09042021- Insecurity: Tension mounts in Imo, Abia, Rivers

The audacity of anarchy
THERE was a BBC News
story in February that
caught me between laughter
and bemusement. The news
channel reported, in very
strong language matched only
by the alarming reactions of the
persons interviewed, a spate of
stabbings across parts of south
London that left at least one
dead.
It’s sad that anyone should
take the law into their own
hands, and sadder still that even
one innocent person should
suffer injury or die from such
senseless attacks.
One of the law enforcement
officers interviewed, Ade
Adelekan, obviously with
Nigerian roots, described the
south London incidents as
“shocking” and went on to say
that the “absolutely horrific
news would devastate our
community”.
In comparison with what has
been happening in Nigeria in
recent times, Adelekan’s
response to the south London
attacks would appear to be
outrage that should have been
reserved for two-fighting. His
misery, however, genuinely
concerning, would not make it
to the Sitrep of the local police
authorities in Nigeria, much less
become a matter of interest at
the state or national level.
Violence now registers in its
grossest numbers and scale,
and would become instant
national news if it affects one or
two people of power and
influence. The country is sliding
into anarchy and the harder
you try to run from headlines of
deaths and violence and
destruction, the faster the news
catches up with you.
Even social media with its
incredible capacity for the banal
and the bizarre couldn’t make
up the heartrending wave after
wave of utterly distressing news
of violence in recent times.
Troubled East
The South East, home to one
of the three largest ethnic
nationalities and the theatre of
a brutal civil war that left over
two million dead, has been
facing something worse than a
crisis in the last few weeks: it’s
been at war, again. Between
January 8 and March 22, nine
police officers have been
murdered, 12 police stations
burnt down and three
checkpoints attacked and
vandalised by gunmen.
But that was only small potato
compared with the horrific
events that would follow.
In two straight days, gunmen
attacked and burnt down two
major police facilities and a
correctional centre in Owerri,
Imo State, and released over
1,800 inmates. The attacks were
bad enough. The audacious
manner in which they were
carried out makes Syria look like
a peace haven. According to
reports, the gunmen announced
themselves with a carnival near
the Government House in the
wee hours, chanting war songs,
shooting into the air, and
generally making merry.
For 30 minutes while the
madness lasted, no one, that is,
no state official stirred. Not the
police whose headquarters
shares a wall with the
Government House where this
drama was taking place, not
Governor Hope Uzodimma of
Imo who only a few weeks
earlier deployed busloads of
armed policemen in an
internecine war with his
predecessor and political rival,
What happened in Imo
is inexcusable; the only
way to prevent it
happening again,
whether in Imo or
elsewhere in the
country, is to find the
perpetrators and punish
them before ethnic
politics inflames the
tragedy
not one single security official
stirred.
After the rehearsal in front of
the Government House, which
the gunmen could have
recorded and shared on social
media if they wanted to, they
then proceeded to attack the
Police headquarters and the
correctional facility.
In the morning, the governor,
the police high command and
every single public official who
should have been hiding in
shame rushed to the crime
scene chewing microphones in
a rehearsed show of pretentious
rage and improvised shock and
surprise. The law, they
promised, would take its course
- that is, after the next mayhem,
and the next one…
Enough, and then…
Yet, to send a message that
they were not to be trifled with,
the gunmen attacked another
police station in the state within
24 hours. This attack came even
after President Muhammadu
Buhari replaced Police
inspector general, Mohammed
Adamu one month ahead of
schedule. Weeks after Buhari
said never again following the
kidnap of hundreds of students
from their dormitories in the
North of the country, trouble
came back with its own shade.
The new Inspector General of
Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has
his work cut out for him. He is
taking the reins at a time when
the reputation of the force and
public confidence in it are at
their lowest.
There’s hardly any search that
won’t turn up the force among
one of the world’s worst either
for corruption or human rights
abuses, ranking it, in some
instances, with forces in DR
Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Haiti
and Pakistan. And yet this was
a force ranked among the best
in international peacekeeping
in the past.
At the heart of the #EndSARS
protests which nearly brought
Buhari’s government to its
knees last year was the legend
of police brutality and
corruption, with stories ranging
from chilling human rights
abuses, to corrupt recruitment
and tropes of how you can rent
the force or hire arms for less
than a piper’s fee. The rot is
deep, very deep. And it’s
beyond the missionary zeal of
any new appointee.
Nothing justifies the brazen
attacks on police facilities and
policemen or the freeing of
inmates. Nothing. But it
doesn’t matter how many times
Buhari replaces the head of the
police, until he is prepared to
make more than cosmetic
changes, until he is prepared
to deal with the root causes of
spiraling violence, including
the deepening feelings of
Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 — 13
malicious exclusion, failure of
intelligence and proliferation of
illegal arms, things would get
worse.
A 2016 Oxfam report put the
estimated legal and illegal
small arms and light weapons
circulating in Nigeria at about
two million. But the number,
according to former head of
state Abdulsalami Abubakar,
has tripled in five years,
reaching six million.
The unraveling of Libya
apparently accounts for some of
the proliferation, but no one can
say for sure how many are
pouring in through the porous
borders and how many are
hired for a fee by rogue
elements in the security forces.
