Bello’s fight against kidnapping, insecurity in Kogi

SINCE time immemorial, security and safety have remained one of the foremost fundamental responsibility of those in government to the people they govern. Governments all over the world, at different level, ensure they pay close attention to the security apparatus that exist within their domain, as any threat to securing lives and ensuring the safety of the citizenry connote an attack on government’s sovereignty and legitimacy.

The challenges of ensuring security have in recent times become enormous and herculean. This is because many youths, due to the collapse of societal values, have plunged into dangerous acts of criminality. The mindset of diligence and uprightness among young people had since been jettisoned for corner-cutting to get quick, short-term successes.

Another very crucial point to note as a cause of the complexity in combating crimes in our society is the overwhelming unemployment rates, which have remained unattended to until recently. While many remained idle, they become willing tools of evil and end up venturing into the underworld.

The responsibility of the governor of a confluence state (Kogi), which shares boundaries with about 10 states of different ethnic disposition becomes more tedious, given the evident influx into such regions without restrictions.

Alhaji Yahaya Bello, from the inception of his administration on January 27, 2016, had an understanding that, as the executive governor of the state, he was under obligation to ensure that the people whom he governs are adequately secured.

The previous administrations allowed the security conditions in the state deteriorate into a deplorable state of anarchy and which could then be best described, using Thomas Hobbes, coinage of a situation where life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.

Governor Bello, with his New Direction Administration, however refused to settle for the status quo and was resolute in his blueprint to nip in the bud acts of criminality and its sources in the Confluence State.

A critical comparison of the volatile security conditions before his inception and the evident progresses made by his administration within the first six month till date had since become a model which other governors had since adopted.

These success stories have also attracted awards from stakeholders within the security strata. For instance, the state, between the periods of January to June 2016, recorded 167 kidnapping cases in the Central Senatorial District; 42 in the East Senatorial District and 39 in the West Senatorial District.

This ugly situation was however brought down in July 2016 as a result of the concerted efforts by the Governor Bello administration. As at today, only isolated cases of kidnapping are being recorded in the state.

Before Bello assumed office in 2016, acts of terrorism held sway with records of attacks on churches, residences, security operatives’ offices. Even Boko Haram cells, which served as factories for manufacturing IEDs, were discovered in several parts of the state between 2011 and 2012. Several police stations were attacked between 2011 and 2015.

The Department of State Service (DSS) office in Lokoja was attacked on September 25, 2015, leaving three people dead while some terror suspects kept in the facility were freed. Another ugly case was an attack on the Deeper Life Bible Church, Okene, on June 8, 2012 were 19 worshippers were killed. Several other attacks and killings were also recorded in Okene and environs within the period.

A total of 16 bank robberies were witnessed in various banks across the state between 2011 and 2015: First Bank, Kabba–November 19, 2011; First Bank, Aiyetoro Gbede-December 19, 2011; First Bank, Ankpa–April 25, 2012; First Bank, Ajaokuta–September 27, 2013; Unity Bank–April 25, 2012; First Bank and Mainstreet Bank were simultaneously robbed in Kabba on October 1, 2014 In the same vein, Union Bank, Egume came under attack on August 10, 2014; UBA, Odo-Ere, December 18, 2014; and Akwengwu Microfinance Bank, Adavi – November 27, 2015, among several others. However, the situation was brought under control by the Yahaya Bello administration. It is on record that only UBA, Odo-Ere was attacked in 2016.

Aside from these, the state government also inherited a situation where there was seemingly low level of collaboration and synergy among the security agencies in the state. There was a poorly-structured intelligence mechanism, lack of right logistics for security agency to operate and a state proliferated with political thuggery.

It was quite imperative that these security challenges required immediate solutions if the administration was ever interested in successfully delivering on its plans and programmes to move the Confluence State towards a new direction. The strategic solutions and the required action undertaken have, in the last four years of this administration, ensured that the state have moved truly towards the new direction, most especially in the area of securing the lives of the people of the state.

