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Insecurity: 1, 603 Nigerians Killed In Three Months, Global Rights Alerts
An international rights organization, Global Rights Nigeria, yesterday, reported that 1, 603 Nigerians were killed in the first quarter of 2021.
The report tagged, ‘Violent Incidents Report: January-March 2021’, which was made available to newsmen, attributed the killings to ‘mass atrocities across the country between January and March, 2021.
According to the report, there has been harvest of abductions, insecurity of security officers, ethnic/communal tensions, unending terrors, and others, which have worsened the insecurity situation across the country.
The report also pointed that banditry alone claimed 906 lives, which made it the highest cause of killings in the country and followed by Boko Haram attacks claiming 207 lives in Nigeria while kidnapping recorded 1, 774 abductees within the period under review.
The report reads in part, “In the first quarter of 2021, Nigeria continued to experience inordinately high incidents of armed violence across the country, with very high body counts. Our tracking shows that at least 1603 persons lost their lives to mass atrocities across the country from January to March, 2021.
“In January, unbridled violence continued to be documented across all regions of Nigeria, with, at least, 373 deaths linked to these incidents. Abductions nationwide, and pillage attacks in the North featured most prominently.
“In spite of the recent #EndSARS protests against extrajudicial brutality and killings, deaths related to this form of atrocity continued. For example, five members of the Road Transport Workers Union were extra-judicially killed, and several others brutalized by state security personnel in Kwara State.
“In a public statement, the commissioner of police ordered a full-scale investigation into the crisis, however, till date, there have been no records of arrests or even identification of the perpetrators of this mayhem.
“The pseudo-public security outfit – Amotekun has also been implicated in committing gross human rights violations and extrajudicial killings. On January 15, the Oyo State Police Command confirmed the killing of a 21-year-old man, Tosin Thomas, by an Amotekun officer.”
The report also pointed that, “Across the country, other forms of attacks recorded were consistent with previous months: pillage of communities in the North, targeted and random abductions, and communal clashes.
“In particular, the North Central states, especially Kaduna and Niger states, pillage of rural districts, kidnappings, and killings by bandits remained a recurring decimal.
“Every region of the country contended with targeted and random abductions in this quarter. Whilst highway abductions by crime syndicates were peculiar to the North, and some parts of the South (South/West and South/South), we observed two cases of mass-targeted kidnappings of traders. In January, 27 traders were abducted in Etsako West, Edo. Similarly, 27 Kano traders were kidnapped on the Kaduna highway by gunmen who demanded N27million ransom, N1million for each trader.”
Global Rights also in the report expressed worry over the numbers of lives lost in the first quarter of the year said it “paints a dreary picture of the declining state of security and increase in human rights infractions across Nigeria. The country is clearly a fragile state, and remains vulnerable to combustion from several forms of atrocities. The question to ask is what are its government and citizens doing to stem the tide?”
The report referred to the country as ‘Land of Impunity’, “The Nigerian state’s penchant of covering multitudes of crimes with the blanket of impunity and amnesty does not augur well for the nation. Rather it has emboldened perpetrators to increase their activities and serves as a motivation for other actors to cash in on the monopoly of violence. Lack of trust in the government to ensure justice is also a motivation for reprisal attacks by aggrieved persons and communities.
“It is instructive that in spite of the hundreds of armed pillages that have occurred in the Northern region, and security agents have barely been able to make arrests, and there have been no prosecutions for these crimes. The same lens would apply to kidnaps, and communal conflicts.”
Meanwhile, Global Rights in the report made its stance known on what it called ‘Buying Peace’, which it condemned the payment of ransom to free abductees by government to bandits and other criminal elements.
“In spite of its continued denial, several sources have documented attempts by some state governors to placate organized criminal groups – paying fat ransoms to kidnappers, and offering cash-back to bandits in exchange for their weapons and assurance of security.
“However, it is pertinent to state that huge ransoms paid to kidnappers by the government sets a dangerous precedence that will encourage criminality rather than quell it. Organized criminal groups who maim people, rape women, destroy properties and cause severe humanitarian crises should be made to face the wrath of the law rather than be mollycoddled.
“The latest mass kidnapping from schools in recent weeks, calls to question the implementation of the ‘Safe School Initiative’ which was launched with millions of Naira invested, after the Chibok girls were abducted to bolster security in schools in Nigeria’s north-eastern region of the country.
