On the 21st January 2012, bombs went off in various locations, majorly police stations, within Kano State and almost at the same time. This bombings were closely followed by shootings. At last count 162 people were killed. They say more bodies are still buried within the rubble.
Before this date there has been instances of shooting and bombings in various states in Nigeria. The highest casualty report was that of the Jos killings were more than 500 people, mostly women and children were slaughtered by a group of people whilst asleep.
While there are several theories that creep up when each attack take place, the fact remains that some bloodthirsty, cold hearted mass murderers and terrorist are on the prowl to injure and kill large numbers of Nigerians for whatever purpose that suits them!
Nigeria itself is turning out to be a paradox and an irony. It is the story of a supposedly independent state with an entrenched, structured leadership where people in some states prefer to express themselves through peaceful protest while in other states some group of people prefer to express themselves by taking the lives of as many people as they can.
The current democratically leadership has openly stated that we should learn to live with terrorists and has admitted that security reports states that these terrorists are everywhere including the government itself.This can be true as a known terrorist was reportedly hosted at a governor's lodge. It can also be true as a major suspect arrested for last Christmas day bombing dramatically escaped from prison. How soothing.
Are we to accept that there is no way for our SS and police detectives to trace these evil before it occurs? Who supplied the sophisticated weapons? Who sponsored the killers? Large amount would have changed hands. The families and friends and people around these killers will know when these people act strangely, will know the state in which they left their houses and even after the evil event, will certainly know from the stench of blood, and ammo on their skin that this person is acting suspiciously. You dont kill one person and remain the same say less of taking the lives of several people. You dont shoot a gun without living traces in your person. You dont make a bomb without leaving traces in the places they are made. So what is our security and intelligence doing??
Even after such killings occurs, cant the bullets be traced to locate the suppliers? Cant the DNA from bits of skin, saliva or hair left on the used up ammunition/bombing devices left at the scene be extracted and stored securely? Cant eye witnesses be invited to give their own accounts of what went on and to describe in details the killers they saw. In this age of camera phones surely someone would have captured it. A videocameraman for Channels TV, recording the scene was reportedly shot dead (May his soul RIP) but cant the tape of what he captured be repaired and watched to see what he saw? So many questions.
Terrorism knows no race, religion, age or gender and is fuelled by hatred! For instance, the Kano bombings claimed the lives of people of diverse religions and ethnicity! Eye witness reports states that in one of the affected areas, muslims and christians hid in a mosque terrified and praying while the shooting lasted.
I wonder how an average citizen is expected to protect themselves from sudden terrorists attacks? Many of the bombings are sudden and unexpected. There is absolutely no guarantee of security of life and security particularly as those that have the power, the secret intelligence, the resources to tackle these acts seem unsure of how to handle it. Or are they aiding it?
There is only how long you can kill people and expect the survivors to remain scared and quiet. If the leadership seem inept at handling such issues, the survivors will surely rise and fight back. These terrorist should ensure they have enough ammunition and bombs to murder people in their hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions who have been pushed to take matters in their own hands! Because if they dont, a terrible and severe form ofviolence will be meted to them. And when the people finish with them, they will certainly turn on the government they voted whose responsibility is to secure the lives and properties of such citizens in the first place.
I hope this terrible day of reckoning does not have to come....
I commiserate with the families of the victims and pray that the souls of all who lost their lives, in acts of terror, within various states in Nigeria, Rest in Peace.
*BREAKING NEWS* President Goodluck Jonathan has just ended his visit to Kano. He was in the ancient city to offer his condolences to the govt & people of Kano. While in Kano, he visited the Armed Forced Specialist hospital, Zone 1 police HQ & the Emir's palace. He met briefly with the survivors of the attacks. He expressed his condolences to the Govt & people of Kano & also to the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero. He promised to bring the culprits to justice
ReplyDeletethe truth is that each and every innocent killed or maimed by the govt. reduces any incentive to inform upon those committing these acts.
ReplyDeletethere is then the issue of infiltration of police ranks by sympathizers who wil duly inform on the sources of info.
its a terrible situation, but if blanket mass murder caused the metamorphication of bh into this guerilla outfit, it is very doubtful that further indiscriminate slaughter wil end it!
how do u stop a man determined to kill himself and take as many as possible with him?
simple, give him something to live for.....
Zakari Biu: The Man of Mystery
ReplyDeleteCommissioner of Police, Zakari Biu
He has been a victim of terrorist attacks and – some will now allege – he too is one of them. He lost a son to an attack, but he was believed to be responsible for the state-sponsored bombings under the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. Zakari Biu, a Commissioner of Police in charge of CID Zone 7, is now on suspension over the dramatic escape of a key suspect in the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, which claimed over 40 lives.
His son, Tahir, was killed in the October 1, 2010 terrorist attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) at the Eagle Square, Abuja.Tahir was with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) when he met his death. But many also remember Biu as Abacha’s anti-terrorism chief who unleashed terror on government’s perceived opponents.
