When the sad news broke recently on the gruesome murder of nine people in Awka, Anambra State, security operatives in the state quickly blamed it on suspected cult clash.
Also, the families of the three people who were killed by kidnappers in a tragic ambush in Anambra State on October 8, 2024, are still mourning, as well as many others who lost their loved ones in such gruesome killings.
Sadly, the two and many more cases are happening in the South East zone of the country, which has been militarised over the past decade, particularly following Operation Python Dance I, II, and III, suggestively aimed at curbing insurgency and criminal activities.
However, evidence suggests that instead of improving security, these operations have contributed to an escalation in violence, increased militarisation of civilian areas.
The International Crisis Group reports that more than 200 military checkpoints were established in the South East region between 2016 and 2020, making the region one of the most militarised in Nigeria.
Citizens often encounter a checkpoint every 5-10 kilometers, particularly on major highways, leading to delays, harassment, and extortions.
In 2023, an independent investigation, by a coalition of civil society organisations revealed that these checkpoints have become centres for extortion, with travellers paying an estimated ₦100 billion annually in illegal fees to security personnel stationed at these checkpoints.
Meanwhile, despite the heavy presence of security forces, criminal activities, including kidnappings and armed robberies, have skyrocketed.
According to data from SBM Intelligence, kidnappings in the South East increased by 38 percent between 2021 and 2023. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, over 120 kidnapping incidents were reported in the region, with ransoms paid totaling ₦1.8 billion, yet no significant arrests of the perpetrators have been made.
Elsewhere in Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Borno and Benue, which have been the playground of armed hoodlums, the killings have also continued.
A recent abduction of worshippers during service in a Kaduna church by bandits numbering over 30 on motorbikes sent shock waves across the nation.
The abduction was after the celebration in the North-West zone over the killing of Halilu Buzu Sububu, one of the most dangerous bandit kingpins, by the Nigerian military, with wounded soldiers receiving treatment after the successful campaign at the 8 Division Army Hospital, Giginya Barracks, Sokoto.
The Nigerian military has also taken time to enumerate feats achieved in the insecurity fight in recent times.
Edward Buba, a major general and director, Defence Media Operation, noted that troops engaged in the anti-terrorist operations in the Northern part of the country killed about 9,303 terrorists, arrested 6,998, with 9,562 Boko Haram combatant fighters and their families surrendering to security forces within the year under review.
Earlier this year, there were reports of the killing of 36 bandits, including Buharin Yadi, a terrorist kingpin, by the troops of Operation Whirl Punch in Kaduna.
The Federal Government also relocated the Command and Control Centre to Sokoto to fight insecurity in the North-West zone.
There have also been news of many Boko Haram members being neutralised and some also surrendering to the security forces.
Sadly, the kidnapping and killing rampage has continued over the years, leaving concerned citizens in doubt of the authenticity of the reports.
“We keep hearing 100 bandits were killed yesterday, 200 killed today, bandit kingpins neutralised, many terrorists surrendered to joint security forces, yet more innocent people are being kidnapped everyday by bandits, with unimaginable ransom paid. Villages are still being sacked by terrorists, including mine.
Plateau State has now overtaken Kaduna as a burial ground as killing is now a full-fledged enterprise. “So, what actually is the situation, you keep claiming victory, while more people are dying every day,” Jasper Yohana, a Kaduna-based cleric, lamented.
Read also: Is Nigeria winning the insecurity war?
But as the dead are buried often in mass graves, families keep mourning their losses, life continues, with the hoodlums likely going to strike again and again.
“How many more must die before decisive action is taken?” Chibuike Uloka, spokesperson for the 2023 Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign, asked in reaction to the recent killings in Anambra State.
Many concerned Nigerians have been asking same question over a decade now with no answer.
The boldness of the gun-wielding hoodlums is even more worrisome for Uloka.
“If such insecurity can take place in Nibo, a community just a few miles from the Governor’s Lodge and the Police Headquarters, it only highlights the alarming level of insecurity in the state,” he lamented.
Though the Anambra State Police Command had said it had begun an investigation on some intercepted videos and voice notes on social media space threatening violence in the state, many are opting to secure themselves as many of such investigations have been carried out in the past, yet the insecurity situation is worsening.
Considering the daily reports of kidnappings and killings, Samuel Onikoyi, a Nigerian academia in Brussels, thinks that human life in the country has been devalued a great deal.
“I read a touching story online in Punch of over 100 people being killed in Plateau State by herdsmen because a farmer killed a cow that was eating up his crops. So, a cow is worth over 100 lives? That is too low for us as a people and unacceptable. But such gruesome death will happen again because the authorities have failed to do their duties,” he said.
Onikoyi, an European Union researcher on Africa, decried that gun-wielding hoodlums are on the loose today because no law has decisively dealt with the perpetrators of such crimes against humanity in the past.
“If the security agencies apprehend these hoodlums, make them to face the law, punish them adequately, including killing them for taking another life, confiscate their properties and money and also ruthlessly go after their sponsors, insecurity will end in Nigeria,” he assured.
