By Suleima Umaru
Barely two months in office as the General officer Commanding, GOC, One Division, Kadua, Taireed Lagbaja, an Army Maj. Gen. appears to have sent a message to the Bandits Group and their cohorts, who had put north west states of Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Katsina, President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state under siege that ‘’the era of operation attack, kill and run back to their forest hide out is over’’.
Maj. Gen. Lagbaja, may have known that the Army cannot achieve any success in crushing the armed bandits Group fighter and their north eastern geopolitical region Terrorists Collaborators without the support of the people.
It was therefore not very surprising why he had solicited ‘’the support and understanding of the critical stakeholders in the state to rally around Formations and units of the Army Division in the state by providing necessary information’’ that would aid the Troops in the conduct of their ongoing Clearance operations ahead of the 2023 , general elections.
Security experts believe that he is making a head way in dealing with Bandits and Terrorists because he has continued from where Maj. Gen. Kabir Mukhtar, the immediate past GOC, of the One Division had stopped in tackling the security Challenges of the north west geopolitical region.
Given the support and Cooperation that the former GOC, was said to have received from the Troops,that forced many of the Bandits and their sponsors in the state to run underground may have informed why he had ‘’charged them to be more committed, rededicate their time and efforts to the execution of all assigned tasks of their new GOC’’, insisting that ‘’they must extend maximum cooperation to the GOC to succeed in his new assignment’’.
Note that over the last seven years, Kaduna state that has been under the siege of the Bandits Group,that had spread to Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a former military President and Abdulsalami Abubakar, a one –time Nigerian Head of state. The appeal of Maj. Gen. Lagbaja, the GOC. One Division, may have struck the right chord that the critical stakeholders in the state were said to have thrown their weight behind him.
Their support may have facilitated the ongoing Clearance operation in Chikun LGA, that Nasir El-Rufai, the state governor could sleep with his two eyes closed without worrying himself that that the may be an attack on one community or the other in the state by the Bandits. This because Maj. Gen, Lagbaja and his Commanders had displayed a relentless spirit in the ongoing Clearance Operations in the state have sustained the efforts to achieve the ultimate victory.
There is no gain saying the fact that since Major General Lagbaja took over from Mukhtar, also a Major General last August, Troops of Operation Forest Sanity, OFS, have come back alive that they have sent several Bandits to their Creator and dislodged their Camps in Chikun and Igabi LGAs.
The Troops of OFS, in executing the ongoing clearance operations in the state that was said to have been conducted across some locations in the notorious Chikun and Igabi, LGAs, according to informed sources had resulted in the death of Mutsi, next in the Leadership hierarchy of the group in Chkun LGA, to Boderi Isiya, , both Commanders in the Bandits GroupMai Madarib and Dan Katsinawa in with support of the Nigeria Air Force, NAF, under the close watch of Air Marshal Olayinka Amao. The Troops wre said to have also rescued 10 hostages held captive by the Terrorists in the Igabi forest. The OFS Troops at DaKwalbas were said to have over powered the heavily armed Bandits guarding the Captives that were chained and bound with ropes.
Samuel Aruwan, the Kaduna state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs had said that the OFS Troops also killed unspecified number of the Bandits while clearing their Camps in Apewohe in Chikun LGA, alone.
An elated Aruwan who is happy over the turn of events in the state had said that the OFS Troops operations which was extended to Dakwalba and Kunai Hills , in Chikun, LGA, where there are more forest hideouts of the Bandits Group fighters had confirmed that the Camps were cleared but with no gun dual with the Bandits.
The Commissioner, had listed some of the weapons recovered by the OFS, Troops during the clearance Operations in Chikun and Igabi,to include three locally made rifles, one K-47 Magazine, one AK 47 top cover, four Bafoen radio charges and 11 Mobile phones among others.
Aware that they are losing ground in Kaduna state may have encouraged the Bandits Commanders to mobilise there men to counter the attack of the OFS personnel but were disappointed as the Troops were said to have succeeded in evacuating the 10 Captives rescued in I Dankwalba in Igabi LGA, and maneuvered their way through the thick forest to a military facility whey were given Medical attention before being united to their families.
There is no gain saying the fact that the Kaduna state based Bandits are no longer finding funny to attack any Community in the flashpoint north western states and the north central state of Niger because of the security road block that been mounted by Maj. Gen. Lagbaja, the GOC, of the One Division as he had made the trans-border Bandits and their local cohorts to account for taking up arms against the state.
Many believe that what Maj. Gen. Lagbaja and his OFS,Troops are currently doing in Chikun and Igabi, LGAs, in Kaduna state would have become history if The Nigerian President had taken the advice of Abdullahim Gandunje , governor of Kaduna state serious by giving the nod to the Army to take the battle against Banditry and Terrorisms to the Nigerian forests to checkmate Bandits and Terrorism activities.
Gandunge was said to have to have told the Ptesident in December 2021, at a meeting in the Presidential Villa, that Banditry and Terrorisms are thriving in the country because ‘’the Forests have been taken over by the armed Bandits and the north eastern geopolitical region based Terrorist groups: BokHaram and ISWAP and their cohorts from other neighbouring West and central African sub-region countries and the SAHEL region.
The Kano state governor who could not hide his feelings had told those that cares to listen that ‘’the Forests are the major of the country because they accommodate Bandits group fighters, Terrorists, armed robbers and other criminal elements’’.
He was said to have cited the situation in the state where there are two large forests: the Falgore Forest, which is bordering Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi and not so far away from Plateu, late Solomon Lar, a pioneer National Chairman, of the PDP, home state.
The Kano state governornor had said that the Bandits Group and their north east based Terrorists Collaborators have not been able to attack any Community in the states ince they entered Nigeria through the MAhradi region of Niger Republic as confirmed Mohammed Bazoun, the country’s President, because ‘’the state government had established a military Training ground in conjunction with the Army in the two Forests’’.
According to him, a lot of military activities are going on in the Kano Forests with the facilities provided by the state government. He did not stop there. He had said that the state government have also introducedTechnology within the Forests, from his own office and the office of the Department of State Security, DSSS, and the state Commissioner of Police in order to be able to monitor what is happening in the Forests.
Giving an insider information on the working of the Technology that was said to have been introduced in the kano Forest, he disclosed that ‘’there is effective communication between the DSS, the Force and those who are managing the Forest, the checkpoints and other places in the state that the security agencies are manning which had made it impossible for the Bandits Group and there Terrorists Collaborators to operate in the state but had concentrated their operations in Zamfara, Sokoto, Kaduna and Katsina. There is need for El-Rufal and Sani Abubakar, governors of Kaduna and Niger states, respectively to take cue from what Gov. Gandunje, had done in Kano, to protect the state two large forests that had made a no go area for Bandits group fighters to establish Camps in the state instead of complaining all the time of Bandits attack all the time or contemplate of hiring mercenaries to fight the Bandits and terrorists since the Federal government may have failed them.
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