Every motorist knows that travelling on
the Abuja-Kaduna highway required an iron nerve and the heart of a lion.
This is due to the virtual takeover of the road by kidnappers, bandits,
armed robbers and other criminal elements. The blood-chilling
activities of the hoodlums have continued to induce fear in Nigerians,
including the high and mighty.
Despite appropriating the public
security system for their personal protection, the elite are still
afraid to travel on the Abuja-Kaduna road. Senior government officials,
federal lawmakers and high ranking military and police officers daily
commute to Kaduna by train to avoid falling prey to the criminals.
Individuals who were unfortunate to fall into the hands of the
highwaymen had a sorry story to tell. Tragically, many others did not
live to share their gory experience.
But the criminals appeared to have
lately shifted their operations to the Abuja-Lokoja highway where they
now hunt down Nigerians like bush fowls. The Abaji/Kwali axis of the
road had been identified as their favourite ambush point. Other
blackspots include Kwaita-Chikara-Omoko-Idu-Ochonyi and Akpogu
communities located along the Abuja-Lokoja highway. The kidnappers were
also known to lay ambush for commuters at Chikara-Sharp bend, Aseni,
Ahoko-Adabo and Orehi/Achabo axis.
Apart from the highway attacks, the
daring gunmen had also carried out robbery and kidnap operations in
various communities in Kuje, Kwali, Gwagwalada and AMAC Area Councils.
Over 20 victims were abducted within a month across the four councils
late last year. Hapless individuals were forced to cough up huge ransoms
in exchange for their abducted family members. Though the Federal
Capital Territory Police Command had apprehended a number of kidnap and
robbery suspects who were paraded before the media, this has not curbed
the blood-curdling crimes on that highway. The spate of killings and
abductions still read like a Stephen King horror novel.
For instance, on February 2, suspected
kidnappers opened fire on a Toyota Previa bus conveying eight passengers
at Kwali. An eyewitness said the kidnappers jumped onto the highway and
shot at the vehicle forcing the vehicle to a halt. The gunmen then
proceeded to march their victims into the forest, but the quick response
of a police team from the FCT command saved the day. They engaged the
gunmen in a fierce firefight and successfully rescued some of the
passengers.
The FCT police spokesman, DSP Anjuguri
Manzah, said four suspected kidnappers were arrested during the incident
which occurred at Piri village. The suspects are Shuaibu Sule, 27;
Mohammadu Usman, 25; Umar Usman, 19, and Usman Ibrahim, 20, all of
Kamadi village in Kwali. Exhibits recovered from them include one Dane
gun, two cutlasses, one iron bar and one AK-47 ammunition shell.
Also, a similar scenario took place the
same day when suspected armed robbers numbering about 10 attacked some
passengers at Gada Biu, before Kwaita community along the Lokoja-Abuja
highway. The driver of the bus, which belongs to Chisco Transport
Company and who identified himself as Madu Francis, told newsmen that he
was attacked by gunmen in military uniform around 5.47pm as he was
driving towards Gada-Biu.
He said the gunmen, numbering over 30
opened fire from both sides of the highway, adding that he and three
passengers sustained bullets wounds.
“But as God will have it, I bent down
while on the steering when one of the bullet scraped my head, but I
still managed to drive down to Abaji town to park, before the three
injured passengers were taken to the hospital for treatment,” he said,
adding that he was conveying traders from Utako in Abuja to Lagos to buy
goods when the incident happened.
Also on December 8, 2019, some gunmen
attacked commuters at Kwaita village, killing six travellers, including a
six-year-old child. The police, however, said that four persons were
killed during the incident. A gang also reportedly abducted the
occupants of an 18-seater commercial bus coming from Abaji along the
Abuja-Lokoja highway.
On December 31, nemesis caught up with
the kidnappers as four of them were shot dead by the police at Manyare
village near Kotonkarfe. Three suspects were arrested at the scene while
seven AK-47 rifles were recovered from them.
