, they must kill either the driver or the conductor. They are not concerned about lives; they make sure that they kill and then rob.

    “And there has never been enough security coverage in the area. There has never been any time an attack would be happening and policemen would appear. You won’t even see them coming until robbery has been concluded. That is when you will see them coming out.”

    Oyebuchukwu continued: “My son is also a bus driver. His bus developed a fault within the area before the armoured tank. As he and the passengers came down to see what the problem was, some policemen came with their Hilux vehicle and with some passengers in it.

    “The policemen later came back to the spot to ask the driver what had happened to the bus. He told them that the gas was cutting and that they were fixing it. They asked the driver whether it could be fixed and he said yes. The police team left. Less than 15 minutes after they left, some robbers came there and robbed all the passengers.

    “But he could not say whether it was the people the police had dropped off or some other people who carried out the robbery attack.”

    “Many transport companies are victims. One of the drivers, they shot lost his two hands as his hands had to be amputated. The driver is called Apeli-Api. He drives a G7 bus. All of us were travelling on that day, but he was in front. They shot him and shattered his two hands.”

    Asked whether it was only the Edo axis of the expressway that such attacks occur, he said: “No, it is only that the section between Benin Toll Gate and Okada is the most notorious. In Ondo, they don’t disturb us like that.

    “Sometimes, when they use wood to block the road, trailers would come and scatter them. But for the robbers in the Edo axis, it is not just to shoot but to make sure that they kill the drivers, conductors and other passengers.”

    Another driver, Igwe, proffered a solution on how to tackle the insecurity on the highway, recalled that about two years ago when there was this kind of constant attacks, soldiers were brought in to man security in the area. And when they came, the situation improved.

    “They were about two teams and they were camped there. When robbers blocked the road, soldiers would escort the buses from Okada and help them to pass the bad spots. When they continued the patrol for some time, the robbery incidents stopped. But after the army personnel were withdrawn, they started again.”

    The new wave of attacks, they noted, started last year.

    Igwe said: “It was last year that all these attacks started. The army left about two years ago because the thing had stopped. But last year, it started again. All the drivers are saying that they don’t want the policed again; they want the presence of soldiers on that route. When the army were on the route, it was safe for everybody.”

    Responding to the security issues raised by drivers, the Edo State Police Command said it had increased security presence on the Lagos-Benin Expressway because of incessant robbery attacks.

    The spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, DSP Moses Nkombe, who spoke in a telephone conversation with our reporter, said that more than five robbery suspects had been arrested on the route in the last three months.

    He, however, reiterated the fact that the last robbery incident in which a contract driver with Complete Sports newspaper was shot in the head did not occur within the Edo State jurisdiction.

    DSP Nkombe said the Command had adopted some security modules that would yield results in the next few weeks.

    He said: “Most times, security strategies are not explained to members of the public so that criminals themselves would not use them to advantage. I want to assure that the command is on top of the situation and we have improved security presence on that route.

    “We have adopted some security modules I will not want to disclose now. Very soon, they shall be yielding results. We have arrested more than five robbery suspects within the last three months.

    “For some time now, we have not had complaints of robbery. We have put much to ensure the route is safe.”

    Asked why transport companies insist on night journeys in spite of the huge casualty figures from night travels, the Abuja manager of one of the leading transport companies who identified himself simply as Ude said: “Most people don’t board luxury buses in the morning because of the roads. The whole road is bad. Our bus left Lagos yesterday night but arrived Abuja around 3:00 pm. The one that left here for Port Harcourt yesterday got to Owerri around 2 pm today. The whole road is bad, going to Uromi, Ubiaja, there is a big ‘pond’ on the road that makes it difficult for vehicles to pass.”

    The Nation made efforts to speak with the leader of the Association of Luxury Buses Owners of Nigeria (ALBON), but a respondent at the association’s secretariat said ALBON would not make any comment.

  • 12 arrested after seven killed in London terror attack

    12 arrested after seven killed in London terror attack

    British Prime Minister Theresa May blamed “evil” Islamist ideology yesterday for an attack by knife-wielding men who mowed down and stabbed revellers in London.

    Seven people were killed, 48 injured and the police said they had arrested 12 suspects.

    Saturday night’s rampage at the popular nightlife hub around London Bridge, by three men arriving in a van and wearing fake suicide vests, was the third deadly terror attack in Britain in three months and came only days before Thursday’s general elections.

    Political parties promptly suspended campaigns  out of respect for the victims, who included 48 people treated in hospital, some of them in life-threatening conditions.

    No details have been released about the suspects, who were shot dead within minutes by police, and detectives are still investigating whether they acted alone.

    The 12 arrests were made in the ethnically diverse east London suburb of Barking, with Sky News reporting that a property raided by police belonged to one of the killers.

