Abuja-Kaduna train attack: FG mulls surveillance mechanism across route before resumption of services

JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja and VICTORY ORIMEMI, Lagos

 

There are indications that the Federal Government is at a cross road on the resumption of train services, particularly, along the Abuja Kaduna route.

Minister of Transportation, Muazu Sambo, on Wednesday, gave this indication when he said it would be insensitive to the plight of families whose loved ones are still in captivity, if the government recommences the Abuja-Kaduna train services for now.

He said the government was looking at the best options in terms of the surveillance including concessioning it in a public private partnership arrangement.

The Minister bared his mind while briefing correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fielding questions on the suspension of the service following the March 2022 attack on the train, he remarked that two core matters remain at the heart of the Abuja-Kaduna train services.

According to him, these include families traumatised over their members still in captivity of terrorists and the need to have surveillance facilities to monitor the tracks.

Commenting on a definite timeline when the initiative would be executed, Muazu said: “If I give a timeline, I’ll be lying to you. It will be insensitive to restart the service if some families weep day and night over their members still in the bush.”

He said the government is mindful of the cost involved but should be able to report definite progress in about a month time.

Recall that passengers on board the Abuja Kaduna bound train had come under attacks from terrorists leading to the death of 8 persons and over 50 abductees. Though half of the passengers abducted have regained their freedom, family members of the victims have forbidden the federal government to recommence the train services unless all the captives are released.

Meanwhile, following presentations at the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development under the purview of Sadiya Umar got approximately N43.4billion to construct a number of roads in the north, destroyed as a result of insurgency.

Today, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development presented to council on behalf of the North East Development Commission four memos.

The roads in question cut across construction, reconstruction for five states of the North East region, namely Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe and Bauchi. For Borno, there are 22.5 kilometer road that is to be reconstructed, specifically Ngon-Koshode and Ngon-Dosmari-Zabamari-Kongologo-Kajari road with the contract sum of N13,553,902,668.95

Mrs. Umar explained that the second contract involves the reconstruction of 53 Kilometer Gombe-Abba to Kriffy Road in Gombe and Bauchi state in the contract sum of N11,697,355,449.61.

She said, “The other road is the 54 kilometer Mutai in Gudal Road in Yobe states with the contract sum of  N12,199,182,845.70.

“The fourth one is the one for Adamawa State, Garkida road, it has a contract sum of N6,202,214,413.29  inclusive of 7.5 VAT. Garkida road in Adamawa state located at the fringes of the Sambisa forest.

“All these roads are being taken into consideration and selected in conjunction with the State governments and other critical stakeholders. These roads are expected to stimulate our economic activities, enhance security and facilitate the freer movement of goods and people in these affected states within the zone.

“The ministry also is in collaboration with the Ministry of Works and Housing and in the co-funding of various roads in the Northeast region. As you’re aware you’re not is Development Commission was established in 2017. To address issues of rebuilding, reconstructing, rehabilitating, reintegrating the people of the Northeast who have been affected by the insurgency.

“We are also in partnership and collaboration with the Nigerian Society of engineers in the area of engaging reputable local consultants for the design and supervision of the major works in line with the executive order five for promoting local content in science, engineering, and technology.

All the four memos were considered and graciously approved by council”.

Also  on insecurity, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has described Nigeria as a country that desires true federalism as part of the solutions to the nation’s security crisis.

Obasa stated this on Wednesday at the 2022 National Congress and Scientific Conference of the Nigerian Psychological Association held at the Lagos State University.

The Speaker, who was awarded Honourary Fellow of the academic body, lamented that insecurity had continued despite the federal government’s deployment of financial and other resources to its fight.

He also urged the federal government muster the political will to implement the recommendations of different panels and committees that have investigated immediate and remote causes of insecurity in the country.

Represented by Hon. Victor Akande, chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Public Petitions and LASIEC, Obasa further advocated for sincere national mediation, negotiation, arbitration, reconciliation, and broad amnesty as modern conflict resolution strategies where necessary.