He further said that the above was a practical thing obtainable across Europe and the major reason insecurity and corruption are not big issues in Europe.
Toeing the same line with Onikoyi, Darlington Kalu, president-general, African Association of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (AASME), attributed the rise in insecurity in Nigeria to failure of leadership.
According to him, successive governments in the country allowed the public school system to collapse, thereby pushing children from poor families to the streets.
“The constitution guaranteed free basic education for the Nigerian child, however our experience in this country is that those in authority are not implementing the policy,” he said.
On his part, Alloysius Ibeka, a Lagos-based importer, who hardly visits his Ogbunike hometown after escaping two kidnap attempts in six months, decried the insincerity of government at all levels in addressing insecurity in the country.
“I listened to Ejiofor Ejike, Governor Soludo’s Media Aide, and was disappointed over his claim that insecurity has been reduced to the barest minimum because the governor is effectively managing it.
Read also: Nigeria must shift from military to region-specific approach to tackle insecurity —Report
“But we know that it is a big lie because many are being kidnapped every day in my state, big ransom paid and some killed. Armed robbery is on the increase because of hardship and some security operatives are big collaborators in organised crime now. So, where is the peace they are claiming in Anambra? Nigeria will get better in everything, but only the day the government decides to be sincere with the running of the country,” he said.
He also observed that the 48-hour ultimatum given by Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, to security agencies in the state to fish out the killers of Stephen Aniagu, chairman of Ogbete Main Market Traders Association, has not yielded result since September 14, 2024, when the chief was killed.
For Charles Chinekezi, a professor and media consultant, the country is not only witnessing the worst insecurity in its history, but recession as well.
For him, insecurity is worsening because the country is highly polarised and operating in blocs.
“There is an extreme northern bloc and another extremist bloc in the south. There is an extremist gang-up in the South-East, one in the South-South and another in the South-West.
“Now, if you can quantify the effect of four or five extremist blocs that wield so much power, have so much resources and have the worst mindset that can work against a sovereign state, then you can now begin to understand why nothing is synchronising in Nigeria,” Chinekezi said.
But Ademola Akinbile, a human rights lawyer and school proprietor, blamed the rising insecurity on the rising number of school dropouts across the country.
“The UNESCO has warned that there are over 20 million out-of-school children around the country and that something has to be done to address the issue. But we have done little or nothing in that regard.
“With no education, no food, no money and no shelter, these children are vulnerable and likely going to be lured by the baits of hoodlums,” he warned.
Emma Ogbuehi, a security expert attributed the security challenge in the South-East and Nigeria to poverty.
He argued that the worsning economy is the remote cause of the increase of criminality in the country.
According to him, the youth are hungry, there is no job, there parents do not have money to pay for their school fees, no funds to even train them in trade as well as maintain the home.
“I settled a case today of a woman, who wanted to lure her son into (Yahoo business) swindling to make money. I told the woman that most of the young people, who say they are Yahoo boys are criminals.
When they block the road with guns and rob people and make money, they will claim that they made money through Yahoo business to cover up. People are no longer gullible to little tricks,” he noted.
He insisted that the poor state of the economy is pushing the youth to crime.
“If anybody says any other thing, it is a lie. If the economy is good, parents will be able to provide for their families and train their children well and they will not be on the street to join bad gangs.
“But when the man comes back home empty handed and cannot provide food, cannot pay school fees for his children and they end up becoming drop outs, what happens next? They will begin to join bad gangs, start taking hard drugs and end up as criminals,” Ogbuehi argued.
While Akinbile thinks that addressing the growing number of out-of-school children will help, Onikoyi and Ibeka are tasking the government on sincerity in funding, monitoring and implementing policies aimed at fighting insecurity.
Narrowing his solution to the South-East, Chinekezi urged the Federal Government to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) from detention, while insisting that his case has ‘rubbished’ Nigeria, and polarising the country further.
“If Kanu is released and proper apologies are tendered, the South-East, which is the economic hub of Nigeria, will now begin to run well and secure.
“If the tension in the South-East drops, Lagos and Kano that do business with the South-East can now comfortably trade effectively the way it was before it was damaged.
“Also, when that trade resumes, the economic and social lives of the people will have a new swing and insurgency will stop, hunger and unemployment will drastically reduce and when these things reduce considerably, newly-made government policies meant for development can now come into place and start working,” he stated.
On the part of the Nigerian Army, the absence of Taoreed Lagbaja, a Lieutenant General and Chief of Army Staff, does not portend vacuum or inability to secure the country.
Clearing the air, Onyema Nwachukwu, Army spokesman, said that Lagbaja is on official leave, and necessary protocols have been put in place for Abdulsalami Ibrahim, a Major General and Chief of Policy and Plans (Army), to act on behalf of the COAS during his absence.
However, many concerned Nigerians are tasking the joint security agencies led by the Nigerian military to up their game in the insecurity fight as some lapses point to compromise and inefficiency on their part.
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