    May said the attack was driven by the same “evil ideology of Islamist extremism” behind last week’s Manchester suicide bombing that left 22 people dead, and the Westminster attack in March, which killed five.

    “The recent attacks are not connected but we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face,” she said after chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee.

    She warned that perpetrators are inspired to attack “by copying one another”.

    The assailants wore fake suicide vests in a bid to increase the sense of panic as they lunged seemingly at random at the crowds gathered around London Bridge and Borough Market, which is full of restaurants and bars.

    Gerard Vowls, 47, said he saw a woman repeatedly stabbed, and threw chairs, glasses and bottles at the attackers in a bid to stop them.

    “They kept coming to try to stab me… they were stabbing everyone. Evil, evil people,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

    Holly Jones, a BBC reporter, saw a white van speeding into crowds of people walking along the pavement on London Bridge, saying it hit about five or six people.

    Another witness called Eric told the BBC he had seen three men get out and thought they were going to help.

    Instead they “started kicking them, punching them and took out knives. It was a rampage really,” he said, adding that he heard a shout of: “This is for Allah”.

    An Australian and four French nationals were among those hospitalised, their governments said, while a Spaniard was slightly wounded.

    Britain was already on high alert following the attack on a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande in Manchester, northwest England, in which seven children were among the dead.

    Grande, who headlined a benefit concert in Manchester last night alongside stars including Pharrell Williams and Justin Bieber, tweeted that she was “Praying for London.”

    The national threat level was raised to maximum after the Manchester attack and troops were deployed at key public sites, but reduced to its second highest level last weekend.

    May, who served as interior minister for six years before taking office after the Brexit vote last summer, said Britain’s response to the terror threat must change.

    “We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are,” she said.

    She repeated calls for international action to combat extremist content online, a message she took to the G7 leaders summit last week.

    May also warned there was “far too much tolerance of extremism in our country”, promising to review counter-terrorism efforts, including possibly increasing the jail terms handed out in terror cases.

    The ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour party suspended national campaign events for the day, although local campaigning will continue.

    “But violence can never be allowed to disrupt the democratic process, so those campaigns will resume in full tomorrow and the general election will go ahead as planned on Thursday,” the prime minister said.

    Saturday’s rampage is the latest in a string of attacks to hit Europe, including in Paris, Berlin and Saint Petersburg, and the French, German and Russian leaders sent messages of support.

    US President Donald Trump offered his help, tweeting “WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!” — and highlighting his thwarted ban on travellers from six mainly Muslim countries.

    The Federal Government condemned the deadly terrorist attacks and voiced its deep condolence to the relatives and victims of the attack.The Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement by its Spokesperson, Dr Clement Aduku, said: “the government and people of Nigeria stand with the government and people of Great Britain in the face of continued terrorist attacks on innocent victims.

    “Our thoughts, sympathy and prayers are with those affected in these latest multiple terrorist attacks and their families,” the ministry stated

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that assailants drove a van into pedestrians at high speed on London Bridge on Saturday night before stabbing revellers on nearby streets.

    Police said armed officers shot dead all three attackers within minutes of receiving reports of the terrorist attack unfolding in central London.

    The three men were wearing suicide bomb vests that were later confirmed to be fakes.

    Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said on Sunday morning the incident was under control. “We believe there were three attackers and we believe they are dead,” she said

    Police also confirmed the arrest of 12 people in the Barking district of east London in connection with the attack and raids were continuing there

    Several people said they were ordered by police to stay inside pubs and restaurants as the terror raged outside.

    Alex Shellum at the Mudlark pub said a woman had come into the bar “bleeding heavily from the neck”, telling the BBC: “It appeared that her throat had been cut.”

    Italian photographer Gabriele Sciotto, who was watching the football at the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market, said he saw three men shot just outside the pub.

    In a picture he took, a man wearing combat trousers, with a shaved head and what looked like a belt with canisters attached to it could be seen on the ground with two more bodies behind him.

    “In two or five seconds, they shot all the three men down,” Sciotto told the BBC.

    The attack had harrowing echoes of the attack on Westminster Bridge in March, when British Muslim convert Khalid Masood rammed his car into pedestrians before crashing into the barriers surrounding parliament.

    He stabbed a police officer to death before being shot dead by a ministerial bodyguard.

  • Six killed, 48 hospitalised in London terror attack

    Six killed, 48 hospitalised in London terror attack

    Terrorists struck again in United Kingdom on Saturday night leaving Six persons dead and forty- eight people hospitalised.

    The London Ambulance Service in a statement on Sunday according to agency reports confirmed the casualty figures and the injured.

    “We took 48 patients to five hospitals across London and treated a number of others at the scene for minor injuries,” the LAS stated.

    According to a statement by Metropolitan police assistant commissioner for specialist operations, Mark Rowley, the attack began late Saturday night, when a white van stuck pedestrians on London Bridge.

