Insecurity threat: Exposure of Southwest must be tackled with harmonious anti-terror operations

The movement of terror have been known to be infectious and metabiotic. In Nigeria, the poor and docile response to terror related mayhem, have seen the expansion of these organised crimes, growing into strongholds which have had their infectious impacts with expansive coverage across the Country. While the Northeast is known to be home to the woes of terrorism, the inability of the authorities to tame the claws of the insurgency have seen its grip extending to other parts of the North.

Recently, the menace of banditry has assumed similar dimension, as inability to tame the claws of same have left the Country with a narrative of turbulence, as the scourge have seen the net of banditry extending not just its hold across the North, but with far reaching tentacles in the South. The Southwest which have always pride itself of relative peace and security has now begun to record attack incidence linked to bandits’ misadventure, with intelligence reflecting some parts may be sitting on a timed bomb.

Attacks in some States of the geo-political zone have begun to give flashes of credibility to the intelligence report that certain parts of the Southwest are under impending siege of terror formations which have regrouped in certain hideouts, building their formations for calculated terror misadventure.

Recently in Ekiti, bandits’ operations have been taking records of recurring events of misfortune. Kidnapping for ransom with attacks recording losses of lives have been on toll. It was reported on Sunday, Sepetember 04, 2022, the killing of one of the officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)  and abduction of some people by gunmen along Oke Ako–Ajowa road in Ikole Local Government Area (LGA) of the State.

The Command Public Relations Officer, NSCDC, Ekiti State, Mr Tolu Afolabi, confirming the report on Sunday, said investigation was ongoing to arrest the perpetrators of the evil act. Narratives of the attack, have it that the officer who was travelling from Ado Ekiti to his home town, was attacked in his vehicle and shot dead, while the gunmen kidnapped his younger brother and two children with him in the car. Cases of similar incidence have been noted to be on toll.

However, it is not Ekiti State which is only having such records in the Southwest zone recently. Recall that an attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church, Owa-luwa Street, in Owo council area of Ondo State, had claimed the lives of a number of people, while several were injured. The incidence had equally given credence to the claims of existence of grouping of terror formation in the Southwest.

Recently, rumours of planned attack on Lagos has also been hovering around. In its bid to take the possibility of such misfortune off the mark, the State Government recently started the ban of operations of motorcycles, popularly called Okada, in its metropolis, particularly in local government areas (LGAs) which are known to be saturated with menaces attached with the use of motorcycles. The State’s anti-Okada operation is believed to be conceived to tame associated threats of the use of Okada as a medium to peddle terror related activities, particularly as it has been noted how unidentified foreigners are trooping in their numbers and flooding the State, using Okada as their mainstay of business. Trailer loaded with Okadas have been on record with checks, while the users are not traceable for record purposes. The threats, it is believed, would further put into check what is gaining ground to form the scourge of mayhem of “unknown gunmen” which has continued to gain stronghold across the Country.

However, while such steps have been taken in Lagos and the ban operation taking place in phases: the first phase in June (the ban of Okada in six LGAs with their respective Local Council Development Areas, LCDA) and the second phase which kicked off on September 01, 2022 on four LGAs and their respective LCDAs, Lagos neighborhood, the Ogun State may become a shifting ground for those unidentified operators who certainly will not hesitate to shift their location to where nothing hunts them. The fact that Ogun State has not taken a step to check the operations of motorcycles within its jurisdiction, inspires certain concerns particularly when it has been recording cases of increasing kidnapping for ransom by unknown gunmen. That the State Government has not taken such a step is a reflection that the level of response on regional basis is still largely unconcerted.

It is indisputable that the nature of architecture needed to keep the Southwest zone from exposure to terror turbulence must be overarching and concerted. While each States has its peculiar circumstances, which demand certain localised architecture, yet there are response architectures which must bear zonal coverage with responsive formations. This would have expression in such issues as operational orders as the ban on certain threat activities as is experienced in Lagos on motorcycles. The fact that Ogun State is aback in such order may see the State experiencing the flooding of its border towns with those who would chosen to shift their locations to continue their operation in the State, as a close neighborhood to where they are cleared from.

The States in the Southwest need concerted efforts with harmonised policy orientation in their approach to keep the zonal safe from breeding terror activities. While the zone has its Amotekun corps, as its localised security architecture, more is needed with concerted approach to keep the region safe.