By Suleimman Umaruand Lateef Adegbite
For years, Bandits, the north central geopolitical region and operating in the north western states of Kaduna, Katsina , for President Muhammadu Buhari home state, Sokoto and Zamfara including Niger have been operating with little or no resistance.
The situation was the same in the north eastern states of Borno and Yobe which are under siege of the Islamic Fundamentalist group, BokoHaram and the Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP, insurgents. The kidnappers may have bitten more than what they can chew when they extended their operations Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to carry out their nefarious activites.
Some of the recent incidents in Abuja includes the recent bandit attack and abduction in Bwari Area Council , invasion of Hiltop Phase II, extension of the Nigerian Post –Housing Estate.
The kidnap of one Mansoor Al-Kadriyar and his six daughters on Tuesday, December 26, 2023, in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT, may have toughened Nyensom Wike, a former Rivers state governor, Nuhu Ribadu, a retired Assisatnt Inspector Geneal of Police, and a former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and now National Security Adviser, NSA, to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kayode Egbetokun , the Inspector General of Police, IGP, and other security agencies Chiefs to go all out to clip the wings of the Criminal elements and chase them out from their hideouts in FCT.
The Kidnappers who were said to have released Mansoor, the father of the six girls kidnapped alongside with him with a matching order to go and source for the N60 million ransom demanded to secure the release of his daughters from captivity or they would be killed.
The kidnappers may have shown that they are serious with their threat with the killing of Nabeecha Al-kadriyar , the eldest of the Mansoor’s daughters , sending a message to the family all the remaining five girls in their custody would be killed . To make matters worse, they were said to have increased the ransom to N100 million to use that as an excuse to kill the victims.
Wike, the FCT minister who could not sit-by and watch Kidnappers turn Abuja into an unsafe city to live and do business was said to have held a closed door meeting with the Heads of the security agencies and top officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDTA, Area, Council Chairmen and Traditional rulers’’ to address the worrying state of insecurity in the nation’s capital city’’.
An aggrieved Wike was said to have implored the security agencies operatives ‘’to intensify their efforts in addressing ‘’the pressing matter of kidnappings and insecurity in the FCT’’. He was said to have made it clear to the security chiefs that’’the safety and return of Nabeecha Al- Kadriyar sisters and others still in the custody of the kidnappers should be considered a top priority’’.
Acting on the advice of Abubakar Giri, the Gwagwalada Council Chairman, he was said to have directed the Abuja Police Command to establish two additional divisional offices in the Area Council as a way to improve its security, particular, in the border communities with Niger Kogi and Kaduna states.
Until Wike, the FCT minister and the other security agencies Chiefs took the bold initiative to go after the kidnappers in their hideouts, there are fears in both official and unofficial circles that the sprawling Abuja city is gradually slipping into, the hands of Bandits and kidnappers with the likes of Ahmad, who had taken to his official X handle to turn the heat on the Tinubu’s government.
The minister was said to have sent a similar message to residents of the six Area Councils in Abuja that they have no cause to worry because ‘’ tackling the country security challenges remains one of the major priorities of the present Administration’’, stating that the government will do everything within its powers to end security challenges in the FCT.
Many had attributed the successful kidnap operations in FCT and other parts of Nigeria in the recent times to the darkness in the land due to the epileptic power supply of the Electricity distribution companies in Nigeri. Bashir Ahmad,a former Presidential Aide to President Buhari on the New Media may have alluded to this in his X official handle. To drum support and turn the heat on the tinubu’s government.
He had declared that Abuja, which is the country’s Seat of power’’ is too dark,and that ‘’some spots in the city are naturally dangerous to be at night’’. Ahmad , who could not hide his feelings had said that ‘’the absence of adequate lighting of the streets of prominent districts like Wuse, Maitama, Asokoro, Garki the Central Business, District is a matter that requires President Tinubu’s attention’’.
But not many would take that line of argument from the former Katsina state born New Media Aide. This is because Tinubu and his ministers including the security and intelligence agencies Chiefs are literally starting from scratch and truly needs to put a lot of urgency into certain things in the FCT.
Until Tinubu’sassumption of office on May 29, 2023, analysts had said that darkness has been noticeable everywhere in the country and Abuja inclusive for the eight years of the Buhari’s Administration despite the billions of naira spent to rehabilitate the nation’s power sector and the engagement of SIEMENs powercompany of Germany.
The bandits and terrorists turned Kidnappers may not to have read the handwriting on the wall that Tinubu’s Administration is different in several ways from Buhari’s Administration to have discontinued practicing the nefarious trade as to move into Abuja, to dare Nyesom Wike, a former governor of Rivers state and minister of FCT and Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, IGP and the other security agencies Chiefs.
