Kwara, once reputed with the moniker, state of harmony, has suddenly lost its idyll and slid into a monstrous haven of blood, deaths and gloom. The state bleeds. The north-south axes of the state are under an unprecedented siege of kidnapping, mindless killings and bandit attacks.
The heinous crime of kidnapping-for-ransom, which began in Kwara South some years back, as isolated cases around Ekiti, Ifelodun and Irepodun local government areas, has now snowballed into a full-scale tailspin of terrorism enveloping almost the whole of Kwara South and North in the last 12 months.
Felons prosecuting the current spectre of terror in the state are believed to be the renegades or outlaws, among them foreign militias, fleeing the military onslaughts in Zamfara, Sokoto, Benue, Plateau and Niger, which shares borders with Kwara North. These terrorists are believed to be taking abode in forested and riverine communities in southern and northern axes, from where they are launching their deadly forays, in connivance with some locals who are believed to be feeding them with information.
It is also suspected that many of the herders chased away from Ondo State by the former governor of the state, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, and those who fled from Igangan in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, following the intervention of the famed Yoruba separatist agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, and who came to hibernate in Kwara South, could be part of those now terrorizing the state.
According to reports, no fewer than 70 people, including traditional and community leaders, have been killed in separate incidents in Babanla, Sagbe, Oro Ago, Ganmu-Alheri, etc, in Ifelodun, Isin, Ekiti and Oke-Ero local governments in the last one year when the security maelstrom began to assume alarming proportions.
At least 142 persons had also been kidnapped within the period, while no fewer than 25 communities have been completely deserted due to recurring attacks, disrupting the people’s social and economic lives.
Many of the communities are in total dysphoria, as the few residents who have not fled, now live in mortal fear; farms have been abandoned; the local economies have been sundered and schools firmly shut, accentuating people’s hardship and misery.
Oke-Ode, a quiescent agrarian community in Ifelodun council, particularly witnessed the most horrendous and sanguinary savagery in the hands of the merciless marauders on Sunday, September 28, when about 15 people were killed.
Those massacred included hunters, vigilante members, traders, a traditional leader and young men who had been the community’s first line of defence. Some of those who fell were identified as the Baale of Ogba Ayo, Abdulwasiu Abdulkareem; his brother, Fatai Abdulkareem; a prince from Agunjin, Ishola Muhammed and Abdulfatai Elemosho from Babaloma.
The implacable bandits had also launched coordinated and incessant raids on several communities in Patigi and Lafiagi in Kwara North, killing a pregnant woman and abducting at least 18 residents. These attacks have forced many villagers to flee to Ilorin and other safer towns.
The terror siege being laid to Kwara State is akin to a bad stain on a bride’s immaculate bridal gown. It must quickly be removed. Allowing it to fester or worsen is fraught with danger. It is a tinderbox because Kwara is like a cusp. It is the gateway between the North and South. If terror fighters are allowed to overrun the state— God forbids — Southwest and the rest southern states become vulnerable.
Of course, the authorities are aware of the precariousness of the situation and so, they are not taking chances at all.
President Bola Tinubu, an intrepid leader who has demonstrated that he has the courage of his conviction; Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq and even Senator Lola Ashiru, representing Kwara South Senatorial District, as well as the military high command have been highly responsive to the siege. Their imprimaturs have been indelible and gone a long way to mitigate the ferocity of attacks.
The President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, has already ordered the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2nd Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, to relocate to Ilorin, Kwara State capital, to personally coordinate the new assault against the invaders. In addition, a full brigade of the Army and heavy equipment have also been deployed in the theatre of battle.
Rafiu Ajakaiye, Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said troops were observed advancing through Oke Ode and Babanla in Ifelodun council.
According to him, the operation, code-named Operation Fasan Yanma, also covers Edu and Patigi local governments, where soldiers are already combing dense forests frequently used by kidnappers for ransom activities.
The Nigerian Air Force has also been mobilized to deploy fighter jets to support ground forces and provide Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance(ISR) cover to aid troops in engaging the attackers.
The governor too has been up and doing. He has deployed men and material at his own level. And like any compassionate leader will do in the time of crisis, he has visited the scenes of disaster and demonstrated commendable empathy with the bereaved and the injured. He simply took serious responsibility.
Senator Ashiru, in his own case, has through a motion, rallied the Senate to make the Federal Government establish a permanent military base in the forest belts of Kwara South to secure that axis from further bandit attacks.
These are highly commendable crisis management gestures. No doubt, the bandits would by now be feeling the heat of the military buildup and eventual onslaught.
And, as fighter jets pound the terrorists and ground troops move in to rout them, major border fringes should be simultaneously manned to prevent them from escaping and infiltrating other states.
However, the whiff of suspected sabotage emanating from the Kwara experience is highly disturbing. Two incidents played out recently, which resonated with a pattern showing why the national anti-terror campaign has become so convoluted. It is a pattern shaped by duplicity and perfidy in high places.
The first incident was the allegation that the Oke-Ode savage attack might have been premeditated after all. A news report quoted a local hunter, who narrowly escaped death and spoke on condition of anonymity, alleging that Oke-Ode hunters’ guns were taken away from them a day before the bandits struck.
