Nigeria Police Force

By Hussaina Sufyan Ahmad

The Nigerian Police Force has reportedly arrested dozens of Shia Muslims followers at a religious procession of Arbaeen in Abuja on September 28, 2021.

The spokesperson of the group claimed that eight members were shot dead during the gathering.

However, Abuja police denied the claim of any casualty.

The police official said they intervened to stop members of the banned Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) from causing hardship to motorists along the Abuja-Kubwa expressway. He added that “57 people were arrested after IMN members attacked the police with petrol bombs and stones.”

“They were promptly intercepted by the security operatives and dispersed to prevent further disruption of public order,” the police statement said.

IMN spokesman, Ibrahim Musa, said security forces shot and wounded protesters.

“We were almost rounding up the procession when the police and army came and started shooting,” he said.

The IMN, a pro-Iranian group, had a profession in 2019 that saw their leader Ibrahim El-Zakzaky’s arrest when it clashed with Nigerian security forces.

The army killed 350 IMN Shia Muslims during a religious procession in northern Nigeria in December 2015. According to rights groups, many were gunned down and burned alive.

IMN leader el-Zakzaky and his wife, who has been in custody since 2015, were freed last month after a court acquitted them of murder charges involving the death of a soldier.

But the religious leader still faces terrorism and treasonable offences charges, according to prosecutors.

Muslims make up about half of Nigeria’s population of 200 million. However, the Shia Muslim minority have long complained of discrimination and repression.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Men of the Nigeria Police Force have successfully apprehended a health worker who was alleged to have been providing medical assistance to bandits in the Danmusa Local Area of Katsina State.

The 34-year-old health worker, identified as Murtala Umar, owns a patent medicine shop in the LGA.

A report by the Daily Post newspaper has indicated that Murtala had been working for the bandits operating in that area, and they always came to him whenever they needed any medical attention.

SP Isah Gambo, the Katsina State Police Command spokesman, who paraded Murtala at their headquarters on Monday, said the suspect had confessed to offering assistance to bandits. 

Confessing the allegations made against him, Murtala was quoted as saying, “I studied at the College of Health and Technology in Kankia, and I manage a chemist at Tashar Yar Alewa. The bandits, from time to time, come to my shop carrying guns to seek my help concerning the health of their members, and they pay me in return.

“I used to oblige them for fear of being attacked, but I am regretting my actions now.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

Police in Kaduna State have apprehended three suspects who were alleged to have abducted 136 of Bethel Baptist School, Kaduna.

The suspects were identified as Adamu Bello, Isiaku Lawal and Muazu Abubakar.

The trio told journalists in Abuja on Thursday, that 25 of them perpetrated the kidnap, and that their desperate need for money made them carry out the act.

“Twenty-five of us carried out the operation. We kidnapped 136 students and I got N100,000 share from the money (ransom),” one of the suspects was quoted as saying.

However, there is still no detailed information on how they carried out the kidnap and how they were eventually arrested.

The police paraded them in Abuja at the headquarters of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

By Muhammad Sabiu

An angry mob have set ablaze the residence of Sokoto State Commissioner for Careers and Security Matters, Garba Moyi, in Isa Local Government Area.

According to reports, the incident, which occurred Monday evening, led to the vandalisation of vehicles of a traditional ruler who was also accused of abandoning his people.

ASP Sanusi Abubakar, the Sokoto Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), who confirmed the incident, stated that“no life was involved, and as soon as the investigation is completed, the details will be made known to the public.”

He added that people of the area should remain calm and advised them to cooperate with security agencies in maintaining peace and order.

Also, a Sokoto resident, identified as Abubakar Isa, also confirmed the incident. He said the mob were angry at the Commissioner due to bandits’ incessant attacks.

He was quoted as saying, “Some of them even believe that the commissioner has abandoned his own people. The attacks are becoming rampant these days, despite the efforts they said they are making to address it. There is no day that a person is not kidnapped or killed in Isa or Sabon Birni.”

By Muhammad Sabiu

Reports coming from northwestern Nigeria have stated that angry people in a Sokoto community, Tangaza, took the bull by the horns, traced suspected bandits in detention and subsequently lynched them.

This is coming barely 12 hours after the bandits launched an attack on the community, which left two persons killed and two others abducted.

