Pan- Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has condemned the attack on the advanced presidential team in Daura, the hometown of President Muhammadu Buhari and the explosive attack on Kuje Prison in Abuja, saying those separate incidences were affirmations that the insecurity situation in the country was getting out of hand at a rate faster than was acknowledged by the authorities who should deal with the menace.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday that a terrorist group at Dutsinma, Katsina State, attacked the Advance Team of security guards, protocol and media officers ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to Daura for Sallah, as the president is billed to be in Daura this week Friday for this year’s Ed-el-Kabir festival, coming up on Saturday.
Also, evening of the same day, suspected Boko Haram members stormed Kuje Prison in Abuja with explosives, and, according to reports, operated for over one hour, at the end of which several inmates were illicitly ‘freed’, with some deaths recorded, while several officials of the Correctional Centre were injured.
The pan- Yoruba gave this verdict in a release by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, even as it lamented that the two attacks were not isolated, noting that reports of terrorism attacks occasioning loss of lives, kidnapping, raping, and bodily harm, among others, occurred on a daily basis.
According to Afenifere, what made the ones of this week’s Tuesday different was its daring-do nature, noting further that it was another indication that Nigeria was under siege.
“The nature of these attacks should send serious signals to the governments, to the security agencies and indeed to all Nigerians.
“The one on the Presidential Team seems to be a coded language by enemies of the nation that they are not afraid of anyone notwithstanding the status of such a person.
“For, it goes without saying that a Presidential Team would normally be fortified. So, for a group to attack such a team must be out of sheer bravado – which unfortunately further exposed how vulnerable our security situation is,” the pan- Yoruba group posited.
On the Kuje Correctional Centre attack, Afenifere argued that like some other attacks that occurred in such areas, it thus appeared to be a statement by those enemies of Nigeria that they could strike anywhere and at any time.
It said this particular attack, taken together with the fatal attack on a military team in Niger State last month, kept reminding one of the build-ups of the Afghanistan saga that led to the forceful take-over of government in that country last year, warning that everything needed to be done to ensure that such does not occur here in Nigeria.
“For, this Kuje attack, taken together with the fatal attack on a military team in Niger State last month, keeps reminding one of the build-ups of the Afghanistan saga that led to the forceful take-over of government in that country last year. Everything needs to be done to ensure that such does not occur here,” the group warned.
Afenifere contended that the situation would not have degenerated into this sorry past were the Federal Government been sincere in the way it had been handling security breaches in the past.
“By this, we are referring to the kid-glove manner by which the government and its security arms have been dealing with those caught in banditry and terrorism.
“Normally, anyone around the president or governor ought to have a sense of safety just as the presence of government ought to be an assurance for the citizens regarding their security.
“The attacks on the Presidential Team and on Kuje Prison, like the ones that had taken place in different parts of the country before, make Nigerians feel more and more insecure.
“On a number of times, armed bandits have attacked governors, particularly those of Borno and Benue states. They have attacked transport centres like airports and rail lines as well as military and police formations.
“These are places one should have a sense of highest safety and security. Their attacks on religious places and on clerics too seem to have become a routine. In that kind of situation, people’s sense of helplessness became heightened,” Afenifere stated.
“So heightened was this that Zamfara State governor, supported by his Benue state counterpart, urged the people in their respective states to arm themselves. When that occurs, chaos and self-help would become the order of the day – making government redundant,” it added.
This was just as the group recalled that it, like many other well-meaning Nigerians, had, on several occasions, warned against what was happening now in the country, noting sadly that Nigerians rather than looking at the immediate future with hope, were living and moving around in fear and despondence due to the insecurity they faced at home, at work and even more so when travelling on highways.
“How then can one be hopeful in that kind of situation?” it queried.
The pan- Yoruba socio- political group asserted that the nature of the ongoing terrorism attacks had shown that the objectives of those behind it went beyond religion or even economic, declaring that it without any iota of doubt territorial and hegemonic in nature.
“It is, without any doubt territorial and hegemonic in nature. Their aim is to ‘conquer’ indigenous people and impose their hegemony over them.
“Reports from some of the territories they have taken over revealed how they were forcing people to pay them taxes before those people could be allowed to carry out their daily activities,” Ajayi said.
Ajayi maintained that it was government’s responsibility to ensure that no external entity comes around to impose its force over the people of any area within its sovereignty, but quickly lamented that terrorists unfortunately were having the field day while those Nigerians looked up to appeared to be watching in helplessness.
“Unfortunately, terrorists are having the field day while those Nigerians look up to appear to be watching in helplessness,” the Afenifere chieftain said.
Prescribing effective ways out of the frightening situation, Afenifere spokesman again advocated for an immediate setting up of local and state police, granting of a free hand to security agencies to deal with the terrorists and devolving power to the states in a manner that would enable nationalities in the country to have greater leverage in the way affairs affecting their lives were being conducted.
“In other words, effective machinery must be set in motion for a proper restructuring of the country immediately while states are allowed to set up their own police forces as a short time measure to the insecurity ogre that is about to consume everybody,” Ajayi concluded.
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