Dacoits, Biggs and Langalanga

VIEW FROM THE GALLERY by Mahmud Jega

Several PDP presidential aspirants bought nomination forms; Governors Nyesom Wike and Yahaya Bello of Rivers and Kogi states jumped into presidential race while the ruling APC’s newly elected national officers were inaugurated in Abuja. That’s a lot of political activity, but last week will instead be remembered in Nigeria’s history for the devastating train attack near Kaduna.

It could well count as the most remembered train event in Nigeria since Langalanga, the disastrous event in February 1970 when a Nigeria Railways Corporation [NRC] train fell into a ravine in present day Nasarawa State, with the loss of hundreds of lives. A judicial panel of inquiry chaired by Justice Mohammed Bello probed the accident, but its cause was never fully established.

Even without a commission of inquiry, Monday last week’s events are a little bit clearer. Although they have not yet claimed responsibility or posted their trademark video, security sources’ claim that the terrorist group Ansaru carried out the attack stands to reason. Only a day earlier, probably the same terrorist gang made to attack Kaduna Airport while a plane was taxiing for take-off. This didn’t look like the work of local bandits who infest the Northwest and Niger states. Those ones are averse to risk taking; their sole motive is to make money; they have no political agenda of any kind.

The twin airport and train attacks however have a thinly veiled political message: to embarrass the government and security agencies, to send a message to elite folks who have abandoned the highways that they are no longer safe even in trains and planes, and to send shivers down the spines of all Nigerians. The operation was also quite sophisticated, from the planting of spies on board the evening Abuja-Kaduna train, to the choice of strike location, to the bombing of the rail track that derailed two coaches and forced the train to stop, and once on board, the terrorists went straight to the first class coaches, with the supposedly richer passengers.

There was also the ruthlessness of the operation, opening fire at the train from many directions, killing and wounding many people, then herding an unknown number of others into captivity. Most heart breaking of all, when the terrorists entered the first class cabin, they first took away three children. As evidence however that love, affection and responsibility are still alive and well in some sections of Nigerian society, the three kids’ 7-month pregnant mother immediately stood up and followed them into captivity, as did the father.

There is a thin dividing line between banditry and terrorism but if Boko Haram, ISWAP and Ansaru plant their terrorist feet firmly in the Northwest, having recorded battlefield reverses in the Northeast, then we have got another thing coming. Before Abuja moved into the vicinity, Kaduna was Northern Nigeria’s most important city, though second to Kano in population and commerce. In the 1980s when Lagos was still the federal capital, then Information Minister Tony Momoh described Kaduna as the “deputy capital of Nigeria.” Now its rail and air links are cut off and its road links are imperiled. Three airlines have suspended service to Kaduna. The rail link to Abuja will take some time to repair and passengers may not be in a hurry to board the trains again. People who must travel to or from Kaduna must use the road, with their hearts in their mouths. The social media is full of daily false alarms that bandits have blocked the highway.

Maybe it was due to trauma, because several strange comments emanated from Nigeria’s leaders in the wake of the train attack. Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the attack could have been prevented if his request for N3bn to install security equipment along the rail lines had been approved. Since it is only the president who could possibly approve or deny a minister’s request, it was dangerous finger pointing by a harassed Amaechi. He was referring to a memo he submitted to the Federal Executive Council late last year, which was turned down. The Presidency promptly responded by leaking damaging information to the media as to why the request was turned down, saying there was “conflict of interest” in the suggested contractor and that no details of the equipment were provided in Amaechi’s memo.

After a hastily convened meeting with security chiefs, President Buhari “ordered the immediate conclusion of all processes for the implementation of integrated security surveillance.” Was that what Amaechi earlier asked for, is it the same contractor who will install it, have the details been obtained and has the conflict of interest been addressed?

Kaduna State Governor Nasiru el-Rufa’i then waded in with a flame thrower. He said intelligence information of an impending attack on the train was received and relayed to security forces but they did not act on it. El-Rufa’i then threw the equivalent of a Russian missile at Chernobyl when he said his Northwest colleagues and himself will hire foreign mercenaries to fight bandits and terrorists.

The governor’s frustration is understandable because apart from the shock train bombing, southern Kaduna State has suffered in recent weeks from a spate of killings and the sacking of whole villages and towns. But before el-Rufa’i goes to Ireland, France, Serbia or South Africa in search of mercenaries, I recommend that he should read Eddie Iroh’s old novel 48 Guns for the General. It will give him a little insight into Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojukwu’s experience with White mercenaries during the Nigerian civil war.

As we speak, the terrorists who attacked the Kaduna train are holding an undetermined number of hostages. Nigeria Railway Corporation said there were 362 people aboard the train. 170 have been accounted for while 21 families have reported their loved ones as missing. That still leaves a large number of passengers unaccounted for, many of them possibly among the kidnapped ones.

The kidnappers phoned some families, let them speak to their loved ones, but did not ask for ransom. This was psychological warfare of the most dreadful kind, to let the families sweat and tremble before the tortured negotiations for ransom begin. Or maybe Ansaru aims to negotiate with the government for release of its captured men or other political demands.

We can post more guards on trains, increase security around airports and deploy drones. Nothing will be more effective, however, than to identify the culprits who did last week’s act, storm their den, wipe them out and free the hostages unharmed. That might sound far-fetched for our security capabilities but if I were the NSA, I will be on my way out of the country right now to get the men who can do it. German GSG 9 commandos that stormed a hijacked Lufthansa plane on the tarmac of Mogadishu airport in 1977, Israeli commandos that stormed a hijacked Air France plane at Uganda’s Entebbe airport in 1976, Britain’s Special Air Service [SAS] commandos, or even Russians if they have any veteran commandos of the Chechen war to spare from Ukraine, might all do the trick.

While we are at it, we should send a team to India to find out how they stamped out the problem of dacoits that used to jump on their trains. In the 1970s and 1980s, Indian films were full of scenes of dacoits jumping unto trains from horses. As recently as 2017, a Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express train was attacked by dacoits near Buxar district of Bihar, with the help of a coach attendant. They looted three coaches. This is cold comfort for Nigeria, but trains have been attacked in many parts of the world in the last 25 years including London, Brussels, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Madrid, Paris, New York and Tokyo, where the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult led by Shoko Asahara released sarin nerve gas on the subway during the morning rush hour in 1995.

My only recommendation after last week’s shock event is that our security agencies should go after the attackers with the same dedication that the British police went after Ronnie Biggs after the Great Train Robbery of 1963. A Royal Mail train travelling from Glasgow to London was stormed by a gang, who hijacked the train, drove it half a mile away and unloaded 120 bags containing £2,595,997. Biggs was jailed for the robbery, escaped in 1965 and hid for 36 years in France, Australia, Panama and Brazil but the Brits kept after him until he returned to prison in 2001. Let us chase the Kaduna train attackers with the same intensity, if necessary over many Administrations and many IGP tenures until they pay for their crimes.