The idyllic atmosphere of Sabon-Gari
village was punctured by gunshots on November 25 by gunmen who
reportedly killed a driver and abducted 13 passengers. The miscreants,
who were dressed in army uniforms, also shot dead the driver of a Toyota
Highlander who was coming from Lokoja axis. The driver had attempted to
escape but the hoodlums brutally cut short his life.
Five days later, unidentified gunmen
attacked two Federal Road Safety Corps officers travelling from Abuja to
Lagos on an official assignment killing one and injuring the other. The
officers were travelling in a Toyota Hilux pick-up van with
registration number, PILOT 01A when the driver was shot in the head at
Oshawa near Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
The Corps Education Officer, Commander
Bisi Kazeem, disclosed in a statement that the incident occurred at
about 1.50pm on the Lokoja-Okene highway.
“The suspected kidnappers, according to
first information report, were said to have opened fire at the sight of
the marked vehicle and, unfortunately, shot the driver in the head,
killing him instantly. The vehicle subsequently lost control and veered
off the road. It took hours before the rescue team could locate the
vehicle in the bush and evacuate the victims,” Kazeem explained.
Nigerians are shocked by the inability
of the security agencies to address the high crime rate on the road in
spite of the presence of security checkpoints. A retired Department of
State Services director, Mike Ejiofor, noted that criminal acts had
continued unabated on the road despite the presence of security agents.
He said, “I think the authorities should
deploy technological aids like drones to monitor the highway because
the crime has continued unabated and it has extended to Abaji-Kwali
axis. Kidnapping was previously restricted to between Lokoja and Okene,
but now, the criminals have extended their tentacles to Kotonkarfe,
Kwali and other areas.
“So, I think the right thing to do was
to get some technological assistance because they are becoming more
daring. It is not just kidnapping, but most times, they also kill people
especially along the Kotonkarfe-Kwali area. They would just open fire
on vehicles, it is quite unfortunate.”
Ejiofor, who once had an encounter with
the highwaymen during which he was abducted, observed that the security
checkpoints on the road were not serving any purpose.
“Between Okene and Auchi, you would see
many checkpoints a kilometre apart; in fairness, there had not been
reports of abductions in that axis, but it is traumatic travelling on
that road between Okene and Okpela due to the high number of
checkpoints. They (security agents) are not doing anything, they are
only busy checking vehicle particulars and extorting motorists,” the
security expert stated.
A security analyst, Ben Okezie,
recommended the use of sniffer dogs and surveillance drones to assist
the police in combating crime on the highways.
He recalled the recent deployment of
surveillance vehicles equipped with cameras by the police authorities
and wondered why the highways still remained a strait of fear.
He stated, “Many people have spoken to
me that they were kidnapped at certain locations along the Abuja-Lokoja
road metres from police checkpoints. I think they need to deploy sniffer
dogs to penetrate the bushes. They can also use drones to monitor the
area.”
Okezie further advised the police authorities to create a special squad tasked with going after the criminals.
He noted, “We are talking of a
well-equipped unit that would be on the road 24 hours to thwart every
criminal endeavour on that road. Recently, the IG inaugurated some
surveillance vehicles, but we have not seen the impact of this
equipment.
“Kidnapping is still happening on Kaduna
road, so this crime wave may not reduce until they address the root
cause. How come it is only in Nigeria we are hearing about kidnappings?
Why are kidnappings not happening in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin
Republic?
“This is because they have put in place
the necessary structures to protect their citizens, whereas, in Nigeria,
the security system is only meant to protect the politicians and those
in power.”
But the Abuja police spokesman said the
command had increased police presence on Abuja-Lokoja and Abuja-Kaduna
highways, stressing that the deployment of surveillance teams had led to
the arrest of suspected criminals.
He added, “We have increased our
presence and we are also carrying out surveillance on the roads; we are
also working with the communities. We have foot patrols as well as stop
and search point. They were able to recover a cache of 12 AK-47 rifles
and 19 magazines and 110 live ammunition along Abuja-Lokoja highway,
last week.”
Manzah disclosed that the command was
continuously reviewing its strategy “and you can see that we are making a
lot of progress with the arrest of many suspects.”
Credits: PUNCH
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