simplyolat Boko Haram
For years it had wreaked unspeakable havoc on
parts of Nigeria, especially the North-East region,
but it was the infamous abduction of over 200
schoolgirls from their dormitory in the sleepy town
of Chibok in 2014 that attracted global attention to
the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group.The
insurgency grew even more complicated when a
splinter faction of Boko Haram - later known as
Ansaru - emerged by kidnapping foreigners.
Boko Haram’s main faction also started kidnapping
foreigners when Shekau claimed responsibility for
the abduction of a French family of seven in
February 2013. That same year Boko Haram was
designated a terrorist group by the US, and the
following year it declared a caliphate in areas
under its control.
In 2013, Boko Haram targeted pupils in a series of
horrific school attacks in the North-East that killed
dozens of boys. Later, there were reports that the
group was also kidnapping girls and women with
the intent of raping them or making them brides.
In April 2014, attackers raided Chibok and
kidnapped 276 school girls, generally between 16
and 18 years old. Shekau claimed credit for the
kidnappings in a video and threatened to sell them,
sparking global outrage.
Although Boko Haram fighters have since retreated
to the Sambisa Forest, where the Nigerian military
has pursued it, freeing hundreds of captives while
taking down most of the group’s leadership, the
sect remains a serious security threat as
insurgents have taken to attacking soft targets.
Armed robbery
Another security threat that is plaguing the country
is armed banditry. Only recently, a new trend of
robbery which was quite different in outlook
occurred at Ogolonto area of Ikorodu, Lagos State,
when a lady reportedly led the gang to the banks
and stayed outside while the two-hour operation
lasted. The leader of the gang was said to have sat
down in front of the bank bragging, and no police
officer was able to confront her. It was disclosed
that the gang that carried out the robbery
consisted of about 15 youngsters, all in their early
twenties.
Incidences of armed robbery have become a daily
routine in many parts of the country. Apart from
public institutions such as banks that are the
major targets, major highways across the country
are also targeted as commuters are routinely
attacked and dispossessed of their valuables.
Although the police make daily arrests of suspects
who are paraded before journalists in different parts
of the country, the trend appears to be getting
worse by the day.
Militancy
Ethnic militia has been a recurring decimal in
Nigeria and its fledgling democracy. The
restoration of democratic rule in Nigeria on May
29, 1999 signalled the emergence and continued
proliferation of vigilante groups, ethnic and
sectional militias as well as secessionist or
separatist groups.
Prominent among these are: O’odua people’s
Congress (OPC), formed in 1994 as a militant arm
of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba group and National
Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that were in the
forefront of protesting the annulment of the June
12,1993 general elections. Although short lived,
the ArewaPeoples’ Congress (APC) appeared to
have been formed to serve as a check on OPC’s
incessant attacks on the Hausa/Fulani population
in Lagos and other Yoruba towns.
The Igbo People’s Congress (IPC), a militant arm
of Ohaneze Eastern Mandate, in response to OPC
and others, was also formed in 1999. Others are
the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante outfit set up by Abia
and Anambra states governments to curb criminal
activities in 1999; the Egbesu Boys (1998); the
Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign
State of Biafra (MASSOB) 2000; Ijaw Militia (1999);
Itsekiri Militia (1999), and the Militia arm of
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP)1992.
Analysts say the dissatisfaction with the structure,
operation and power configuration under Nigeria’s
federalism was responsible for the unprecedented
emergence of the groups. The increase in crime
rate and the helpless attitude of law enforcement
agencies towards curbing crime have been cited
by their founders and admirers as reasons for
creation of these groups.
A most recent development is the emergence of
Niger Delta militants that goby the name ‘The
Avengers’.
While MASSOB’s leaders claim it is a peaceful
group, the Nigerian government accuses it of
violence. Its leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, was
arrested in 2005 and detained on treason charges
but later released in 2007.
The current leader of the movement - now known
as Indigenous People of Biafra- Nnamdi Kanu, is
currently facing treason charges preferred against
him by the Federal Government. He is also
charged for allegedly maintaining an unlawful
organisation and for illegal possession of firearms.
Even as Kanu’s trial continues, the aforementioned
‘Avengers’ continue to launch attacks on major oil
installations in the Niger Delta.
Although the Federal Government has since
condemned the attacks and warned the
perpetrators of dire consequences, security experts
say the trend if not properly checked could
worsen.
Cultism
In 1952, a group of seven students from the
University College Ibadan were said to have formed
the Pyrates Confraternity. They called themselves
the Magnificent Seven. They observed that the
university was populated with wealthy students
who were associated with colonial powers.
Those who were poor were struggling in every
manner to be accepted by the more advantaged
students, prompting them to form the confraternity.
Membership was open to any promising male
student regardless of tribe or race, but selection
was stringent and most applicants were denied.
For almost 20 years, the Pyrates were the only
confraternity on Nigerian campuses.
In the late 1960s, the Pyrates registered
themselves as National Association of SeaDogs
(NAS) and the confraternity extended off campus.
Another confraternity known as Buccaneers
Confraternity was registered as National
Association of Sea Lords. This division was as a
result of assertion of leadership of the group where
some wanted to hold onto power and not wanting
to give it up.
