The recent terrorist attack on a unit of the Brigade of Guards in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has jolted many residents. LEON USIGBE writes on the incident that claimed the lives of soldiers of the elite presidential security outfit and measures to keep the citizens safe.
An audacious letter from perceived terrorists announcing an imminent attack on the Nigerian Law School was said to be the trigger for the military action that culminated in the killing of an army captain and at least three soldiers of the Presidential Guards Brigade in Bwari, Abuja penultimate Sunday. Coming barely a few weeks after an attack on President Muhammadu Buhari’s advance convoy (also made up of elements of the Guards Brigade) to Daura, Katsina State, the successful simultaneous Boko Haram raid on the Custodial Centre in Kuje, Abuja, freeing their detained members and others, and another one also against elements of the Guards Brigade at a checkpoint under Zuma Rock, there had been, naturally, panic among residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), who fear that this may become the new normal.
From the narration provided by someone who described himself in an audio message as member of the 7th Guards Brigade involved in the operation on the faithful night, the letter to the Nigeria Law School raised doubts as to the true target of the terrorists. The military reasoned that the Law School could just be a decoy to attack another facility and their suspicion was that the real intended target could be the Veritas University, a Catholic Institution a couple of kilometres away from the Law School. The strategy was, therefore, to provide security cover, not just for the Law School, but for Veritas as well.
According to the narrator, who sounded distressed while describing himself as badly wounded in the attack and speaking on his National Hospital, Abuja bed, a nightly patrol by his unit ensued and was on at the axis for several weeks during which time they continued to notice flashes of light in the bush around the areas, suggesting to them that there might indeed be some undesirable infiltrators. The decision was taken to storm the bush during the day. What they found littering the environments were tell tales of suspected terrorists who had been cooking for themselves, smoking and taking drugs. But the criminals had moved from there and the soldiers decided to trail them and got to a point where it was impossible to advance with their vehicles because gullies, water and rocks had rendered the terrain the unmotorable.
The voice in the audio message claimed that the soldiers dismounted from the vehicles, took their rifles and moved on foot thinking that they were after a band of a few criminals. But they were wrong. From his narration, the terrorists, fully prepared, had actually sighted them from afar and laid the deadly ambush. The narration is yet to be rebutted.
The news of the attack unsettled Bwari residents, more especially students of the Nigerian Law School many of who quickly scampered out of the environment for safety. A security supervisor attached to the Nigerian Law School who gave his name as Jackson, told the Nigerian Tribune that he did not believe the institution was the target of the terrorists.
According to him, people in the school knew nothing about the Sunday attack on the military until it was broken in news platforms. He said everything in the school went on normally on the day of the incident nobody felt threatened. But he admitted that many students subsequently fled the institution on hearing the news. Nigerian Tribune learnt that all the students returned to the campus afterwards. “We are working with the military. There is constant security patrol. I can assure you that we have not had any problems at all. The attack on the soldiers happened along the road to Kaduna far away from here, and so, it did not threaten us,” he said.
Like Kuje, Bwari is one of six the Area Councils that make up the FCT. It is host to several key government and private institutions including the Nigerian Law School, the national headquarters of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) Computer-Based Testing Centre, the National Institute for Security Studies, the Usman Dam, Veritas University, Federal Government Girls College, a Nigerian Army Camp, among others. With the institutions, the cosmopolitan council should be a highly developed area council but it struggles with the familiar narrow pothole-infested township roads, overcrowding and constant menace of unruly commercial motorcycle riders who, it is believed in many places, double as criminal gangs and informants.
From the Abuja Municipal Area Council city centre, the 19-kilometre stretch of road connecting Bwari to the Kubwa Expressway is a paved, dual-carriage way, meandering through picturesque hills and forests with spatial settlements on both sides. For first time visitors, the somnolence of the topography may suggest that it can be a festering ground for undesirable elements especially at night.
However, during the day, the constant stream of traffic provides assurances for those who might harbour fears of attack. Beyond that, there is a permanent military observation post between Dutsen Alhaji and Bwari with soldiers keeping constant vigilance over commuters. The military presence is not strange because Bwari shares its northern boundary with Kaduna and it is a major transit route between Kaduna State, which hosts hundreds of bandits, and the FCT.
Since last year, the Area Council has been living on the edge following the massive influx of suspected Fulani herdsmen. The movement of the cattle breeders thought to be from Niger State with their herds of animals, caused anxiety among some of the agrarian boundary communities in the north of the council and those in the west with a common boundary with Niger State. Among these communities gripped with fear over the mass movement are Kuduru, Sabon Gari, Barangoni, Kuchiko, Tudun Fulani and Arab Road. Despite the observed 2020 influx and the fact that it had got its fair share of the usual criminal activities particularly, kidnapping for ransom, Bwari residents have had no serious cause to fret about a possible Boko Haram invasion until now.
With the attack on the Guards Brigade, they fear that Bwari has become a magnet for terrorism. This is what the FCT administration is now trying to avert through its revival of what it calls the G7 security operations, involving security collaboration and partnerships with states that are contiguous with the territory.
According to the FCT Commissioner of Police, Sunday Babaji, the re-invigoration of the G7 security operations will see the commencement of security actions and procedures by members of the G7 which will involve taking the fight to the bandits and terrorists in their camps located in states bordering the territory. For the initiative to succeed, the police boss believes that the cooperation of the residents will be indispensable.
“I call on residents to give actionable and timely intelligence to all the security agencies and to also be security conscious. I’m also assuring them that FCT is safe. Every member of the community should go about their lawful businesses. We are on top of the situation. We have deployed our men both overt and covert and we are doing everything possible in synergy with all the security agencies, with the support of our traditional rulers and religious leaders to make sure that FCT is safe,” he said following the Bwari incident.
The attack also promped a meeting of the National Security Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, which resolved to explore new measures that have been evolved by the military heads to tackle the worsening insecurity in the country.
Residents of Bwari, the FCT and the nation in general, will be hoping that the administration follows through on its pledge to keep everyone safe.
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