Time to Take out the Terrorists

With the revelation by Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, that the location of terrorists is public knowledge and that the Department of State Services usually monitors their telephone lines, it is high time the federal government brought their criminality to an end, Louis Achi writes

On Monday, March 28, 2022, terrorists attacked a Kaduna-bound train with about 970 passengers after blowing up its tracks with Improvised Explosive Devices (EIDs), killing about eight, wounding many, abducting scores, while several others were unaccounted for. The government, whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property, looked utterly clueless and helpless in the face of this attack, which lasted for about two hours.

The Monday night attack came after repeated warnings by the intelligence service about the movement of bandits with a mission to attack the train service and other facilities.

Aside from the failure of the security forces to halt the planned attack, it was gleaned that the Kaduna State Security Council and the leadership of the 1 Division Nigerian Army headquarters had also separately requested the Nigeria Railways Corporation (NRC) to suspend the late-hour shuttle between the two cities, an advisory that was however ignored.

The Managing Director of the NRC, Mr. Fidet Okhiria confirmed that the NRC was written to stop the evening train. “They wrote to us that they suspected that they wanted to attack the train but that was in December/January. But we looked at it and said if there is something like that, they should find a solution to it and stopping the train is not the solution.

“And we don’t run night train. The last train leaves in the evening. We believe if we stop the running of trains, it means the terrorists have won,” he said.

It is worth noting that shortly before the Kaduna train attack, a very vicious and one of the most daring attacks occurred when bandits invaded the Kaduna International Airport on March 26, killing an official and scaling up fear in the country.

Before then, over 60 persons were reported to have been killed and hundreds of houses destroyed in Kaduna State alone by these terrorists who are constantly and frequently on rampage without challenge.

Significantly too much politics and too little governance appear to have taken the back seat in the face of these successive depredations. Every time attacks occur, all that Nigerians are served is rhetoric – ‘hunt them down’ – which sadly does not usually translate to specific result until next attacks occur. Yet so much has been spent on equipment with no result.

Twenty-four hours after the terrorists’ attack, President Muhammadu Buhari described the incident as a matter of grave concern, instructing the military and other security agencies to immediately swing to action. The president specifically told the service chiefs and other heads of security outfits to immediately hunt them down the terrorists. This sounds like a familiar homily.

According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the president also instructed the NRC to repair the bombed section of the rail track and resume operations along the Abuja-Kaduna rail corridor immediately. The President reportedly issued the instructions after being briefed by the service chiefs and other heads of security agencies, on the findings from the site of the attack.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, hours after the damning attack made a shocking revelation that the military knew the location of the bandits wreaking havoc in the state, but refused to bomb their hideouts.

“We have enough intelligence for us to take action. The Air Force undertakes enough ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance); and the DSS has informants all over the place.

“We know what they (terrorists) are planning. We get the reports. The problem is for the agencies to take action. Don’t wait until they attack before you respond. The Army should go after their enclaves to wipe them out. Let the Air Force bomb them.

“Before, they were categorised as bandits and if you bombed them, you would have issues with human rights organisations and international criminal courts and so on. But, now that they have been declared terrorists by the court, they can be legally killed without any consequences from international human rights organisations.”

The governor insisted that the camps and phone numbers of the terrorists were known by the military agencies, stressing that Kaduna State was currently in a state of war.

“We know where their camps are, we know where they are; the SSS have their phone numbers, they listen to them, and they give me the report. We know what they are planning. We shouldn’t be waiting for them to attack; why can’t we go after them?” El-Rufai asked.

The governor said the bandit areas should be declared a warzone, adding that he was ready to allow a few innocent people to lose their lives in the process

“We are in a state of war; this place should be declared a warzone. The Army, Air Force, and the police should go in there and kill them. Will there be innocent casualties? Yes! In every war situation, there are casualties,” he added.

The governor also corroborated the claim that the NRC was warned to stop night operation but it refused.

El-Rufai stated, “We have written to the Nigerian Railway Corporation twice to stop the evening service. The last train from Kaduna to Abuja should leave by 4pm so that it will get to Abuja in daylight,” he added. The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami had on November 25, 2021 obtained a judgment designating all gunmen in the North-west as terrorists. This was said to be a condition by the United States government for the deployment of the aircraft outside of the North-east. However, some sources confirm that the Super Tucano had not yet been deployed in the North-west for reasons best known to the security agencies.

El-Rufai’s alarmingly candid position has strengthened the suspicion that the country’s insecurity was deliberately allowed to fester to provide unending business opportunities for some actors in government. To erase this suspicion, Buhari should act now by ordering the bombing of all the locations of these terrorists across the North-west as recommended by el-Rufai. Buhari should save Nigeria this unending embarrassment by terrorists, who do not even possess superior firepower than the security forces. According to former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka, “from Aso Villa in Maitama Abuja, Army HQ, Police HQ, DSS HQ to Gidan Dan Baki on the Kaduna-Abuja road is 114km. “Bandits control a road one hour away from the seat of power in Abuja and it is okay? We need a president that will smoke them out and restore national unity against evil.”

Will President Buhari strike a blow for posterity by dramatically altering his security forces’ poor engagement strategy against the terrorists who are working in overdrive to rubbish his legacies? It is a choice he has to make.