File: Gunmen
By Richard Elesho
That Nigeria is a rustic below siege is not new. It began like an exterior aggression by nomadic herdsmen from the Sahel. Slowly, however steadily the whirlwind of insecurity blew by the nation, dropping its virus for evil minded residents to cultivate.
On Thursday, 4th June, 2020 when gunmen attacked a financial institution and police station in Isanlu, headquarter of Yagba East Native Authorities Space, LGA, of Kogi State, with dynamite, not a number of individuals concluded the attackers had been Fulani bandits. Greater than a dozen civilians and policemen had been gruesomely massacred within the assault. Pa. Kokade, a dealer, narrowly escaped being hit by a bullet.
He was shocked when many months later, detectives swooped on his village, in the identical neighborhood, to arrest two indigenes for involvement within the assault. “What is that this world turning to? If anybody instructed me our folks could be concerned in issues like this, I’d have argued with him. Gun…?”
Tales like which have develop into widespread place throughout the nation. From the north to the south, east and west common accounts of insiders abuse and collaborations make the headlines, additional questioning the ethnic profiling of crime.
In January 2021, Osun State Police Command confirmed the arrest of seven kidnappers, together with a Yoruba man and the rescue of two victims from their abductors. A mixed staff of members of the Oodua Individuals’s Congress, OPC, hunters, policemen, detectives from the Division of State Providers, DSS, and Nigeria Safety and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, raided the camp of the gang across the thick Ilesha forest.
Six of the suspects had been Fulani, whereas the seventh popularly generally known as ‘Jumbo’ was a resident of Omoh, in Oriade LGA. He was mentioned to be a meals provider and informant of the group. Yemisi Opalola, Osun Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, confirmed the arrests.
On eighth Could, 2021 the identical police command introduced the arrest of 8 fleeing members of a gang from Benue State. The gang members had been needed in Benue after they kidnapped and killed 65-year-old Catherine Alishi, in chilly blood.
Opalola shed extra gentle on the matter.
“Previous to the arrest, Police investigations revealed that the suspects relocated to Osun State after the kidnap of the lady as a misleading techniques to keep away from arrest by the Police in Benue State,
“The suspects have additionally deliberate to make use of Osun State as a protected haven for the negotiation and assortment of ransom even after murdering the lady in chilly blood.
The police authorities recognized the suspects who had been all Tivs from Benue as: Orikashima David, 22, (AKA Money cash) Teryange Demenogo, 22, (AKA Small), Terngu Tortindi, 25, (AKA Kareen) and Aondoaseer Terver, 21. Others had been females; Anawuese Akough, 19, Mbalumulum Kaorga, 18, Consolation Terdoo, 22, and Michael Msendoo, 19.
Lately a center aged man, Rilwan Kasali was visitor of the key police. The native of Yemetu in Ibadan was nabbed in Osogbo by members of the Amotekun corps. On interrogation, he confessed to have kidnapped upto 5 individuals and bought them to Lagos and Ibadan to somebody named Abija.
The sphere commander of Amotekun in Osun, Comrade Amitolu Shittu confirmed the arrest and the way he was handed over to the DSS, for additional investigations.
Additionally not way back, the police in Ogun nabbed 4 younger males for abducting a 13-year woman. The little woman was on errand for her dad and mom in Ado-Odo-Ota neighborhood when the abductors swooped on her. After whisking the sufferer away, they contacted her father and demanded N500,000 for her freedom.
The rattled guardian reported the matter and by chance the hoodlums had been tracked and apprehended. The suspects had been recognized as John, 21; Adeleke, 29; Adekunle, 20 and Abbey, 20.
In December final yr, the Amotekun corps in Ondo State paraded 75 suspects for varied crimes. One of many suspects, Igbekele Abiodun was alleged to have participated within the abduction of 4 worshipers from a church in Ado lodge space of Akure, the State capital. The checklist is endless.
Simply yesterday, Monday, 24 January, Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri introduced the deposition of the of a paramount ruler for complicity in crime. He sacked Chief A.C.T Wongo, of the Otuokpoti neighborhood for his alleged roles within the kidnap of the State’s Commissioner for Commerce and Funding, Mr. Federal Otokito.
The Governor who said this when the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ben Nebolisa, and the State Director of the State Safety Providers, Mr. Mohammed Abdullahi, introduced Mr. Otokito to him after his launch, appointed Chief Rescue Abe in an appearing capability
The current abduction and homicide of a 5-year woman, Hanifa Abubakar by her instructor in Kano, converse to the guts. Speak of the scriptural ‘a person’s enemies are members of his family.’ Or because the Yoruba places it, with out the collaboration of the enemy inside, the one outdoors, might not archive his evil agenda.
