By Suleiman Umaru
Dino Melaye, a –one time Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria and governorship Candidate of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Kogi, a neigbouring state of Niger, home state of Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army General and former Nigerian military President, in the last governorship election, may have exposed how arms ammunitions are hidden in trailer loads of sand and smuggled into Nigerian markets by gunrunners.
The former Nigerian Senator may have alluded to the fact that smuggled arms and ammunitions gets into the waiting hands of the terrorists and bandits in Kaduna, Katsina, home state of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Sokoto , Zamfara and the north central state of Niger to carry out their terrorists, banditry and kidnapping activities at the country’s porous border states.
The gun runners, according to informed security sources who traverse the forests of Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger and the neighbouring West African country of Niger were said to have been supplying arms and ammunitions to the trigger hungry terrorists and bandits.
The Nigerian Army Authorities may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when they declared the notorious Nigerien gunrunner, Halilu Buzu, who over the years had been involved in terrorists and banditry activities, illegal arms supplies and cattle rusting in the north western , north central state of Niger and the north eastern states of Borno and Yobe wanted.
Edward Buba, an Army Major General and Director of Defense Media Operations, had said that Buzu, who has engaged in illegal mining in Zamfara and resides in a forest in the state described as home of the bandits, had often escaped to Niger Republic when troops of Operation whirl Wind, and Nokia- Fighting Patrols closes in on him.
The Army Chief had said that the Troops were able to close in on Buzu, the notorious arms supplier to terrorists and bandits in Nigeria because the Nigerian military are currently working with their Counterparts in Niger Republic, ostensibly to ensure the arrest of the Nigerien born gunrunner and terrorist, who security sources had said has ‘’lot of boys working for him in Nigeria and Niger Republic’’.
Maj. General Buba, had said that the military had targeted the likes of Buba, to be able take them out of the Nigerian forests and the battlefields as soon as possible in Kaduna, Katsia Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger and Borno tates.
The declaration of Buzu wanted, who has sustained the attacking powers of the terrorists and bandits whose boys were said to have relocated to the south western forest of Ondo and the south-south state of Delta forest may have informed why Maj. Gen. Buba, the Defense Director of Media Operations had said that’’ the fight against terrorism and banditry is one that must be won’’. Although, he had said that ‘’the battle which will soon be decided will be violent and short’’ but the Army will stop at nothing to take Buzu and his likes off the battlefield.
Prior to the declaration of the Buzu wanted, Nuhu Ribadu, a former Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Comission, EFCC, and National Security Adviser, NSA, had said that Bandits Group gang Leaders like Sani Dangote, no relation of Aliko Dangote, multi-billionaire business mogul, has been killed in a gun battle with Kachallah Dankarami’s camp along the Dumbunrun forest between Batsari and Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina state, and Ali Kwaje, Boderi Isyaku, Kachalla Daminana , were other gang Leaders were said to have also been eliminated.
The former EFCC, boss had said that with the intensified counter-terrorism war, since President Bola AHmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a former governor of Lagos state, assumed office on May 29, 2023, there have not been any organized attacks by Bandits gangs on scheduled train movements, Churches or the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram and the Islamic State of West African Province , ISWAP, attacks on military formations in Borno and Yobe states as was the case in the past.
The former Lagos state governor, who could not hide his feelings in the counter-terrorism war against terrorism and banditry war in the expansive Sahel region which includes a substantial part of Mauritania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Senegal including the Central African country of Cameroon, had told the visiting Senegalese President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on Thursday, May 17, 2024, that to defeat terrorism, banditry and other criminal activities plaguing the region, ‘’ there is need for an alignment of purpose and structure in the West African sub region, to effectively address the challenges confronting the region’’ .
‘’We must defeat human trafficking,; we must defeat terrorism, banditry, and poverty’’, the Nigerian President had told Faye, his Senegalese Counterpart , stressing that’’ this should form their focus and commitment , as Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, member countries’’.
The Senegalese Leader was said to have corroborated what the Nigerian President had said that the member countries of the West African sub –region’’ will be stronger to deal with the common challenges facing the region such as human trafficking, migrant smuggling and other challenges if they are united to show resolve to confront these challenges so that ‘’economically the region can thrive’’.
The Senegalese Leader had advocated the need to reach out to Gen. Abdourahmane , the Nigerien Reader, Colonel Assimi Goita of Mali, Capt. Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso and Gen. Mamady Doumbouya, ‘’to come back into the fold ‘’ to hare the region’s democratic values and join forces in the fight against terrorism and banditry in the Sahel region.
