Bandits’ onslaught on hospitals

IN his Independence Day address on Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu itemised the gains of his administration in the security sector in the last one year. According to him, his administration had achieved notable successes in the fight against terrorism and banditry, as over 300 Boko Haram and bandit commanders had been eliminated by the security agencies. He said: “We have achieved notable successes in the fight against insecurity, and I assure you that we are committed to completely eradicating terrorism, banditry, and violent extremism.” He was quite categorical in declaring that his administration “is winning the war on terror and banditry.” However, without prejudice to whatever achievements have been recorded in the war against insecurity in the last one year, it is still a fact that the security situation in the country is dire. Almost on a daily basis, criminals of all hues abduct, rob and kill innocent citizens across the country, and even at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where not just the Federal Government but a subnational government has its seat, in addition to the presence of the headquarters of the repressive apparatuses of the Nigerian State. In the last one year, we have had occasion to deplore the increasingly widespread activities of kidnappers in the territory.

An accurate, if graphic, picture of the terrible security situation in the country is provided by the activities of the terrorists dubbed bandits across the country. Growing more daring with each attack, the terrorists regularly scoff at the authority of the Nigerian State, carrying on as if they do not expect the slightest recompense for their murderous activities. Recently, the outlaws abducted two nurses and an unspecified number of patients at the Primary Healthcare Centre, Kuyallo, in the Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. According to Musa Alhassan, one of the  leaders of  the vigilance group in  the area, the outlaws invaded the hospital at about 9.00 a.m. Their initial intention, he said, was to abduct students of the Government Day Secondary School in the locality. However, on discovering that there was nobody in the school, they  headed to the nearby healthcare centre, where they abducted  two female nurses and several patients. Spokesperson of the Kaduna State police command, Mansir Hassan, said the absence of telecommunication coverage in the Birnin-Gwari general area hindered the residents from alerting the police, adding, however, that a  team of police operatives were already on the trail of the bandits to arrest them and rescue the abducted individuals.

The attack  on the Kuyallo Primary Healthcare Centre was the latest in the series of onslaughts by the outlaws in the state. On September 5, they had invaded Mani community in Rido ward of Chikun Local Local Government Area of the state and abducted 19 people, forcing many people to relocate from their homes to places they considered safer. In another incident, the terrorists attacked Kurfi General Hospital in Kurfi Local Government Area of Katsina State, shooting a watchman and abducting four women, including the wife of one of the health officials on duty. Three of the bandits who reportedly entered the hospital around 10:45 a.m. unarmed, later engaged the guard who queried their mission at the hospital. Said an eyewitness: “When they started arguing, the watchman quickly went and locked the hospital gate, not knowing that other armed members of the gang were outside. They jumped over the fence and shot the watchman in the stomach. It was thought that he had died but he was later given first aid and rushed to a hospital in Katsina.”

The felons reportedly pounced on Mustapha Hamza, an off-duty anesthesia nurse summoned to attend to a woman who was scheduled for surgery. However, while he managed to escape, his wife, who had accompanied him to the hospital, was abducted by the outlaws. The incident was a sequel to a dastardly incident involving a nursing mother who was abducted with her twin daughters and her third child, a young boy barely above four years old. Sadly, while the outlaws released the woman and the twins after the payment of N3.5m ransom, they held on to the boy, demanding an additional N1.5m for his release.

It is indeed distressing that patients who are already in a vulnerable state owing to their various medical conditions are getting abducted in hospital by criminals emboldened by the lethargy of the Nigerian State in arresting their dastardly activities. In  all probability, the conditions of these patients worsen as the outlaws drag them out of the wards and into the bushes, treating them in a way even animals should not be treated. In civilised societies, animals get adequate, compassionate care whenever they are down with any disease, and that is how it should be. Sadly, in today’s Nigeria, patients receiving care in hospital have no assurances about their safety: they are left in the lurch by their own government, as it were. If this is not a sad development that should warrant the summoning of steely resolve by the authorities and the launch of an all-out war against the criminals, we do not know what will.

It is clear that the outlaws are acting the way they do because they are reasonably certain that they will get away with their crime. If kidnappers, bandits or whatever they are called are not prowling the streets of Saudi Arabia, China or North Korea, there must be a reason why this is so. Criminals do exist in those countries, but they lie low because they know that they will either be beheaded or shot if they choose to play pingpong with people’s lives. In Nigeria, though, it does seem as if crime actually pays, and criminals are getting increasingly bolder in their plan to make life extremely difficult for fellow citizens. As we have said time and again, there must be serious consequences for crime, and criminals must come to the knowledge that they risk the severest sanctions available under the law if caught. It is time to give the so-called bandits a taste of their own medicine. They dare not try the kind of stunts they stage in Nigeria in certain countries. They would be dead before realising what hit them.

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