    Rowley said the suspects left the vehicle and “a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge,”
    “Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes.”
    Eyewitnesses reported panic as the incidents unfolded in the vicinity of a major transport hub and in an area packed with restaurants and bars.

  • S/West and Fulani herdsmen’s terror

    In the past couple of weeks, we in the South-west have not been experiencing much of Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism in our part of Nigeria. We hear of it still going on very brutally in parts of the Middle Belt – still more or less regularly taking the lives of many people, destroying villages, and forcibly seizing territory in Benue State, Southern Kaduna and other parts of the Middle Belt.

    Obviously, we in the South-west would be fools if we allowed ourselves to fall into the thinking that it has ended in our South-west. It has not. In fact, whenever one travels through any part of the South-west these days, one cannot avoid the very clear impression that the cattle herders and their cows are streaming in larger numbers than before to the South-west. They are everywhere, from the tall grass terrains of our northern territories (in northern Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun states), all the way to our southernmost districts, including our Lagos State in our farthest south. They are roaming in places where there is, obviously, only thick forests and broad-leaf vegetation and no visible grass. Even though the reports of the herdsmen’s violent attacks on farms and farmers and villages have been muted in the past few weeks in our South-west, we need to watch out. Their coming at all, and their coming in the larger numbers that we are now seeing, is not good for our well-being and cannot be good for our future.

    We must entertain such fears for obvious reasons. When, at the early high points of the Fulani herdsmen’s massacres and destruction of farms and villages in various prats of our South-west, we cried out in pain, the responses we got were such as should always keep us on our guard. Some leaders of the association of Fulani cattle herders responded to us that there was nothing we could do to keep their herdsmen and their cows out of our homeland, and that their being Nigerian citizens, and their living under the ECOWAS agreements, gave them the unlimited freedom to enter with their cows into any part of our land, even if they were engaging in violence and destruction there. We, as Nigerians, deserved protection by the Nigerian federal government; but, not only did the President of Nigeria keep silent about these outrages by his Fulani kinsmen terrorists, the general behaviour of the federal government was such as to make us suspect that the powers and influence of the federal government were being used to support the Fulani herdsmen terrorists. We can see, as many Nigerians have pointed out in the media, that the Nigerian Police seem to fear to arrest the murderous terrorists, even when the terrorists carry AK47 rifles in the public, and even when the terrorists are suspected to have killed people or destroyed property.

    When the government of our Ekiti State made a law to curtail the rampages of the Fulani terrorists in Ekiti State, and the leaders of the herdsmen’s associations responded that they would disregard the law and defy the Ekiti State government, we could only conclude that they derived their defiant spirit from the support they were getting from federal sources. And, finally, it is no longer a secret that our governors are under federal pressure to accept the cattle herders, and to provide land for them, in our states.

    In short, there are good reasons why we must suspect that there is a plot in high places to inflict some horror on our homeland in Nigeria, and that the Fulani herdsmen terrorists are part of the instruments of the plot. Most informed Nigerians believe by now that some very influential Nigerians are behind the radicalization of the Fulani herdsmen in these times – that some influential Nigerians are supplying sophisticated weapons to them, training them in military assault tactics, indoctrinating them against the rest of Nigeria, and attracting foreign elements (Libyan militia men and Fulani desperadoes from neighbouring countries) to come and join them in killing and destroying in Nigeria. The ultimate objective of all this remains a puzzle to us; we only know that it cannot possibly be good for us or for the other Nigerian peoples that have been under the attacks since 2014. There is no doubt that this is some sort of invasion.

    Nomadic cattle rearing is one of the most primitive survivals of barbarism into the modern world. In most countries where it still exists, the authorities are striving to bring it to an end and to replace it with modern cattle ranching. In contrast, in Nigeria, the authorities are manoeuvring to create space for it even in regions where it never existed even in ancient times. The record of our history shows that we Yoruba, living in a homeland that is mostly tropical forests, have never engaged in nomadic cattle rearing. In the course of the past 6000 years, we have steadily developed our sedentary crop farming into the most successful in tropical Africa. On the basis of that success, we built the richest urban civilization in the history of Black Africa. But today in Nigeria, we are being pressurized to push back on civilization in order to create space for barbarism on our land.

    We must make it abundantly clear to Nigeria and to the world that we will never yield to this outrage. We will pursue our best and most sustainable options in the circumstance. We will not harass or antagonize our governors in this matter. We know the kind of pressures they are operating under. We only demand of them to dare to speak out clearly in ways that fully and unambiguously express our wish. Then we ask that they should, like the Ekiti State governor, make laws that will push back on nomadic cattle rearing in our states.