Many deaths were linked to him, notably those of Bagauda Kaltho, a journalist working for TheNEWS magazine, and Dr. Sola Omatsola, former Chief Security Officer of Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
They were both accused of being agents of the anti-Abacha National Democratic Coalition (NADECO).
Biu, dismissed from the police years after Abacha’s death, was controversially reinstated and promoted Commissioner of Police by the Police Service Commission (PSC) which had also ratified the demotion and subsequent dismissal of former EFCC chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu.
The latest case that has landed Biu in trouble started last Friday. Kabiru Sokoto, a Boko Haram suspect, was arrested after the police swooped on the Borno State Governor’s lodge in Abuja.
Sokoto, and one of his friends who is said to be a serving Flight Lieutenant in the Air Force, was detained by the police while investigations went on.
Things however took another turn when news filtered in that the suspect had escaped while he was being taken to a location in Abaji where he owns a house.
Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect reportedly ambushed the vehicle in which four police officers were taking him to Abaji.
The policemen were eventually overpowered in the gun battle that ensued while the suspect was taken away by his companions.
The suspicious bit was that Biu and the escaped suspect both hail from Borno State which serves as the operational headquarters of Boko Haram.
It is a bit curious that a Commissioner of Police would detail only four officers to lead a high-profile suspect to conduct a search.
Apart from being a case of “suspicious negligence”, the incident might end up tarnishing the commissioner’s entire years of service. According to police procedure, he will be made to face a panel headed by the Inspector General of Police (IG) where his fate will eventually be decided.
From indications, Presidency too might be interested just as President Goodluck Jonathan stated recently that Boko Haram members had found their way into the government.
While some believe Biu was just overtaken by error, others have suggested that nemesis might just be at work.
That Biu is still in the Police Force is a surprise to many, especially those who heard that he was retired by the Obasanjo administration in 1999. Many still remember him as the police officer who was accused of being culpable in a number of human rights issues during the Abacha years.
Biu was particularly fingered in the yet-unresolved murder of Kaltho.
Kaltho was killed when a bomb exploded in the bathroom of his hotel. Biu, then an Assistant Commissioner, claimed that the journalist died while trying to plant the bomb in the hotel.
While appearing before the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, Biu also claimed that Omatsola who died in a car explosion was a NADECO agent and that he was killed while examining a bomb he was about to plant.
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ReplyDeleteIt was the same Biu who was standing trial for the Apo 6 killings. He was accused of ordering his boys to kill six Igbo traders for making passes at the same girl with him, even when he already had three wives at home.
Many are asking how he got back into the force, much less being allowed to handle this kind of investigation.
Incidentally, Biu had been recalled to the police as a soft-landing measure since he is due for retirement in February.
Though most of his mates attained the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) rank before they retired, Biu became a Police Commissioner in December.
Professor Wole Soyinka, in an interview with TheNEWS magazine in January 2010, described Biu as a “well-known torturer” who could be readily available to work for al-Qaeda.
“There’s no reason why somebody like Zakari Biu cannot be co-opted by the al-Qaeda because, obviously, he has no concern for humanity. He’s a complete brute. You know, he can torture. I can see Zakari Biu very happily strapping a bomb to himself and blowing up a passenger plane,” he said.
Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, who was commissioner of police in Lagos in the Abacha years, recently recalled the killing of Omatsola via a bomb blast.
Speaking with Vanguard on how to tackle Boko Haram, Tsav said: “Remember, during the Abacha, regime, we had the issue of bomb blast here and there. And each time there was a blast, they would say it's NADECO. There was a time when I was Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, there was this bomb blast that killed Dr. Omatsola, the Security Officer of the Murtala Mohammed Airport. My command was directly involved in the investigation. So from what happened during the investigation, I knew that the security units of this country were the ones throwing the explosives. They will throw the bomb and go and tell lies to Abacha that it was NADECO.
“In the case of Omatsola, for instance, my command was directly involved in the investigations. The evidence we had was that somebody telephoned Dr. Omatsola, he went out of his office and entered his car and the bomb went off and killed him. So I minuted the file that they should go to NITEL, because there was no GSM then. I asked them to go to NITEL and find out who telephoned him, from what number and from where. We were working on this when they took the file away from us and handed it over to a unit they called anti-terrorist squad (headed by Biu).
“So a few days later, they came to me and asked that I must go and issue a press release and indict Prof. Wole Soyinka. That it was he and NADECO that were responsible. Then I said if that was true, then give me the evidence so that I can have it filed in case I make the statement and somebody raises issues with it I would be able to defend myself. They said I was disloyal. I think they telephoned Abuja and they asked another junior officer to go and do it.