Crime is crime
And then there are the “soft”
issues, which also appear to be
just as deadly. You can tell how
serious these “soft” issues are
in how the debate has drifted
from finding the culprits of the
Imo attacks and punishing
them, to name-calling and
finger-pointing.
Crime is crime. No one who
attacks and burns down a
police station and frees inmates
should go unpunished,
whether they are members of
the Eastern Security Network,
IPOB or any of their franchises.
The problem is that politicians
have been captured by the same
mob, gang leaders and ethnic
warlords they raised to win
elections – the monsters they
nursed over the years: those in
the South West are willing
captives of Sunday Igboho;
those in the South East kowtow
to Nnamdi Kanu; and those in
the North take peace offering
Criminals will be brought to justice
By OGBENI RAUF
AREGBESOLA
I
RECEIVED with much
sadness the report of the
coordinated attacks on the Owerri
Custodial Centre and the Imo
State Command Headquarters of
the Nigeria Police in the early
hours of Monday April 5, 2021.
Much havoc was wreaked at both
places by the assailants, including
the forced release of 1,844 inmates
in lawful custody.
I commiserate with the
government and good people of
Imo State and Imo State
Commissioner of Police on these
sad and unfortunate
developments.
During the #EndSARS riots of
late last year, there were
coordinated attacks on custodial
centres in Edo State, while an
unsuccessful attempt was made in
OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA
Lagos. Thus, a pattern of
syndicated attacks on custodial
centres is emerging.
From the preliminary report on
the attacks, it is the worst of such
ever witnessed in living memory.
Unprovoked attacks on the
institutions of state, especially the
law enforcement institutions is
nothing short of a declaration of
war on the Nigerian state and her
people.
Attacking police headquarters
could only have been intentioned
to cripple the Nigerian state and
stop it from its duty of protecting
the lives and property of the
people. The attack on a custodial
centre and forcible freeing of
inmates was meant to imperil law
abiding citizen with possible harm
that could come to them from
hardened criminals on the loose.
These acts, therefore, are capable
of unleashing anarchy and gravely
imperil the lives and property of
the Nigerian people. The
perpetrators are without doubt the
enemies of the people and should
be treated as such.
It also has all the characteristics
of terrorism, meant to put fear in
the people, disrupt communal
peace and create disaffection
among the people.
The Federal Government will
react appropriately by going after
these criminals and make them to
face the full wrath of the law. We
will leave no stone unturned in
fishing them out. Make no
mistake, they will be hunted to the
ends of the earth. They can only
run, but they cannot hide. We shall
bring them to justice, or in the
alternative, take justice to them.
Additional security will be
provided for all custodial centres
from now on, for the safety of
personnel and inmates and
security of the facilities.
Full investigation will also
commence immediately. I am
appealing to all escaped inmates
to voluntarily return to custody.
Those who heed this call will be
to Abubakar Shekau and his
murderous gang of Boko
Haram, bandits and herdsmen.
Our politicians are done for.
Unfortunately, we’re paying the
price.
When President Buhari who
instead of showing the way
with the tough, no-nonsense
firmness that endeared him to
Nigerians in his earlier life,
choose instead to act like a
captive of the mob, he lost the
chance to stop the problem from
escalating.
With career politicians
muddying the waters ahead of
2023, the perception that
Buhari’s government takes
sides with the partisan mob will
only compound our collective
misery.
But we can’t - and won’t -
surrender to anarchy. Of
course, what appears to be the
official government policy of
negotiating with bandits and
criminals in one part of the
country, while demonising and
shelling them in other parts, has
emboldened criminality. It must
stop.
Crime is crime. Criminals
should be sussed out, whoever
they are and in wherever they
are found, and punished as a
deterrent. What happened in
Imo is inexcusable. The only
way to prevent it happening
again, whether in Imo or
elsewhere in the country, is to
find the perpetrators and
punish them before ethnic
politics inflames the tragedy.
Crime thrives on indulgence.
That was what the south London
policeman saw. Buhari must
show, by his clear unambiguous
choices, that his government is
not feeding anarchy.
given amnesty on the possible
consequences of escaping from
lawful custody.
I urge all correctional officers to
be vigilant and take the security of
the facilities and the inmates
seriously, more than ever before.
We are at war with an enemy that
you may not yet know but knows
you inside out.
I want to assure the good people
of Imo State, and indeed all
Nigerians, of the commitment of
the Federal Government to the
protection of lives and property
and maintenance of law and order.
I am also calling on citizens with
useful information on the
perpetrators of this dastardly acts
and escaped inmates to inform the
nearest law enforcement agency
post nearest him or her. It is a
patriotic duty to do so.
The onus is on traditional rulers,
religious leaders, community
leaders, professional associations,
family heads and others in
positions of leadership and
authority to make our
communities incommodious to
criminals.No criminal should
have accommodation and
protection in our communities.
Let me assure you all once again
that the Federal Government will
get to the root of this incident and
deploy the full security apparatus
of government to deal with the
criminals bent on undermining
our security, peace and protection.
Being speech delivered by the
Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola, while inspecting the
Owerri custodial centre in the
aftermath of the Monday, April 5,
2021 attack on the centre, last
Tuesday