New Telegraph

Curbing Rising Insecurity How Rising Insecurity Can Be Tamed, By Lawyers

FRANCIS IWUCHUKWU writes that lawyers have decried the rising trend of insecurity in the country, particularly in the northern region, and are calling on those in position of authority to exhibit political will to deal frontally with the menace

Some senior lawyers have stressed the need for those occupying position of authority to exhibit political will more than anything to confront the rising menace of insecurity in the country.

They also insisted that for the menace to be frontally tackled, security operatives should be more alive to their responsibilities of protecting citizens’ lives and property. Piqued by the deteriorating state of insecurity in the northern region, a sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has called for an urgent action to halt the ugly trend.

The National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, who read a communiqué after the Forum’s Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting on September 4, 2024, condemned the current strategies against insurgents and bandits, just as he stated that “other measures, even unconventional ones, need to be considered and tried”.

The communiqué highlighted the severe security situation in Northern Nigeria, including heightened banditry, Boko Haram insurgency, and rising drug trafficking. It also noted the abandonment of farmlands and the displacement of farmers due to violence, which has exacerbated food production challenges.

The meeting also condemned the failure of current mitigation measures and demanded an immediate end to the crisis. It also criticised the Nigerian government’s inability to protect its citizens from armed criminal elements, calling for urgent reform and community-driven defence models, similar to the Civilian JTF used in the North East.

This position of the ACF, consequently led to the setting up of two special committees to recommend blueprints for addressing key, pressing and critical issues of concern to Northern Nigeria. Professor Muhammad-Baba said the unity, peace and reconciliation committee proposed a realistic mechanism for strengthening unity in the north and reinforcing regular consultations and dialogue mechanisms.

The committee, according to Professor Muhammad-Baba, has Dr Yayale Ahmed (Ajiyan Katagum) as Chairman, and Babachir Lawal as his Deputy.

He further added that the Committee on Security is predicated on the unabating state of insecurity in the North, which aims to suggest way out of the quagmire given its devastating effects on the people. This committee has former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), as Chairman and Alhaji Mohammed D. Abubakar, a retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), as Deputy Chairman.

Tinubu’s concerns

President Bola Tinubu had sometimes in June 2024, raised concerns that the insecurity in the North-West region was affecting other parts of the country.

The president spoke through Vice President Kassim Shettima in Katsina State, during a two-day summit themed, ‘Regional Cooperation for Securing Lives and Livelihoods in North West Nigeria,’ organised by the North-West Governor’s Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.

In arguing that achieving security and peace would require addressing the historical injustices that had torn communities in Nigeria apart, President Tinubu posited that “Beyond the economic rationale that drove the amalgamation of the northern and southern parts of Nigeria, the formation of our great nation was inspired by the need for mutual protection. “But, I ask, how can we achieve this sacred objective if one part is afflicted? We have long established that whatever ails any part of this federation destabilises the other.

So, the issue of national security in the North-West is not a sectional agenda”. While addressing the security challenges confronting the country, President Tinubu stressed that government had to reverse the institutional frailties governing security and the economic dysfunctions that create vulnerabilities to crime.

“We must also counter the ideological mischief that has pervaded the discourse of peace and security in the region. “The solution we seek is a region where every trade is safe, where every group is at peace and where the policing and military presence of the state is optimal,’’ he added.

The kind of insecurity that we are going into now is by far more devastating than total insecurity

Atiku’s proposition

On his part, a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, insisted that the heinous act of violence perpetrated by bandits is a stark reminder of the pressing need for enhanced security measures in safeguarding the lives and property of citizens.

Atiku who spoke through his verified X handle while mourning the District Head of Gatawa, in the Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Alhaji Muhammad Bawa, who died in bandits’ captivity, posited that

“The failure of government to show concern or devise effective security strategies has undoubtedly contributed to the escalation of such distressing events in recent times.

“It is important to reiterate that the government must provide security that will ensure the protection of lives, such that individuals do not have to live in fear of falling victims to senseless acts of violence”.

Matawalle’s revelation

In the meantime, the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has revealed that conflict entrepreneurs are responsible for the unending banditry in the north-west.

Speaking while addressing the media in Abuja, Matawalle argued that during his tenure as Governor of Zamfara, he observed that people traded with bandits.

He said, “Banditry has its economy, which is fuelling the crime in the country. Conflict entrepreneurs don’t want insecurity to finish in this country. Many people in the north are part of the business. “I call it business now because those selling drugs are part of it, those selling food, fuel and other essentials are all part of it.

The informants get a lot from doing that. They are paid handsomely for that crime. “So, they don’t want the evil to end. Many people have keyed into the business. Also, when a bag of rice was sold for between N18,000 and N21,000 when it gets to the enclave of the bandits, it goes for as much as N80,000″.

FG’s earlier promise

The Federal Government had, in February 2024, said it would commence the ‘Pulaku Initiative’, a large-scale resettlement programme to address the root causes of incessant clashes between farmers and herders in various flashpoints nationwide. Government said the programme will initially focus on seven states disproportionately affected by farmers-herders conflicts, namely; Sokoto, Kebbi, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger and Kaduna.

Speaking on the policy, President Tinubu said: “Our choice of Sokoto, Kebbi, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, and Kaduna States for the pilot phase is strategically planned to create positive, nationwide transformations. “Northern Nigeria was always considered globally as one unified people. The region’s unity is firmly rooted in a culture and bond of shared interests and common pursuits.

