Bandits and insurgents operating in parts of the North are ferried in by helicopters along with their weapons likely from foreign lands to launch their attacks, the Senate heard in Abuja yesterday.
During a debate on a motion on the violence in several northern states, Senator Abu Ibrahim from Katsina revealed that attackers of some of the affected places were not local people but were air-dropped from somewhere else along with their supplies.
A recent attack in many villages in Senator Ibrahim’s zone in Katsina State left more than 100 people dead.
He said yesterday there were reports from local people that the bandits get supplies from helicopters which the locals said they saw landing in thick forests.
“We have reports that helicopters were used to ferry the people who carried out attacks. They land in the forest and dropped the attackers,” Ibrahim told his colleagues.
Reacting to this, Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe from Abia said since it was established that helicopters were being used to ferry attackers, Nigeria has the right to “pursue the attackers to the countries where they came from.”
Residents in Borno and Yobe villages had been saying they do see helicopters dropping weapons and other supplies to insurgents operating in the areas.
Daily Trust learnt also that some people who were once held in Boko Haram bases had related the stories of helicopters landing and taking off at the camps, providing arms and ammunition to the insurgents.
It was not clear where the helicopters come from, but a senior security official indicated to Daily Trust that one possible place would be Libya.
The security source, who had earlier confirmed an awareness of the reports suggesting the use of helicopters to supply the insurgents in the North East, said the disarray in Libya could be responsible.
The official went further to say that people are under-rating the impact of the collapse of control of Libyan armoury which followed the civil war that led to the overthrow of the former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The source could not, however, explain what the Nigerian authorities are doing to deal with such brazen abuse of the country’s sovereignty by those the security official says may be mercenary arms merchants.
When contacted for comments on the claims about helicopters ferrying in weapons, Director of Defence Information Major General Chris Olukolade said in a text message last night: “The relevant security and intelligence network in the country are already working on this information. The extent of the effort cannot be the subject of news or public discourse for now please.”
‘Chaos, anarchy loom’
The Senate debate yesterday was held following a motion moved by Senator Barnabas Gemade from Benue State over the spate of deadly violence in parts of the North.
Senators said the rate of killings by Boko Haram insurgents and by other elements has reached an alarming state, and that there may be some hidden hands sponsoring the violence for some ulterior motives.
Many of them called for a decentralised policing system so that communities can protect themselves.
In adopting Gemade’s motion, the Senate asked its committees on Security and Intelligence, Defense and Army, Police Affairs and Interior to undertake a fact-finding mission and report back as soon as possible.
In his motion, Gemade lamented how human life is increasingly becoming very cheap and impunity has become the norm in the country, particularly in the North Central and North East.
“We can clearly say that we are in the middle of a civil war with multiple ill-defined fronts and worse still the perpetrators are often presented as faceless ‘unknown gunmen’, ‘Boko Haram’ or in some instances, ‘Fulani herdsmen’ in ‘conflict’ with ‘farmers’ and victims on the Plateau, in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe states and other parts of Nigeria,” he said.
He said the continued over stretching of the military in quenching the insecurity since 1999 without any exit plan is dangerous.
Gemade said in Plateau State, between May 29, 2011 and January 31, 2012 alone, there were 1,131 deaths reported.
Senators who spoke on the motion said survivors and witnesses testimonies repeatedly raise allegations of duplicity or dereliction of duty by bad eggs within the security circles.
They also doubt the capacity of the agencies to provide the much-needed security by guaranteeing the right to protection for the defenseless.
Senator Goerge Sekibo (PDP, Rivers), who chairs the Senate Committee on Defence, said what is happening is a sign of disintegration of the country.
“Nigeria is at war against itself. When death bell rings it does not mind who called for its ringing,” he said.
“There is a crack in the country and what is happening now is worse than the civil war. Today it is North-East, next time it may be South-East. These are signs of disintegration. There is a need to declare a state of emergency in the country.”
But Senator Babafemi Ojudu (APC, Ekiti) argued to the contrary, saying what is happening is the consequence of leadership failure at all levels of governance.
He said, “These emergencies will not solve our problems rather we should look inwards as our problem is that of failure of leadership.”
His remarks on leadership failure were followed by shouts of “No!” by some senators.
For his part, Senator Victor Lar (PDP, Plateau) said some of the attackers arrested in different places could not speak any Nigerian language as they were foreigners; while Senator Solomon Ewuga (APC, Nasarawa) described the situation as a “national crisis” and that life in Nigeria is becoming “short, nasty and brutish.”
Other Senators who spoke called for the quick passage of the grazing reserve bill sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure (PDP, Niger) as the only solution to the crisis between farmers and cattle herders.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, re-echoed the stance of his colleagues on the creation of state police.
“We must be able to provide sufficient police personnel that should be at least be one policeman per hundred metres away. And this can only be achieved if we decentralise our police, ensuring that we have state police and possibly local police that is well coordinated and regulated,” he said.
Source: Daily Trust
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