    And finally, to nail our approach to this problem definitively, we must ask our state governments to embark on programmes for the development of modern cattle ranching. This would mean that, in the grasslands of the northern provinces of our states, we should set aside areas that we designate as ranch-lands; and in such places we should encourage our own citizens to acquire, at minimum costs, appropriate sizes of land for ranches; and we should set up programmes for helping them to develop their ranches and to enforce ranch regulations and security. As a corollary to this, we should set up cattle markets in the same northern areas of our homeland, and encourage our business folks to establish slaughter facilities or abattoirs, and to put frozen meat trucks on the roads to supply beef to our towns and cities. We have reached the point at which we should prohibit the rearing of cows through our farmlands, and prohibit the driving of cows though our city or town streets. We have also reached the point at which we should see to it that our beef retailers will buy their beef supplies at frozen depots and sell with smaller frozen facilities.

    If other people desire to bring cows for sale from outside our region, they should bring their cows, by approved pathways, to our cattle markets and sell there only. In all these, there are great business opportunities for our people. There are also great business opportunities for citizens of northern states in their own states, if they would choose to take advantage of what we are doing. We will gladly buy the cattle that they bring to our cattle markets. These are things we and they can do quite easily. For us and for them, it is a win-win proposition. But we must not wait for anybody; we must go right ahead regardless. If we handle this well, we in the South-west can soon become a major exporter of beef.

    In summary, we must not let ourselves get embroiled in wild and messy battles over our farmlands. We must mobilize the factors of civilization to win the primitive war that some people have chosen to wage against us. Let us win it – in ways that are peaceful, in ways that will advance our progress and prosperity. I hope that our governors – Akinwumi Ambode, Ibikunle Amosun, Abiola Ajimobi, Rauf Aregbesola, Rotimi  Akeredolu and Ayo Fayose – are reading this. And I hope they will spring into action. If they do, they can count on our powerful backing at every step.

  • Nigeria, France to cooperate against terror

    Nigeria, France to cooperate against terror

    Nigeria and France will continue to deepen the buoyant diplomatic, economic and military relationships between the two countries.

    They are also exploring new ways to confront and defeat the ideologies fueling terrorism.

    This was the highlight of the bilateral meeting between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and French Prime Minister, Mr. Bernard Cazeneuve, in Paris after the Vice President attended and spoke at the just concluded global forum on Anti-Corruption and Integrity hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, said that while Osinbajo recalled the tremendous progress made by the Buhari administration in degrading Boko Haram and suppressing the insurgency significantly, he explained to the French Prime Minister the need to break the ideological underpinnings of terror.

    He said “One thing left for us to deal with is deradicalization, defeating the ‘ideology’ behind the mindless killing and violence. This is now what we have to deal with, “

    While observing that there is view that some of the issues involved in the fuelling of terrorism is governance related and economic, he said “it goes beyond that to ideological, and we are now focussing on the challenge, and on how to deal with it.”

    He said that the Federal Government would be happy to work with France, and others among its diplomatic partners who may also have to deal with such problems as the challenge of deradicalization.

    Osinbajo conveyed through the Prime Minister, the warm greetings of President Muhammadu Buhari to the French President Francois Hollande, noting the commitment and demonstrated support of the French President to Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram, including on the issue of military purchases, and also French contributions against terrorism in the entire Sahel region.

    He said “We are thankful for the work you are doing with Nigeria. President Hollande has been to Nigeria twice and his support against terrorism in the countries in the region is by words and action, showing that the French is committed and standing side by side with us.

    “Generally, the stemming of the sprad of terrorism in the Sahel is much due to French’s role, and we thankful for that contribution.” he added

    He said that the recently released FG’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is private sector led, adding that government’s “role is to facilitate and make life easier for investors where we can.”

    While appreciating the French government for its hospitality to him and members of his delegation in France, the Vice President commiserated with the government and people of France on the French school children injured in the recent Westminster terror attack in London.

    He then congratulated the Prime Minister who was appointed to the position in December.

    In his remarks, Prime Minister Cazeneuve recalled recent terror attacks in France, saying “we know the consequences of terror attacks on populations. We are aware of the problem and we know it cannot be solved by countries working alone.”

    He also said that the French government has a process of deradicalization, involving teams working with families.

    He however stressed that “it’s a very difficult job.”

    The French government, he added will be focussing on how to enhance and deepen relationship with Nigeria, including on issues of “counter terrorism and sharing information when it comes to deradicalization.”

    The Prime Minister also congratulated the Nigerian President and military over the degrading of Boko Haram.

    He asked the Vice President at the Thursday afternoon meeting to convey to President Buhari “our message of admiration of his efforts to modernize your country.”

    He then commended the Nigerian Vice President on how he is supporting the President, especially by holding the fort as Acting President while President Buhari was away.

    “You played a significant role for your country while holding forth for your country. Also you play an important role in relaunching the Nigerian economy, ” the Prime Minister observed, adding that French investors will take advantage of the opportunity the Nigerian economy offers.