He was quoted: “A military officer had collected most of our guns the previous day, saying he wanted to service them. Immediately, he collected the guns, he kept them in the house with bullets. He slept at Ajase, and maybe it was one of those supplying the guns that hinted them that the guns had been recovered from us, and that they should start coming.
“That was the way I thought about it because since the guns were given to us, nobody attacked us. But it was the day he collected the guns and bullets for servicing that those people attacked. That looked suspicious.
“The remaining guns we had to protect ourselves were not enough at all. If the guns had not been collected and everything was available, they wouldn’t have been able to do that. They were able to attack us because we had insufficient guns and bullets.”
The governor’s CPS, Rafiu Ajakaiye, however, denied the allegation, claiming that the leadership of the Forest Guards disputed it. But it should still not be dismissed with a wave of the hand.
The second incident is as poignant. It is about the questionable release by the Kwara State Police Command of 48 suspected bandits arrested last month. According to news reports, the suspects were arrested riding motorcycles on Thursday, September 4 at the Babanla axis of Ifelodun council, following a credible intelligence.
They were brought to the state Police Headquarters in Ilorin, but they were all released the following Monday, September 8, just five days after they had been supposedly thorough profiled.
A statement by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), SP Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, in Ilorin, disclosed that their release was effected after exhaustive technical profiling and background checks because there was no incriminating evidence or criminal affiliations established against the suspects.
He said: “Based on credible intelligence received from the Divisional Police Officer, Oke-Ode, operatives of the command and vigilantes attached to the office of the NSA on special duty at Oke-Ode intercepted a group of 48 men along the Alade–Oreke axis, riding in clusters on 14 motorcycles; 43 mobile phones and other personal effects were recovered.
“The suspects underwent detailed criminal intelligence analysis and profiling. All mobile devices were subjected to digital forensic examination, which included extraction of call records, communication trails, transaction history, and geo-location mapping to establish possible links to kidnapping, banditry, or any other form of organized crime.
“After exhaustive technical profiling and background checks, no incriminating evidence or criminal affiliations were established against the suspects. Consequently, all 48 individuals have been duly released this morning.”
This sounds rather tendentious and suspicious. How exhaustive and detailed could the technical profiling of 48 persons have been within just five days, which included Saturday and Sunday? Besides, what could 48 individuals be doing moving around in clusters on 14 motorcycles in a rural setting?
Where were they coming from and going to? They were not picked up from different locations. They were seen together. It is public knowledge that the way the suspects moved is the way terrorists move and operate. So many questions begging for answers!
Let truth be told. We urge President Tinubu to direct the Inspector-General of Police to immediately raise an independent and trusted team of federal detectives to probe this incident and the Oke-Ode episode with a view to establishing their veracity or otherwise.
One of the drawbacks of the nation’s anti- terror campaign is constant internal sabotage by state actors in cahoots with non-state actors, especially aggrieved individuals who have an axe to grind with the government of the day.
The Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, highlighted this narrative recently when he revealed that the military and the security agencies prosecuting the anti-terror war have been infiltrated by fifth columnists, who leak vital operational information such as the movement of troops to criminals.
Mutfwang said the foes include agents of criminals unleashing mayhem in Plateau, where over 150 people were killed in coordinated attacks on 23 villages in December, 2023 alone in spite of the heavy military presence, and other parts of the country.
This, he explained, accounts for troops’ late response to distress calls and why many military personnel have been killed in ambushes due to information leaked to the criminals about their movements.
This is precisely where the idea of state and community police comes in. The successes bandits and insurgents are recording is a signpost of the failure of intelligence, accentuated by sabotage.
Criminals are no ghosts. They reside among the people. Most times, people actually know them or at least suspect them. But the people choose to keep sealed lips because they do not trust the police and some of the security agencies.
That is the crux of the matter. Like we argued before, crime fighting is no magic. It runs on the fulcrum of intelligence. And intelligence is no abracadabra. It stems from an effective synergy between the people and the security system they trust. The people, in other words, are the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of a policing system that works. People will never volunteer any information that they reasonably fear will boomerang on them.
This is the strongest point in favour of state police. It is high time we introduced this policing system at the state and local government levels, a system run by each state and council and manned by operatives the people know, interact with in the neighbourhoods and trust enough to confide in them. It cannot be more expeditious.
It will revivify policing system and bridge the yearning gaps in intelligence network. For one, Nigeria is far too large to be successfully policed at the centre. Then, the current constitutional role of state governors in security mechanism is utterly incongruous with modern realities.
Section 214 (4) of the 1999 Constitution provides that the governor could give the Commissioner of Police in his state lawful directives towards maintaining adequate security but added a ludicrous caveat: the President or any minister he so delegates should first be intimated before the directives could be carried out! What happens in emergency situations?
The operatives of the state and community police should be top-notch, credible, well remunerated and solid professionals who will not easily compromise ethical standards. They should also be equipped with sophisticated arms and modern security equipment fit for modern policing. Otherwise, it will defeat its essence.
A modern state police should be able to complement the military and other security agencies in the fight against terror, especially in the area of intelligence, which is crucial in foiling crimes before they are committed.
The proposed law to establish state police has been tabled before the National Assembly. Titled, ‘A Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for Establishment of State Police and Related Matters,’ it has already scaled the second reading at the House of Representatives. The presidency should, therefore, exert its influence to get the bill passed expeditiously by both chambers of the federal legislature.