“Who else can better understand the complexity of the crisis of a region than the people themselves? What we are witnessing across the North is an explosion of these damaged relationships, and we have come to say: enough is enough. Our first decision was to task our brothers from the NorthWest and the North-East with the defence and security of the region.

“Our military forces, through various operations such as ‘Operation Hadin Kai’ and ‘Operation Safe Haven,’ have made true their promise to the nation by targeting insurgent groups like Boko Haram and bandits who have held us ransom for too long. “Through enhanced border security and intelligence capabilities, we have disrupted and dismantled criminal networks”

Cases of banditry

On Thursday, September 12, 2024, no fewer than eight security personnel were allegedly killed by bandits near the Tazame village of Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State. The security personnel, consisting of five policemen and three soldiers, were said to have been attached to a road construction company, Satraco Nigeria Limited when the armed bandits suddenly came out of their hiding place and opened fire.

The suspected bandits were said  to have laid an ambush in a nearby farm close to the main road, and immediately the police and the military personnel arrived at the place; they (bandits) opened fire instantly, killing some of them.

Heavy fighting was said to have ensued between the bandits and the security personnel, which further led to the killing of other security personnel. Some of the bandits were equally killed while the encounter lasted. It was further gathered that there was pandemonium on the road as motorists ran helter-skelter, leaving their vehicles on the road, and running to the bush for their lives.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Yazid Abubakar, who confirmed the development said efforts were on to ascertain the causalities involved. In another development, on August 12, 2024, the abducted District Head of Gatawa, in the Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State, Alhaji Muhammad Bawa, died in bandits’ captivity.

The monarch was said to have been killed owing to the non-payment of the ransom demanded by bandits. The late monarch was abducted alongside his son and six others on the Sokoto-Sabon Birni Road and had been held hostage by his abductors.

In Kebbi State, suspected bandits on October 6, 2024, abducted the District Head of Kanya under the Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State. Alhaji Isah Daya, the District Head of Kanya village, was whisked away when armed bandits stormed his village, killing one and injuring three persons who were immediately rushed to the hospital for treatment.

The bandits were equally said to have abducted eight (8) people while the incident lasted. Kebbi state police image maker, SP Nafui Abubakar gave the name of the deceased as Sherrif Alhaji Almu.

Lawyers’ position

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Solo Akuma, while noting that security agencies, particularly the military, have what it takes to deal with the menace of insecurity in the country, expressed sadness that bandits, Boko Haram and other criminal elements are yet to be seen as criminals.

Terrorists, and bandits who have made life very short and nasty for our people should be taken out

The SAN tasked the military and other security agencies to see bandits and members of Boko Haram as criminals and then arrest or eliminate them, as the case may be.

He said “The criminal elements should be seen as enemies of the society and be treated as such. if the security agents saw them as such, they would have succeeded”. Expressing deep concerns over the havoc being wrecked by bandits and members of the Boko Haram, Akuma said, “You can’t travel by road. You can’t move around. Farmers cannot farm.

Farmers cannot go to their farmlands. That is why we are having food insecurity. On his part, another SAN, Afolabi Olatunde, said the issue of security is not the business of the government alone, adding that everyone in the country should have a sort of reorientation and a new vision in terms of how do we secure our country

“If you look at the number of security personnel we have in this country, you will discover that they are grossly insufficient. “And if the government does not have the financial strength to say it wants to employ more, I think the citizenry also have a lot to do in support of the aspiration to secure our country.

“It has always been said that people, many often than not, do not volunteer information to security agencies for them to carry out their responsibility. “And beyond that, the concept of local policing or community policing is something we just have to look into and see in what way we can incorporate the concept of community policing into our security architecture in the country because security is community based, whether we like it or not.

“So more often than not, if you look at the situation in which we now have autonomy of local government and which money will be given to them directly, I think the local government should be sensitized on the need to spend the money judiciously in ensuring that they put in place necessary security within the local government to also complement what we have on ground for now”, Afolabi said.

Professor Awa Kalu (SAN) while insisting that there was no need for the removal of the current service chiefs from office, suggested that, “I think we need what they call political will, more than anything”. A rights activist, Chief Malachy Ugwummadu noted that the constitutional provision makes the security and welfare of Nigerians the primary purpose for government and governments.

Ugwummadu said: “And if you take it from that standpoint of the provision of the 1999 Constitution, the state itself owes the people of this country a responsibility to secure them. “We hear that in recent times there have been remarkable improvements in terms of apprehending and decimating the perpetrators of crime.

“However, we do not have the statistics. They are completely established that propaganda is also part of warfare. “We remain skeptical because this is a battle that has taken Nigeria almost two decades to deal with.

“But what is more? The kind of insecurity that we are going into now is by far more devastating than total insecurity. “And I am talking of the food insecurity where the bandits have made it very impossible for farmers to farm and thereby reduce the already limited capacity of Nigeria to feed its citizens. “An angry nation, populated by hungry people, will become a very volatile society.

That is what we are worried about because all the indices are showing that food production has become gradually out of the reach of the ordinary people”. Chief Ugwummadu suggested that for the law enforcement agencies to be able to secure the nation, the huge budget allocation must be justified.

“And to say that it is justified, those ragtag militias groups, terrorists, and bandits who have made life very short and nasty for our people should be taken out. “When that is done, and people are prosecuted and imprisoned, those who will be neutralised will be neutralised, particularly when they show any form of resistance in the theater of battle, then the country will be at peace,” he added.

 

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