Measures put in place included the establishment of a well-structured intelligence gathering mechanism; creating the needed synergy among the security agencies in the state for smoother operation and intelligence sharing; identification of critical stakeholders like traditional rulers, youth leaders, women leaders and ensuring that they were incorporated as vital security stakeholders in the state.

The state, in order to improve on intelligence gathering, established the Kogi Vigilante Service (KVS) and has so far recruited and trained over 6,000 operatives in the last four years. This singular act has recorded huge success in intelligence gathering and ensuring that these operatives assist security operatives to gather intelligence within their locality.

Some of this information, which might be inaccessible by the mainframe security agencies because of their lack of understanding of the terrain or the locality, is now accessible because the local vigilantes have a perfect understanding of the language and the terrain, thus allowing them to easily penetrate and access valid information.

The government remains optimistic that it would continue to expand the programme and ensure that these operatives are available within the nooks and crannies of the state, as they would help to complement the efforts of other security agencies in the state.

Kogi State government, amid concern over meagre available resources, has continued to prioritise the security of its people. This is portrayed in the huge capital and recurrent investment it has made so far in the last four years of the Governor Bello administration.

Some of these huge spending, including the purchase, maintenance and fueling of over 160 vehicles provided for security agencies and building of a Forward Operation Base (FOB) for the Nigerian Army in Okene, which gulped over N270 million, have no doubt helped moved Kogi State from its scary and gory past to become the Confluence State of peace and tranquility.

Similarly, the monthly payment of about N58 million to Kogi Vigilantes; payment of about N50 million monthly allowances as well as introduction of a whistle-blowing policy with a reward of N500,000 for persons with reliable information that could foil any act of criminality or nab perpetrators of crime have boasted the morals of security operatives and sincere citizens.

The state has also in recent times infused technological advancements into its crime combating apparatus as it recently commissioned a quick emergency reporting and response operation centre in Lokoja, codenamed the Operation Total Freedom. The Vigiscope (Vgs) Operation Centre is a technological incorporated security driven initiative of the Governor Bello-led administration in partnership with a private company (Vigiscope Limited).

The governor believes that security has transcended beyond manual operations and that the state is obliged to follow similar path, while he is also optimistic that the new operation centre would improve on the level of security currently in place in the state.

The recently commissioned technologically-driven security and safety apparatus, which comprised of three major components namely, the mobile reporter, the dispatcher and VGs responder, is believed to be another step in the right direction by the New Direction Administration that would enhance quick responses by security and safety operatives across the state.

The vital truth is that security project is quite expensive, but Governor Bello has remained resolute that no amount could ever be too much to expend on the security and safety of the lives and property of the people. As an administration, its belief is founded on the premise that once security is guaranteed, other aspects of the people’s life would also thrive and, as such, the desire to deliver a secured Kogi State can never be overrated.

In the last quarter of 2019, cult activities resurfaced in tertiary institutions across the state. The governor summoned all heads of high institutions to an extraordinary security meeting on January 3, 2020 and gave a stern warning that any vice chancellor, rector and provost who cannot curb the menace of cultism in their campus should resign before last Friday.

With this directive and the internal security network, over 14 cultists have so far been apprehended while carrying out their illicit activities at different parts of the state recently. In the same vein, over 200 people belonging to different confraternities denounced their membership at the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, last Friday.

On the resurgence of kidnappings in some parts of the state, the state government confronted the criminals as the governor quickly established a Mopol Squadron Unit along the troubled areas of Obajana-Kabba Road and Okene. The government, in collaboration with the Nigerian Police, carried out aerial surveillance to identify the locations of criminals and smoke them out, using the ground forces.

The government, at its third executive council meeting held recently, gave its approval for the procurement of security vehicles and other sophisticated gadgets to enable security agencies in the state fight crimes.

The administration of Governor Yahaya Bello, no doubt, has recorded unprecedented achievements in the area of security and fight against crimes in the state, just as he had done in other sectors. All that is required is for the citizens of the Confluence State to continue to give their unalloyed supports to the government in its quest to provide good governance for the people.

• Muhammed, Chief Press Secretary to Kogi State governor, writes from Lokoja.