Speaking on the topic, ‘Security and National Sustainability’, Obasa described Lagos as one of the safest states in the country owing to the proactive efforts of all the tiers of government in the state.

“Here in Lagos State, we’ve taken preventive steps to ensure that law and order do not collapse for no good reason. We established the Neighbourhood Safety Corps because we are aware of the critical need for quick response from local security officers at the grassroots level.

“The state government’s efforts, led by the Neighbourhood Safety Corps and aided by the other security officers on the ground, have made Lagos a secure place to live for everyone.

“There is, however, reason to believe that the federal government would support the same objective by establishing a state police force. Community preventative policing, as opposed to curative policing, is crucial for maintaining national security in light of the current state of affairs. Constant contact between the security agencies and community people is necessary to get the country out of its current situation.

“At the same time, all three tiers of government should work to significantly cut spending on administration, which includes things like defence and domestic security. As one might expect, this is crucial if we want to see progress in the real sectors of the economy,” Obasa said.

The Speaker, while noting that military action and confrontational approach tend to increase violence rather than decrease tension, added: “to rehabilitate all militants who embrace reconciliation, however, we need to place a greater emphasis on the concepts of mediation, negotiation, arbitration, reconciliation, and broad amnesty as modern conflict resolution strategies.

“The principle of true federalism advocated by militants in the Niger Delta and other groups should be adopted because it guarantees genuine political autonomy and the right to control resources.

“In a similar vein, the federal government and other stakeholders in Nigeria’s violent sociopolitical and ethnically based crisis need to muster the political will to carry out the recommendations of the numerous panels and committees set up to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the crisis.”

He attributed insecurity to a number of factors including the country’s inheritance of a faulty security structure and the failure of successive governments to effectively restructure the system.

Beyond impacting knowledge, the Speaker tasked tertiary institutions to be interested in the affairs of the nation as part of their contributions to the sustenance of national progress.

He commended the NPA and LASU for honouring him as he promised to continue to play roles for the advancement of Nigeria.

Earlier in his address, Prof. Olukayode Afolabi, President of NPA, lamented the security situation of the country saying it now affects every facet of Nigeria’s development and forcing investors away.

Among other suggestions, he said there was an urgent need to bring psychologists into the recruitment and development processes of security personnel.

On her part, Prof Adenike Boyo, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) of LASU who represented the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, expressed hope that the 5-day conference would add value to Nigeria’s development.

Meanwhile, the operatives of Force Intelligence Bureau, Intelligence Response Team, FIB-IRT of  the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, have arrested and paraded a total of  21 crime suspects over their involvement in criminal activities including kidnapping, culpable homicide, armed robbery, unlawful possession of firearms, jail break and cultism.

Force Public Relations Officer FPRO of the Force CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi paraded the suspects at the IRT office in Guzape Abuja saying that their arrest was a demonstration of the unrelentless afforts of the Nigeria Police to ensure the safety of citizens.

Police operatives acting on intelligence reports arrested two middle aged suspects and one other engaged in kidnaping, armed robbery in Adamawa State.

The suspects after successfully participating in various robbery and kidnapping operations were apprehended, by the Police team

The suspects are Alhaji Usman Ibrahim Abubakar Sanni and Rabiu Lawali  of Gulantaba Zong local government  Adamawa state.  They claimed that the they bought the AK 47 to protect their cows and to guide themselves when going out .

The key suspect Ibrahim in his confessional statement to the Police said the pistol he used is kept with his son who is currently at large after the IRT mounted surveillance on them.

Rabiu Lawali another gang member in a supporting statement to the Police team also admitted that he stole two cows from at Gulantaba bush and sold them to one Akiku at the rate of of seventy thousand which aimed up to one hundred and fourty thousand naira (N140,000).

Investigation into the crime by the Police is still ongoing and the suspects would be charged to the nation’s law courts for prosecution.

Another team of FIB-IRT Nigeria Police have also rearrested three fleeing criminals who escaped from the Kuje Maximum Security Prison facility of Nigeria Correctional Service NCS on Tuesday July 5, 2022.

