2018: A year of abductions, insurgents unchained, soldiers murdered

As the curtain readies to draw on 2018, one cannot help but reflect and ponder on some of the major security issues that shaped the year. TAIWO JIMOH and STANLEY IHEDIGBO take a look at some of these major security challenges that sent shock waves down the spines of Nigerians.

One of the major shocking incidents of 2018 started five days after Val celebration. Precisely on February 19, 2018, at about 5:30pm, 110 schoolgirls of Government Girls' Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, located in Bulabulin, Yunusari Local Government Area of Yobe State, were abducted by Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram Sect.

The abduction took place even as Nigerians and international communities were calling for the rescue of the remaining Chibok schoolgirls, still in Boko Haram’s captivity.

The abduction of the Dapchi schoolgirls was alleged to have taken place some hours after the Nigerian Army removed a military checkpoint in the town. This made many to believe there was a military complicity.

On March 21, the federal government announced that the sect had returned the victims, except for a Christian girl, Leah Sharibu.

Sharibu was not released because she refused to renounce Christianity and embrace Islam. Sharibu has now spent 11 months in the captivity of Boko Haram.

Although international communities had been demanding that the Nigerian government should put more efforts into rescuing Sharibu, but the situation remains the same.

In September 2018, the group that abducted Sharibu, killed Saifura Ahmed, one of three humanitarian workers abducted in Rann, Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno State. The humanitarian workers were abducted in March 2018.

In October, ISWAP abducted an aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Hauwa Leman. After executing Leman, the group released a videoed clip of the disturbing execution.

In the video, Leman was forced to kneel, with her hands tied and then shot at close range. Leman was not the first aid worker that would be killed in 2018.

The group stated: “We have kept our word exactly as we said, by killing another humanitarian worker, Hauwa Leman, working with ICRC, who was abducted during a raid on a military facility in Rann, Kala Balge in March 2018. Saifura and Hauwa were killed because they were considered as apostates. They were once Muslims that have abandoned Islam, the moment they chose to work with the Red Cross, and for us, there is no difference between Red Cross and UNICEF. If we see them, we will kill the apostates among them, men or women, and chose to kill or keep the infidels as slaves.”

Four soldiers, four policemen and three humanitarian aid workers were killed by the group. They threatened that Sharibu would be the next person to be killed if the federal government didn’t act fast in payment of ransom.

On November 18, Boko Haram members stormed a military base in Metele village, Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno State, taking Nigerian soldiers unaware. The insurgents opened fire on the soldiers. At least 118 soldiers were killed and over 150 missing.

One of the soldiers said: “The attack came at about 6pm, when the soldier on top of the observation post alerted us that a large number of Boko Haram fighters were advancing. We were all alarmed and quickly took cover. We waited within the base in Metele. The fight did not last for more than 45 minutes, but it was bloody because the Boko Haram fighters had more armament advantage than us.”

When the soldiers realised they were outnumbered and not suitably equipped to confront the insurgents, they tried to retreat. The decision, however, came too late. The camp was surrounded with barbed wire. The insurgents opened fire right at the entrance of the camp. The Boko Haram men made away with seven gun trucks of the Nigerian Army.

The Senate suspended plenary on November 22, 2018, in honour of the fallen Metele soldiers and resolved to send a delegation to the Northeast. Lawmakers also called for better support for fighting forces. For years now, since the fight against Boko Haram started, soldiers had often cried out against being saddled with inferior weapons. They have also complained of being sent on suicide missions. For every complaints, they would be punished and court martialled.

The Offa bank robbery is one of the biggest bank robberies in 2018. In fact, Nigerians are still talking about it. The operation took place on April 5, 2018, at Offa, Kwara State. The day started like any other day, but before dusk, corpses of civilians and policemen had littered streets of Offa.

The robbers arrived in the afternoon and took strategic positions. Soon, residents started scampering in confusion and fear as gunshots rented the air and hail of bullets zigzagged from different directions.

The robbers, who stormed the town in a commando-style, shot sporadically, aiming at every moving figure. The bandits ended up killing many passersby and a pregnant woman. The operation, which lasted for hours, claimed more than 30 lives, including that of nine policemen.

The masked robbers attacked and raided five banks, carting away huge sums of money. Till date, nobody knows what had become of the money. The robbers were over 30 and were able to penetrate the banks after blowing entrance doors with grenades. 

An eyewitness, said: “The ground was littered with corpses. Many people were killed. I counted six corpses of policemen at a scene. Several cars were burnt within the banks’ premises.”

The robbery operation was smoothly done, leaving stakeholders to speculate and insist that a professional, possibly trained law enforcement personnel was involved.

Determined to fish out the psychopathic killers, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, ordered operatives of the Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, to take over the investigation from Kwara State Police Command.

Some suspects were soon arrested and one of them, Michael Adikwu, turned out to be an ex-policeman, formerly working with the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Kwara State Police Command. He was dismissed from the Police Force for hobnobbing with armed robbers. He was imprisoned and inside the prison, he raised a gang of criminals. After leaving prison in a yet to be fathomed circumstance, he waited until other members he recruited in prison came out. And then he planned and orchestrated the Offa Bank Robbery.