From the 1980s to the 1990s, there was
proliferation of cult groups in over three hundred
institutions of higher education in the country.
These groups were later known as secret cults
based on new formations.
Cultism, especially in schools, if not properly
addressed, could undermine the overall
development of the country in years to come. In
recent times, Rivers State appears to be the
epicentre of the trend, with no fewer than nineteen
people reportedly killed following cult clashes in
two communities.
Herders/farmers clashes
One of the security threats in the front burner
today, remains the recurring crises between cattle
herders and farmers. The most recent of such
crises were those that occurred in Agatu
community in Benue State and that of Nimbo
community, Uzo-Uwani local government area of
Enugu State. In both attacks, several lives were lost
while properties worth millions of Naira were also
destroyed.
Many proposals have been advanced to proffer
solution to the recurring problem. While some have
proposed grazing reserves, others insist that
ranches would be the best solution out of the
conundrum. The Federal Government has also
waded into the problem but analysts say an urgent
solution is needed to avert disaster in the country.
Piracy
In 2004, the Malaysia-based International Maritime
Bureau (IMB) said that half of the 30 deaths
recorded in pirate attacks around the world
between 1st January and 30th June of that year
occurred in Nigerian territorial waters.In terms of
the number of attacks, Nigeria was ranked third
with 13 attacks, behind Indonesia (50) and the
Malacca Straits (20).
“Both the increased number of attacks in this area
and the degree of violence being used is of grave
concern and we will be putting pressure on Nigeria
to step up anti-piracy measures,” IMB director
Pottengal Mukundan said.
Industry-watchers say Nigeria’s growing piracy
problem can be traced back to oil, the country’s
economic lifeblood and its large-scale theft and
sale to vessels offshore.
Gangs, armed with automatic rifles and rocket-
propelled grenades, cruise along in speedboats and
barges, finding cover in the maze of creeks and
rivers intertwined with mangrove swamps that
make up the delta where the River Niger empties
into the Atlantic Ocean.
The activities of pirates are said to have drawn
illegal oil buyers and arms traders to the Gulf of
Guinea coast off Nigeria, making the region, which
has always had high volumes of shipping traffic
including oil tankers and general goods vessels,
more dangerous. Piracy, if unchecked, remains one
of the deadliest - and costliest - security threats in
the country.
Kidnapping
Another security concern spreading across Nigeria
like wildfire is kidnapping. When it began in the
creeks of the Niger Delta region some years ago,
nobody thought it would become a nightmare.
Gradually, it has even become a ‘lucrative
business’ for many of Nigeria’s jobless youths in
the South East, South West and other parts of the
country.
Initially, it was the kidnapping of expatriates that
was predominant in the South. But today, the
situation has gotten so bad that “nobody is safe”.
Serving government officials are not spared in the
kidnapping menace, as their family members,
relatives and friends have become worthy ‘targets’.
Interestingly, armed robbers and other sorts of
criminals are fast abandoning their trades for the
more lucrative business of kidnapping. A report by
ASI Global Response on kidnapping shows that the
victims are mainly business men and women,
politicians or their family members. Also, at a
summit held in Lagos last year, the Regional Vice
President, Africa, American Society for Industrial
Security, Mr. Dennis Amachree, disclosed that of
the top 10 countries with high kidnapping records
in 2007, Nigeria occupied the 6th position. But
Nigeria has since 2007 moved up to the third
position, behind Mexico and Columbia.
Several cases of kidnapping in different parts of the
country never made headlines or were noticed by
security operatives. So many other cases were
never reported to the security operatives because
kidnappers threaten families of their victim over
involving the police. In such cases, families were
said to have quietly paid ransoms without anyone
noticing.
Worried by the threat posed by kidnapping, the
Nigerian Senate recently agreed to begin a process
for the enactment of a law that would prescribe
capital punishment for kidnappers across the
country. The Senate also asked state governments
to enact laws that would prosecute kidnappers in
their jurisdiction and recommended that the
Inspector-General of Police and Director-General of
the Department of State Services in particular as
well as other security agencies be encouraged to
do more.
Cattle rustling
Jan Birni, a community in Birnin Gwari local
government area of Kaduna State, which lies on the
border between Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara
states, is one of the areas that has been in the grip
of cattle rustlers. Little wonder the traditional ruler
of the area and Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Zubair
Maigwari, was reported to have lamented that his
community had completely been taken over by
rustlers who kill, maim and rape their victims
before dispossessing them of their hard-earned
investments.
Acting on a request by the Kaduna State governor,
Malam Nasir El-Rufai, to address the insecurity
occasioned by cattle-rustling, President
Muhammadu Buhari reportedly summoned a
meeting to discuss the situation in the affected
states. At the meeting, which had security chiefs in
attendance, were the governors of Kaduna, Kebbi,
Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Benue, Zamfara and
Plateau states as well as government
representatives.
The Abuja closed-door meeting which gave birth to
‘Operation Sharan Daji’, a military task force with
the responsibility of checkmating the incidents of
ethnic killings, cattle rustlings and farmers-
herdsmen conflicts, Head of Civil Service of the
Federation, Mr. Danladi Kifasi, who coordinated the
meeting on behalf of President Buhari had
reportedly told Nigerians that the task force had the
troubled Northern states as its scope.