Insurgency: Beyond Ogwuchi’s Extradiction

The successful extradition by Sudanese
authorities, of Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche,
the main mastermind allegedly responsible for the Nyanya bombing that claimed several live’s, to say the least, a cheering news and a pleasant relief to security institutions and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians and foreigners.
Indeed, Ogwuche’s extradition, which followed intense diplomatic overtures from Nigeiran government, opens yet another window of hope in the campaign against terror and insurgency in Nigeria. Such trans-national collaboration within the international community will definitely, go a long way in checking crimes against humanity, no matter where such crimes were committed.
Clearly, terrorism constitutes a clear and present danger, not only to Nigeria’s stability, but also to regional cohesion, global peace and development, which is why the new sense of co-operation and collaboration among nations are indeed commendable. Thousands of lives and properties worth billions of Naira had perished since Boko Haram’s  onslaught on Nigerian soil and without such multi-national understanding there is no telling how worse the situation could yet.
This is why we commend the Nigeria Police Interpol unit for the successful repatriation of the terror fugitive. The successful repatriation means that the global coalition and campaign against terrorism is indeed yielding desired results.
However, The Tide thinks that the Interpol needs to do more, especially in the area of intelligence network on the sponsors and masterminds of Boko Haram. Intelligence gathering is critical.
Similarly, we expect the police and other security operatives to step up their efforts in the area of the trans-boarder operations, as most of the terror gangsters infiltrate  Nigeria through neighbouring countries due to our porous boarders.
While we applaud the diplomatic victory in Ogwuche’s repatriation; The Tide believes that it is only a first step towards winning the war against terror in Nigeria.
We implore the federal government to muster and show sufficient political will to obtain as much information from Ogwuche and his co-travelers and prosecute them in as timely a fashion as possible. Infact, the delay in prosecuting many terror suspects is, indeed, worrisome and incomprehensible.
Terror suspects should not be given the opportunity to escape from custody or cause jail breaks as reported in the past. Though, we subscribe to thorough investigations and garnering of concrete evidence before prosecution, we still think that speedy prosecution may also make the difference because as they say justice delayed could amount to justice denied, sometimes.
In the same vein, we recognize that information gathering and management is key and inevitable to addressing the terror campaign, but the offer by foreign governments and the country’s allies to assist in this direction should be fully embraced.
Clearly, such coalition and international collaboration would boost the campaign against terror. Of course, the benefit can be seen and appreciated in the depth of such intelligence and the neutrality such a coalition would exhibit. In such circumstances the effort would spare no one no matter how highly placed, nor make scapegoat of anyone.
The Tide acknowledges the co-operation and understanding exhibited by Sudanese authorities and all the other countries, namely, Britain, France, United States of America (USA), Israel and neighbouring African countries that are playing very critical roles in the anti-terror fight.
With this collaboration, we agree with President Goodluck Jonathan that the war against terror would be over soon and the days of terror gangsters numbered.