Premium Times reports that, first, it was vigilante members armed with locally-made guns and cutlasses in conjunction with the police that went after the bandits, killed two and apprehended about four others.

After their arrest, they were put behind the police net.

The state’s police spokesperson, Sanusi Abubakar, confirmed that in an attack meant to cart away foodstuffs from the community, the bandits launched a raid Friday night.

They were also said to have kidnapped two persons, who were later killed.

Angered by this attack and kidnap, youths in the community planned to join the police in an effort to crush the suspected bandits.

They followed them and successfully killed two and the other four arrested, who were detained in a police station and killed by the angry youths.

The youths insisted that the bandits must be killed, otherwise they would torch the police station.

A resident said, “The youths were angry and despite pleas from the DPO and the local government chairman, they insisted that if the policemen did not kill the bandits in their presence, they would burn down the police station.”

Sokoto State is also one of the northwestern states badly hit by the activities of bandits.

A 25-year-old man, identified as Nasiru Muhammad, was arrested by the police in Jigawa State for allegedly having sex with a goat.

This was confirmed to newsmen in Dutse by the Jigawa State Police Public Relations Officer, Lawan Shi’isu Adam.

Mr Shi’isu was quoted as saying, “On 09/09/2021 at about 0100hrs, Police officers from Gwaram divisional headquarters, while on patrol within Gwaram and its environs, arrested a 25-year-old man, Nasiru Muhammad of Kunnadi quarters while having intercourse with a goat.”

He added that an investigation was ongoing and the suspect would be prosecuted subsequently.

Media reports coming from Niger State in the north-central part of Nigeria have it that about 47 terrorists, also known as bandits, have on Wednesday been eliminated by “local hunters.”

The terrorists are notorious for unleashing terror on the communities in the Shiroro axis in Niger State.

The local hunters were said to have raided the hideous of the bandits in their large number in a riverside community that is located between Shiroro and Rafi Local Governments.

A police officer, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed the raid on the terrorists.

He was quoted by PRNigeria as saying, “I can tell you for a fact that the bandits met their waterloo. At least 47 of them were eliminated by the hunters who participated in the operation.”

Niger State suffers incessant attacks by bandits who kill innocent people and kidnap students in large numbers.

A recent incident of abduction in the state was the kidnap of over 80 Islamiyya students in a community called Tegina.

Many of them, however, recently regained freedom after spending many days in captivity.

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Nigeria Police Force, in conjunction with local vigilantes, has on Monday succeeded in killing an infamous bandits’ leader in Niger State.

According to some media reports, the bandits’ leader, identified as Jauro Daji, was killed alongside other members loyal to him in the Kontagora axis of the State.

“It was the combined team of policemen and local vigilantes that killed Jauro Daji and score of his bandits who were on a mission to abduct innocent persons at a village.

“The notorious Jauro Daji who is suspected to be involved in attacks on villages and schools led other armed bandits in large numbers on motorcycles.

“The operation was successfully executed on Monday between Gulbin Boka to Dogon Fadama area under Kontagora Local Government Area. We also recovered ten motorcycles.

“We have recruited the services of local divers to retrieve the weapons some bandits who escaped with their corpses threw into the river,” an intelligence source told PRNigeria.

Niger State has also recently been badly hit by bandits’ incessant attacks, which saw many people killed and students in their hundred kidnapped.

By Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik

I love ABU and the used-to-be lovely Zaria; But is it time to run away?

After submitting the final copies of my PhD thesis in March 2012, a friend and I conversed about my plans after the PhD program. “I am leaving back to Nigeria in few days, resume my job, get married, and start living the Nigerian life”, I told her. And she was like, it appeared I had got everything planned out. And I said I couldn’t find anything to keep me back in the UK. Then about a year later, I got a postdoc research fellowship in Norway.

Immediately after my postdoc in 2015, I was looking forward to coming back home. I had this picture of a laboratory I want to set up in my university to perform impactful research from this part of the world. Maybe I was crazy. But for the five years three months that I spent in Europe, I never saw myself living there for long, but how I could use the experience of the few years to add value to the world of research from my country.

But after the kidnapping of my friend’s family last month, for the first, I started to ask myself if my decision to return to the country was the right one. And last night, I heard gunshots from my room before midnight. I knew something was wrong, but I could not figure out what it was and where. So I could not sleep well. Then, after waking up in the morning, I got a call that the same terrorists they choose to call bandits strike in Zaria again, but this time at Zango-Shanu and went away with four victims.