Following the jail break and subsequent release of the personal particulars of the fleeing felons in which security agencies were given matching orders to ensure prompt rearrest of the fleeing inmates of the prison, the IRT task its officers to duty leading to their arrest.

The suspects include Abdulrazak Isah m 27 from Ondo State residing in Tafa Local Council Area of Kaduna State, Danjuma Tanko m 50 and Taofeek Alao m 35 a computer system analyst specialised in data analysis who also hail from the same area in Kaduna.

At about 06:00 hours, IRT crack detectives on duty acting on credible Intelligence report rearrested the key suspect and the other two felons from their hideouts in Tafa Local Council Area of Kaduna

The first escapee Abdulrazak had earlier been committed to life imprisonment in the Kuje security prison in 2013 for the crime of manslaughter after he was said to ‘ve connived with one other criminal to kill an an Indian working in Nigeria.

In his confessional statement, he told the Police team that he actually killed the alien and was 17 years old when he was sentenced to life jail even as a minor at the time of the incident.

He also told the Police team that his escape from the prison facility was due to the special treatment in terms of feeding and accommodation given to some other prison inmates like Boko Haram detainees while the authorities starve other inmates.

He also stated that he had served ten years in the prison facility from the time of his imprisonment till the time of the jail break at the midnight of July 5, 2022

The other two fleeing felons who were also caught by the Police officers also confessed that they escaped on the day of attack of the prison facility by some unidentified hoodlums who invaded the prison facility.

Toafeek also confessed to the Police team that he bought a laptop computer from Abdulrazak but he had returned the item when he was detained by the Police on the offence is stealing it.

So far,, no exhibits had been recovered from the trio as investigation is still ongoing to apprehend other fleeing inmates of the nation’s capital maxmum correctional facility

The Police authorities has been on the trail of other fleeing inmates of the prison and have assured no stone will be left unturned in this regard.

Moreover, Police operatives of the FIB-IRT have also arrested bandits that facilitated the kidnap of serving lawmaker’s wife and 2 Children.

Acting on credible information, operatives of the Inspector-General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba’s Intelligence Response Team IRT of the Nigeria Police Force has arrested a deadly kidnap for ransom syndicate that kidnapped the wife and two children of a serving lawmaker Hon.Dr Ibrahim Aminu in Katsina State.

Sequel to the intelligence reports on the activities of the deadly criminal gang by IRT operatives attached to the Operation Restore Hope of the Force in Yankwani village and Kurani town, the team swung into action and arrested the suspects in their various hideouts.

They arrested the key suspect Muttaka Ibrahim, Suleiman Rabiu, and Surajo all male natives of Bakori LGA for allegedly supplying the information that led to the assault on the lawmaker where his family member’s were taking into captivity.

During investigation,  Muttaka Ibrahim confessed to the crime saying that he and other ganembers are informants to Sanni Tukur AKA Abacha terrorising the people of the villages and towns in Katsina and Zamfara States.

They were said to have volunteered information to the bandit leader leading to the kidnapping of Hon.Dr. Ibrahim Aminu’s wife and six others natives.

Other victims of the syndicates criminal gang include Buhari Usman, also know as Fedeco, Nazaradeen Ibrahim, Amandallah Ahmad, Ibrahim Suleiman, Sumayya Nura and Yahaya Bura who is currently in the capituvy of the gang.

The kidnappers after kidnapping the wife of the lawmaker Rabi Yusuf and two of his male children all of Bakori LGA had demanded and received eleven million naira and ten million naira for his children at different times.

Upon interrogation, the bandit informant Muttaka Ibrahim admitted haven gotten a payment of one hundred and thirty thousand naira  (N130,000) from the gang leader adding that one Yusuf Bala of Zaria is his accomplice.

He also admitted that the bandit leader collected a total of six million five hundred thousand naira from the victims they kidnaped at Yankwani town

Narrating his ordeal in the whole saga, the lawmaker told Police investigators that he paid a total sum of thirty seven million and five hundred thousand naira to the gang leader to secure his family member’s release from capitity.