It was also a year that witnessed the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, being invited by the IG’s team for interrogation, as his name was dragged into the Offa Bank Robbery case. Five of the robbery suspects, during interrogation claimed they were political thugs of Saraki, under the name, ‘Youth Liberation Movement’ a.k.a Good Boys.

Police also shockingly discovered during investigation, that one of the cars used in the Offa bank robbery was actually registered to Kwara Statement. The suspects claimed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Kwara State Governor Abdufatah Ahmed.

Seven months after the robbery operation, Adikwu, the mastermind of the operation allegedly died in police custody, attracting public outcry and question of extra-judicial killing.

The Nigeria Police Force Spokesman, DCP Jimoh Moshood quickly denied allegation of extra-judicial killings. He said that Adikwu fell sick and then one day just slumped and died. The outcry is still ongoing.

It was a year that had Nigerians gasping in shock as two top shot military men were killed in mysterious circumstances. The men are ex-Defence Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh and General Idris Alkali’s (Rtd).

Badeh, on December, 18, at about 6:35pm, was returning from his farm, located at Panda Development Area, Karu Local Government Area, when he was attacked by gunmen at Tudu-Uku, along Gitata-Keffi Road.

He was in the company of his friend and driver when gunmen ambushed and opened fire on his moving vehicle.

He suffered gunshot injury, resulting to his death, while his driver was injured and the said friend was abducted.

Although IRT team ordered to carry out discrete investigation into the case, but the murder of Badeh has torn Nigerians into two factions. One faction was screaming assassination, while the other insisted his murder was random incident.

The debate over his death is natural and expected since it came at a time Badeh was being tried for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Some Nigerians felt he was silenced by the powers that be because he knows too much and would have opened a can of worms on the corruption charges. Badeh was accused of financial misappropriation by the EFCC in 2016. He denied involvement in any misconduct.

Badeh was a retired four star flag officer of the Nigerian Air Force who served as the 18th Chief of Air Staff (Oct 4, 2012- January 16,2014) and the 15th Chief of Defence Staff of the armed forces of Nigeria (January 16, 2014 – July 13,2015).

Alkali was declared missing on September 3, 2018, on his way from Abuja to Bauchi en route Jos. He was alleged to have been abducted by some youths in a warring community.

After days of searching Alkali, his body was finally found by the Nigerian Army in an abandoned well in Guchwet, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Army said after a thorough investigation, they narrowed their search to a mining pond in Dura-Du in Jos South Local Government.

After two weeks of draining the pond, the car of the missing general and two other cars were recovered.

It was further gathered that those arrested in connection with his murder and disappearance confessed that Alkali was initially buried in a place known as ‘No Man’s Land’ in Dura-Du community in Plateau. Those behind the act later exhumed the corpse, moved and dumped it in the well. The reason for the murder of Alkali is not known.

The 2018 will not be complete without mentioning Senator Dino Melaye and his theatrics. Melaye had known, witnessed and survived many scandals, but the mother of all challenges for him, was his encounter with the Nigeria Police.

On March 2018, police declared Melaye wanted. The lawmaker was declared wanted alongside Mohammed Audu, son of a former governor of the state, Abubakar Audu. Police said the duo have also been placed on Interpol watch list for allegedly providing false information to the police in relation to an alleged attempt on Melaye’s life.

The police declared him wanted as they were announcing the disappearance of some suspects who allegedly indicted Melaye, while they were in police custody. The suspects were later alleged to have escaped while in police custody. The suspects were arrested over arm possessions, which they claimed was provided for them by Melaye.

Melaye was arrested on April 23, at the international wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport by Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS). The NIS officers said Melaye’s name was on the watch list of the Interpol after the Nigeria police declared him wanted.

In May 2, 2018, Senator Melaye was arraigned in court by the Police at Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse Abuja. He was granted bail in the sum of N90m by the court, having met the bail condition but was rearrested by the police shortly after his release. On July 24 2018, Melaye alongside 13 other Senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

In the year under review, many states witnessed untold bloodbath, in the hands of Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents, but Zamfara State seemed to have suffered the most.  Interestingly, the killings were carried out by shooters simply termed as “bandits.”

These bandits are so tough that even soldiers cannot stem the escalating rate of their psychopathic activities.

Amnesty International (AI) on July 31, raised the alarm, stressing that insecurity was escalating in northwest Zamfara State, with daily killings and kidnappings by bandits, leaving villagers in constant fear of attack.

According to AI, thousands of people have been displaced by a conflict which began in 2012 as a result of clashes between farmers and herders.

Al added: “This is Nigeria’s forgotten conflict. The authorities’ failure to act has left villagers in Zamfara at the mercy of bandits, who have killed hundreds of people over the course of two bloody years. The Nigerian authorities have repeatedly claimed to be tackling the situation, but the mounting death toll tells a different story.”

The killings continued and by December, the federal government started debating whether to declare a State of Emergency in Zamfara State.

This was just as the state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, declared that he had relinquished his position as Chief Security Officer of the state as he no longer had control over security agencies. Yari’s critics, however, said he had not done enough to stop the killings.