NIGER STATE: Terrorists Killings Continue As Military Ignores Buhari’s Order

…As 248 Killed, 321 Kidnapped After Gazette

When on January 5, 2022, the Federal Government gazetted banditry as acts of terrorism, many Nigerians envisaged an immediate decisive and tough military action against bandits. But more than five weeks after the declaration, there is no significant military action against the bandits who continue to operate with impunity, especially in Niger state, THE WHISTLER can report.

A top source in the state police hierarchy confided in this website that no concrete military exercise has been launched despite the gazette, neither has there been a robust military intervention in Niger state as ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, in a statement on January 16, quoted Buhari as directing the military to “respond robustly to the cases of killings and kidnappings in the state (Niger State) and to give effect to the strategic objectives through the use of force.”

Meanwhile, the police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the police are overstretched in the fight against banditry in the state while the military is doing little to nothing to help.

“Yes, police are in charge of internal security but you can’t leave everything to us, we are overwhelmed. Now they have said bandits are terrorists, but what police handles is community disorderliness and enforcement of law and order, not confronting terrorists. We are a civil law enforcement organization

“Now that federal government has tagged them as terrorists, which is what Nigerians yearned for, why has the military not mobilized men to deal with them?” he queried.

“The military has more firepower than the police, we do our own because it is internal security, but they have more firepower to confront the challenges effectively because we are dealing with terrorists. Police were established to tackle violent crimes, but it does not include terrorism-related ones, which is why we use light firearm.

“They have rocket launchers, GPMGs, Armoured Personnel Carriers that can move in any terrain, all we have is Hilux (pickup trucks) and it is not every terrain that Hilux can reach. These are some of the reasons why you need more hands. When the military clears the area of bandits, then the police can now come in and maintain law and order.”

The source added that; “the only active operation against bandits in this state is ‘Operation Puff Adder’, which was launched by the police in 2019. It has now morphed into ‘Operation Restore Peace,’ where tactical men are deployed along identified routes with help from local vigilante groups.”

Meanwhile, data by Beacon Intel revealed that between January 1 and February 22, 2022, no fewer than 248 persons have been killed while 321 were abducted by different criminal gangs and bandits in Niger State after their designation as terrorists by the Federal Government.

Niger State’s January figures surpassed the total number of deaths recorded in the state in the whole of the fourth quarter of 2021 representing a 167% increase.

Security expert, Kabir Adamu, told THE WHISTLER that beyond the mere declaration of bandits as terrorists, there was a need for a policy document to guide security agencies on how to operationalize the legal declaration.

“After the declaration of bandits as terrorists we had waited for the operationalization of that legal declaration, we had waited for one of the coordinating units within the National security architecture either the office of the National Security Adviser, Minister of Police, Minister of Defence, Minister of interior or presidency to issue a statement to say this is how this declaration will impact on the national security strategy, in other words, what are the changes we expect to follow, but we haven’t seen any statement from any of these five quarters.”

Adamu noted that although evidence has shown that the military has attempted to operationalize the legal declaration, a policy document is important to forge synergy and inter-agency cooperation among security stakeholders.

“You want to see synergy, and inter-agency cooperation, and the only way you’ll see that is if there is a strategy and policy guiding their work, in the absence of such policies, what you’ll see is disjointed approaches,” he said.

“That statement is absolutely important, the office of the National Security Adviser, or the ministry of interior, or the ministry of defence, working together they need to come up with a statement saying that, look due to the declaration of these bandits as terrorists, we have revised the National Security Strategy to include this and this, vis-à-vis the involvement of bandits groups in terrorism, so that it guides us in the fight against terrorism. But we don’t have that, so there is a disjointed approach and the possibility of clashes between security agents are high.”

The army spokesman, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, did not respond to calls when THE WHISTLER tried to reach him for comments.