As a prelude to making the FCT a safe place to live and do business, the Nigerian President was said to have given approval ‘’to procure and distribute Communication gadgets to the security agencies operatives in the FCT to tame the monsters’’.
The IGP may have read the FCT minister ’s body language that the kidnappers must be caught to size that he had launched ‘’the Special Intervention Squad , SIS’’, on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, to address the surge in insecurity and rising kidnappings in the FCT , in the recent time.
The IGP, had said that the launch of the SIS is a crucial step’’ toward combating the criminal activities in the FCT. He was said to have also announced plans to replicate similar initiatives in neighbouring states of Niger, Kogi, Kaduna and eventually extending to other states of the Federation.He was emphatic that the SIS symbolizes the Force’s rejection of Criminality and its commitment to reclaiming the streets of Abuja and the neighborhoods from Lawlessness.
Members of the SIS, were said’’ to have been equipped with sophisticated arms, drones and operational vehicles to counteract security threats in the FCT’’. The Special Intervention Squad, who are determined to succeed were said ‘’to have employed a coordinated and intelligence- driven approach to address the evolving security landscape. The kidnappers may have got the message that the game is up that they started to scamper for safety which was said to be too late’’.
The FCT, minister and the security chiefs in Abuja, who had been pushed to the wall by the kidnappers after the killing of Mansoor’s eldest daughter, Nabeecha, had moved speedily to rescue the deceased Nabeecha’s sisters and other captives in the kidnappers’ den which may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians. This is evident with the arrests of some persons in connection with feeding the bandits turned kidnappers with information in the Gwagwalada and Bwari Area Councils in the FCT.
True to his words, the FCT police Command , which has Olumuyiwa Adejobi, as the Commissioner, had paraded 29 suspected kidnappers and other criminal elements arrested around the Bwari Area Council min Abuja .Adejobi, the FCT, Commissioner of Police, had aid that the arrest of the hoodlums was the result of a joint security operation of the SIS and the Department of Force Intelligence, DFI,-Intelligence Response Team, the FCT Command Anti-violent Crimes Section and other state Command operatives. According to the FCT number police Corp, the police recovered a significant arsenal of arms and ammunition includinag General –Purpose Machine Gun, GPMG.
The FCT, police Commissioner, may have shown that his men are out to deal decisively with the kidnappers as the Combined police team was said to have foiled another kidnap attempt in the city recently.
The Police Commissioner may have sent a message to the kidnappers operating in the Gwagwalad and Bwari Area Councils of Abuja that the end of the road has come with the arrest of the notorious Bwari- based Kidnap suspects through technical intelligence and weapons recovered from them.
An elated FCT Police Commissioner had said that in a proactive move, following a report of on the abduction of a victim from his house along with his Hilux Van with Reg. RBC 90 DL Gray colour by four armed men disguised in a white Mercedes Benz 230 car, in Abuja, the police operatives in an intelligence –propelled, investigation had discovered that the victim, one Segun Akinyemi, who was kidnapped on January 17, 2024, was being taken from Abuja to the ancient city of Kano .
The victim was said to have been disposed of his ATM cards at Kaduna, while N500,000.00 was transferred from his account to the kidnapper’s account. The kidnap suspects which include one Chinaza Okoye Phillip, the notorious Abuja based Kipapper and his Collaborators may have ran out of luck as they were intercepted by police operatives at a filling station in Kaduna on January 18, 2024 . He was said to have been handed over to the FCT, police Command by the Kaduna state Police Command and currently being been detained.
The Kawo Police Division, Kaduna, had given the names of the three of the suspected Kidnappers who were said to have abandoned their Okadas and ran bare-footed into the Kuna forests to escape police arrest as Chidiebere Nwodibo of Life Camp Abuja, Auwal, whose surname remained unknown and the gang leader whose identity is yet to be ascertained. The police team and soldiers had pursued and fired at the run-away kidnapper, leading to an exchange of bullet, with shouts of’’ clear them’’.
The kidnappers could not stand the superior fir of the security operatives that they were forced to abandon their Motorcyles, as their ammunition was said to have been exhausted, forcing them to run deeper into the Kaduna forest for safety. The message was, very clear that it is no longer going to be business as usual for the Bandits-turned kidnappers as the security agencies operative are now fully out for them giving the Presidential support.
Many see the arrest of Phillip, the notorious Abuja based kidnapper as a victory in the fight against crime in the FCT and it environs and other parts of the country signaling the end of road for kidnappers across the country.
Additional reports by Elizabeth Chukwuma