Another team of the FIB-IRT in Edo State nabbed eleven (11) suspects over cultism at graduation party held by one of them who is the cult leader in Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma  Edo State  and recovered caches of arms and ammunitions.

The suspects who were charged with crimes of conspiracy, unlawful possession of firearms cultism and ritual killing were arrested by team of IRT operatives acting on an intelligence report brought to the Police unit office in Guzape Abuja.

The suspects include Pascal Okosun 22 m,  Micheal Ehineboh 24 m , Destiny Uhomogiwan 23 m, Kingsley  Momoh 24 m, Bello Sunday 24, m, Anetor Isreal  25 m, Osaeghale Adamson 27 m, Edoghogho Wellington 25 m, Christian Okoruma 23 m, Eramah Akhare 26 m and Chukwuemeka Chukwu 26 m.

Police detectives upon receiving the report had stormed the Edo command  Commissioner of Police office and got approval for the investigation into the matter leading to their arrest by detectives.

While Okosun who was arrested at Mildcast Hotel Ekpoma after organising a graduation party was the cult group leader Destiny was the custodian of the group:s weaponry.

The group leaders were said to have killed two other members of the cult group after unresolved leadership issues in their final year in school.

They belong to the Black Axe confraternity and were also accused of forceful initiation of of fresh students into the group by administering of fetish oath on its members before initiation.

Some weapons said to have been recovered from the outlawed group include 3 pump action rifles, 2 AK 47 assualt rifles, four matchetes and 22 rounds of live ammunitions.

Other suspects were the four kidnap for ransom suspects that killed a serving lawmaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly Hon. Musa Mante 58 and a serving Divisional Police Officer CSP Garkuwa of the Tafawa Belwa Police station in Bauchi State.

While the suspects said that they killed the Police officer after his retirement for making life tough and miserable for them by constantly searching for them, they also said that the killed the late lawmker and kidnapped his wives and children for failing to assist them with funds after making several requests for it.

The syndicate’s key suspect is Hamishu Galadima 48 alias Kan Wuka and Abdulwahab Alhassan alias Emeka and Abdulwahab Ahmed alias Dan mama and Hamidu Saleh are kidnappers arrested by the IRT operatives after intelligence reports on the kidnappings, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy were lodged against them by the indegenes of Dass LGA of Bauchi State.

After a well coordinated operation by the DCP Tunji Disu led intelligence Police team, the officers apprehended the suspects and they confessed their individual involvement and roles in all the kidnappings and armed robbery operations in Plateau, Bauchi and Kaduna villages and market roads on Mondays.

The key suspect Hamishu said that his gang killed the divisional police officer because he was in the habit of always searching for them every time after any crime incident was reported

On the killing of the lawmaker, he said that the criminal gang eliminated the man for refusing to assist them with funds after several requests were made of him from his gang members whereas he always assisted others.

He said: “We entered the house of the honourable member House of Assembly Hon.Musa Mante and killed him inside his room and took physical cash of  two million naira (N2,000000).

“And we kidnapped his two wives and took them to Dutsin Miagoshi Igala and the victims spent almost four days in captivity and we demanded for a ransome of thirty-five million naira (N35,000000)”.

On how they killed the lawmaker, he said that he was the one guarding the deceased man’s gate while other gang members entered through the house roof of the house and took away his money before killing him.

One of them was an ex-convic that was arrested for drug offences by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA and was imprisoned twice for two year jail terms and served his terms and was released from prison.

Some exhibits recovered from the suspects by the Police team include 10AK 47 rifles, 1 GPMG, 8 pump action, 3 double barrel gun, 1 single barrel gun, one pistol ammunition and 14 life catileges.

The Inspector-General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba has directed that all the weapons, arms and ammunitions in the hands of criminal elements such as kidnappers and bandits should be mopped up immediately for security of lives of citizens of the country.

The Police authorities through the Force Spokesman CSP Muyiwa Adejobi has assured that all the suspects are going to be prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the nation.

 

 

For a better society