Criminals use to operate while hidden. But these terrorists take their time to break into houses and abduct their victims unchallenged. The police can’t dare do anything to them because they have superior arms and unlimited ammunition. One would expect special forces capable of repelling these terrorists to be put in Zaria due to these frequent occurrences, but nothing like that.

The government seems to have given up, and we are left on our own. The Governor insists no one should pay a ransom but no provision to prevent the kidnapping of anyone. So you have two choices when you have a victim with them; either you pay ransom to get them released after torture, or you leave the victim to die with them.

I closed my eyes, and I still see the picture of the state of my friend’s wife and kids when the bandits released them, and I cried. I am still wondering why these innocent young children and their mother should pass through that horrible experience. The system has failed them. The country has failed them. Now we live in fear. The government has failed us.

A distant cousin in Canada called me a few weeks ago and asked about my plans for my family with this insecurity that is getting worse by the day. I was dribbling around, and he said: how can you make an impact in an environment you are not safe? You can only make an impact if you are alive and free. That statement refused to leave my head.

You can’t sleep well at night for fear of the terrorists. So, how do you concentrate during the day to be productive to make your dream impact? Our children can’t go to school. The state government has closed down all the state-controlled schools for fear of kidnapping but no structure to prevent kidnapping the same children from their houses. So, what has he done?

The kids are living a caged life. You can’t even allow them to play outside talk less of sending them on an errand outside the house for fear of insecurity. We got President Goodluck Jonathan out for Boko Haram; President Buhari came in, and kidnapping was added to the list of the insecurity challenges. It has become a big business. The business CEOs sit in their houses while getting sophisticated arms for their boys for the kidnapping operation. They are ruthless, and of course, the informants are among us. There seems to be no much intelligent service to get rid of this challenge. At least not from the kidnapping of my friend’s wife and kids.

With all these challenges, the political leaders, including those claiming to be fighting corruption, are getting richer while the people are getting poorer. For example, a former recharge card seller, now an aide, has billions of naira in his accounts that he claimed are “gifts” from people. But he didn’t get such “gifts” when he was a  recharge card seller. Aside from workers at CBN, NNPC, DPR, etc., other workers struggle to survive with that thing called salary. And unfortunately, most of the victims are from families struggling to survive, but the informants perceive them as rich.

People are shouting why the Doctors that the country spent a lot to train are leaving. But, with the level of unemployment, economic hardship, and insecurity, will you stay and submit your life to banditry if you have a choice to leave the country?

The political leaders surround themselves with security personnel. They can run to any country of their choice if they think their lives and immediate family are unsafe while we are left for the bandits.

I had so much optimism in this country, but I am not sure any longer. Should we continue to live this life of fear and uncertainty? I never thought of the idea of relocating to another country till last month when those poor little kids and their mother were abducted for 40 days.

I had two chances and came back because I believed in Nigeria and wanted to make an impact. Will I return if I have the 3rd chance?

I still remember that prominent MKO Abiola’s interview on TV during the June 12 crisis, where he stated this famous quote: he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.

Don’t hesitate to run if you have the slightest opportunity.

Abdelghaffar Amoka Abdelmalik writes from Zaria and can be reached through aaabdelmalik@gmail.com.

By Ishaka Mohammed

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has received the NPF Special Investigation Panel (SIP) report on the alleged indictment of DCP Abba Kyari. 

In a statement signed by the public relations officer of the Nigerian Police Force, CP Frank Mba, the IGP received the report on Thursday, August 26, 2021.

The IGP commended the panel and assured the general public that appropriate actions would be taken after carefully reviewing the report. “[IGP] reiterated as always the commitment of the Force to justice for all,” the statement reads.

According to the chairman of the panel, DIG Joseph Egbunike, “The report presented contained the case file of the probe, evidences and findings as well as testimonies from DCP Abba Kyari and other persons and groups linked to the matter.”

Recall that the panel was inaugurated on August 2, 2021, to probe the alleged indictment of DCP Abba Kyari by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The case centres on Mr Kyari’s involvement in a multimillion-dollar transnational fraud involving Ramon Abbas, aka “Hushpuppi”, who is currently in the custody of the US authorities.