By Stephen Ubanna
Angered by the gruesome murder of Ahmed Gulak, an Adamawa state born top politician and one –time Special Adviser on Plotical Matters, to former President Goodluck Jonothan, by unknown gunmen at Owerri, Capital of Imo state, while heading to the Sam Mbakwe Airport on Sunday May 30, 2021,, to catch a flight, President Muhammadu Buhari , a retired Army General , has vowed ‘’to deploy all the resources at the government disposal to ensure that such callous acts by the Criminal elements are brought to Justice’’.
An aggrieved Katsina state born Nigerian President had said that the intention of the Killers of late Gulak’s may not be unconnected with their plan ‘’ to undermine the peace , unity and territorial integrity of the country ‘’, Indeed, the killing of the Adamawa Politician in Imo state in the southeast geopolitical region other than Adamawa, his home state, in the north east geopolitical region, was a clear indications that no part of the country is safe at present because of the rising insecurity.
The Gulak killers were said to have intercepted and attacked a Toyota Camry cab carrying him on their way to the Imo Imo Airport to catch a flight. He was said to have left his Protea Hotel room without informing the Police or sister agencies Authorities in the state in view of the fragile security situation in the south east state , and Imo state in particular, which may have exposed him to danger.
He was said to have left the Protea Hotel premises and entered the road heading to the Sam Mbakwe Airport, without any police escorts. The cab driver have taken an irregular route to beat the traffic in the Owerri to the Airport but got it wrong. Gunmen who were said to have trailed them from the Protea Hotel, but who rode in a Toyota Sienna had intercepted and the cab carrying the Adamawa state born Politician around Umueze Obiangwu in Ngor-Okpbala Local government Area close to the Airport.
Note that with the mandate given to Usman Alkali Baba, the acting Inspector General of Police, IGP, by the the Katsina state born Nigerian President to fish out the Gulak killers and Who in turn was said to have directed Abutu Yaro, the Imo state Commissioner of Police, working with Force Headquarters Tactical and Special Forces were said have cordoned off the location where the attack on the All Progressive Congress, APC, Chieftain took place in order to arrest he perpetrators of the dastard act.
Informed sources told The Value News that information volunteered by the driver of the cab conveying the late Gulak to the Sam Mbakwe Airport, which gave a vivid description of the killer gang and the vehicles used for the operation may have helped the security Operatives to track the killers .
Further leads showed that they were able to establish the location of the suspects. This may have the police investigation team to round them up at at Afor Enyiogugu junction at Aboh –Mbaise Local government Area of the state. They were said to have been caught distributing onions to natives from a trailer which they had confiscated coming from the northern part of the country to market at Owerri.
The APC Chieftain killers may have known that the game was up when they sighted Acting IGP Baba’s m,en coming towards the direction of the tugs hired to provide security coverage to those that were sharing the stolen onions. Aware that there is no escape route, they were said to have opened fire on the police team, who did not hesitate in responding to the attack. The heavily armed fierce looking policemen, were said to have fally injured the six members of the killer gang who were said to have carried out the attack on late Gulak and four other members of the gang during a shootout.
An eyewitness account said they were killed by the police Crack Team. Three of the four of the vehicles used by the killer gang in attacking Gulak were said to have been recovered in the process. This is bad news for the Owerri killer gang in Imo state and their sponsors as their days are numbered because they have played into the police hans.
The gruesome murder of Late Gulak had confirmed the rumours making the rounds that from the south east states of Abia, Anambra, Eboyi, Enugu, Imo, where people are under the threat of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and their armed wing, Eastern Security Network, ESN to the north west states of Zamfara, described as home of the Bandits, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and the north east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, which is under the threat of the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram, now gradually being replaced by the Islamic state of the West African Province. ISWAP, The story is the same: insecurity.
The situation is not different in Niger, home state of retired General Ibrahim Babangida, a former military President, where the Bandits from the north west state of Kaduna had extended their operations into and the north central state of Benue and Plateau, where the Bandits, operating in the guise of armed herdsmen have infiltrated to wreak havoc by constantly killing the people in their farms in order to cause a reprisal attack and trigger off, crisis in the states and throw the country into total confusion.
There is no gain saying the fact that with the attack and eventual murder of the Adamawa state born politician in Imo state, the security architecture in the country needs further appraisal to detect where there is in fracture and amendment in order to guarantee security of lives and properties.
While the police Authorities had beamed their searchlight on the IPOB and the ESN,, in in the south east states and other Criminal gangs in the region, Garba Shehu, senior Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on Media and Publicity , who had appeared on Channels Television,Sunday Politics Live Programme, on May 30, 2021, had made Nigerians to believe that BokoHaram had disappeared and fused into ISWAP in 2014. He had said that the new dominant terrorist group has targeted military formations, civilians, religious centers among others in their attacks.
He had said that the ISWAP group is funded, and its fighters armed and trained by the Libyan rebel soldiers and ISIS, of Syria including the Islamic state of Iraq, noting that this has thrown a big challenge not only to Nigeria but the member countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, which includes Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. This is in addition to Sudan, Libya, Algeria and Mali, which were said to have been admitted into the Commission because of their proximity to the Lake Chad Basin.
Shehu, who had described ISWAP, as a big threat to the entire West African sub-region as they have agreedd to mobilise resources in tackling the menace together. Given an insider formation of ISWAP, which split from BokoHaram in 2016, and which had become a dominant threat in Nigeria attacking troops and military bases as well as kidnapping travelers at checkpoints as the Bandits operating in the north west states of Zamfara, Kaduna ,and Katsina, including the north central state of Niger do to collect ransom from the state governments to buy arms to sustain the tempo of their operations may have informed why security had been tightened up in the region.