“One other funny thing is that when that man was killed, the police went to investigate and search his office. Eleven days after that, eleven days after the police had conducted its search and investigation, another security group went to the office to search without informing the police and came out to say they found explosives.” —
All i can say is it'll end soon!!!
ReplyDeleteNa wa. The last time we had a resolved case by our police was during the time of Amimi and that IG Oyakhilome. Since then na so so conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeletelol you are so funny.Does Nigeria have database? when we take sample of tissue which even requires forensic specialists what do we do with them? is the government willing to spend money on security matter more than storing Nigeria's wealth in swiss accounts? I do feel your pain but we as Nigerians must be willing to change individually,before we expect change in the country...
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that was negotiated and now needs renegotiations?
ReplyDeleteWho were the negotiators in the first place and who are the renegotiators who are to now renegotiate the earlier negotiations?
... Nigeria is a colonial creation, the colonialist were more interested in the land they conqured and what it contained minus the human beings they met on the conquered land.
The colonialists defeated and subjugated all those they found on the conqured land to their control, they even renamed any rerource and any inhabitant they discovered or found as Nigerian and whenever they mention North, South or the ethnicity of a group on the conquered land, it was only to refer to a certain parcel of the land and nothing else. .....
The foregoing is the reality, we all have been in this colonial creation called Nigeria for about 100 years now.
Nobody wasted his time negotiating anything, Nigeria is a product of defeat and colonialism.
So whosoever is unhappy with this century old situation should DECOLONIZE first and then NEGOTIATE.
Belated ethnic nationalisms or the exergeration of current events to scare GEj won't ever help.
DONT RELAX JUST YET
ReplyDeleteUS Warns of Fresh Bomb Attacks in Nigeria
Nigeria was on high alert Monday after the United States warned of fresh attacks following a wave of deadly blasts claimed by Islamists killed 150 people in the northeast of the country.
Friday’s attacks in the city of Damaturu were among the deadliest ever carried out by Boko Haram, an Islamist sect based in the north of Africa’s most populous country.
The US embassy in Nigeria warned the sect could next strike hotels and other targets in the capital Abuja during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
“Following the recent Boko Haram, aka Nigerian Taliban, attacks in Borno and Yobe State, the US embassy has received information that Boko Haram may plan to attack several locations and hotels in Abuja,” the embassy said in a statement.
Security was stepped up in Abuja, which has been a target of past attacks, including an August 26 suicide bomb at the UN headquarters which claimed 24 lives.
The US embassy said potential targets could include the Nicon Luxury, the Sheraton and the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja’s premier hotels. Embassy staff had been told to avoid the venues.
Some 13,000 policemen and specialist anti-terror squads were deployed to mosques and churches and other strategic locations across the city on Sunday, a police official said.
Worshippers were screened by metal detectors before they entered some churches.
In the grief-stricken city of Damaturu where the 150 died, thousands of Muslims gathered for Eid el-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifices prayers at an open ground patrolled by dozens of armed police.
President Goodluck Jonathan, who described the wave of gun and bomb attacks in the capital of Yobe state as “heinous”, appealed to Muslims to pray for peace as they marked Eid.
“It is a period that we are all expected to live in peace but as a nation we have our own challenges, even during this holy period we still have incidents happening here and there,” he said.
While churches and police were among the initial targets, gunmen fired indiscriminately in the streets. Muslims and Christians alike were among those killed.
“The death toll cuts across religion, profession, status,” said Ibrahim Farinloye, a spokesman for Nigeria’s emergency management agency.
“The attack seems to have been haphazardly carried out which explains the heavy toll. Both Muslims, Christians, civilians, soldiers, policemen and other paramilitary personnel were all part of the casualties.”
Eid celebrations in the sleepy and dusty city of Damaturu were low key on Sunday.
Gudusu, 58, who lost a brother in the attacks, voiced outrage at Boko Haram, sobbing as prayers were offered for the sibling he buried on Saturday.
His family called off the celebrations but simply prayed and slaughtered a ram to mark Eid al-Adha, one of the most important feasts in the Muslim calendar.
“People are struggling to strike a balance between the merriment of the season and the losses the city has incurred from the attacks, especially the large number of people that have been killed,” said another resident Aisami Bundi.
Pope Benedict XVI appealed for an end to the violence, saying it did “not resolve problems but increases them, sowing hatred and divisions.”
Boko Haram claimed Friday’s rampage and warned of more attacks.
Opposition Action Congress party of Nigeria said it was “horrified” at the scale of the attacks alleging “government has now run out of ideas on how to tackle this crisis.”
Militants from Boko Haram, whose name means “Western Education Is Sin” in the regional Hausa language, have in the past targeted police and military, community and religious leaders, as well as politicians.
The sect, which wants to see the establishment of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, staged an uprising which was brutally put down by security forces in 2009.
Nigeria’s more than 160 million people are divided almost in half between Muslims and Christians, living roughly in the north and south of the country respectively.