“Nigeria’s perpetual battle against insecurity is at a high cost, with both security operatives and civilians paying with their lives. That cost continues to be too high. According to S 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution, the primary objective of the government is to ensure the security and welfare of citizens.
“Despite the government’s claim of being on top of the security situation in the country, the spread and contexts of insecurity have metastasized and shown no signs of abating, black holing the enormous budgetary allocation to security.
“We advise that it will occasion more than security hardware to end insecurity across the country. At the core of the various forms of mass atrocities in Nigeria is impunity, and at the core of impunity is the failure of state institutions to ensure the safety and security of all Nigerians, as well as justice for crimes perpetrated.
“Nigeria needs an effective long-term investment in a holistic security architecture that should comprise the efficiency of all aspects of governance and the promotion of human rights.
“The state’s continued failure to proactively fulfill and respect human rights has led to mass grievances that are compounding the nation’s insecurity and jeorpadizing its peace and security.”
Raising concern on spate of attacks on security officers and facilities across the country the report called it ‘The Insecurity of Security Officers’, and reads, “The onslaught on public security agents continued with a notable increase in the targeted number of killings of police officers in the southern parts of the country – especially the South-East. Of the 685 deaths recorded in February, 68 were security officers.
“We noted the trend of targeted, unprovoked killings of police officers, the carting away of their weapons, and the burning assets such as police vehicles and stations. The perpetrators of these atrocities and their overarching motive remain unclear.
“Terrorist groups in the North-East also did not relent in their attacks on security formations. Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked Nigerian police and army units in Magumeri, killed two police officers, and burnt their vehicle along the Maiduguri-Magumeri-Gubio Road.
“The next day the same group attacked a UN agency convoy of between Karito and Monguno, of Borno State, North-East Nigeria, kidnapping one person-making it the third employee of the United Nations in Nigeria abducted within the past two months by Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) insurgents.
“At least, 10 officers of the Nigerian Army were also killed in an attack launched by Boko Haram terrorists in the Marte Local Government Area of Borno State. Twenty civilians were also killed by Boko haram insurgents in Dikwa, Borno State and in Maiduguri, Borno State, at least, 16 persons were killed by a Boko Haram rocket attack.
“In Yobe State, four police officers who were protecting the Bayameri area were killed alongside seven villagers during an attack by Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) members.”
The Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has alerted the Governor of Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Abia states to what he calls an emerging ‘Economic Triangle’ within their states.
Mr China, a real estate success strategist who has won numerous local and international awards, has thus drawn the attention of the governors of the concerned states to the emerging development and has urged them to intentionally accelerate the emergence of the economic triangle.
Speaking to newsmen in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital at the conclusion of his business trip to the state, Mr China, who is the managing director of the Housing and Construction Mayor Limited, said the envisaged economic corridor would compete favourably with the Lagos economic hub or even better.
He said: “Talking about ‘Economic Triangle’, the only place that can wrest economic power from Lagos is Akwa Ibom, Abia, and Rivers states axis or corridor. This corridor contains more than Lagos has, if they can be interconnected with smooth roads, ports, and if their blue potentials are unlocked. They will not only wrest power from Lagos but would be more lucrative.”
The investor who is behind the emerging Alesa Highlands Green Smart City in Eleme, near Port Harcourt, said the new ‘Economic Triangle’ has a bigger potential due to massive land assets with the corridor plus blue economy and the existing hydrocarbon industry.
Explaining, Mayor of Housing said Aba (Abia State) provides the biggest fabrication capacity in West Africa to supply goods to the Gulf of Guinea; Port Harcourt provides access to the Gulf of Guinea for off-taking Aba products, and the Uyo provides deep sea port at Ibaka and international airport facilities as well as forest reserves for massive agro-economy.
He said with sea ports in Rivers State and deep seaport in Akwa Ibom, and international airports in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, Aba can focus on adequate power supply and fabrication boom to supply a new booming market around the economic triangle.
By doing this, he said, jobs would spill out in huge quantities and more manufacturers would be drawn from all over Africa to boost the fast coming African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). He said Nigeria would thus have two major trade nodes in West Africa; Lagos and the PH/UYO/Aba triangle.
He said goods going to or coming from Chad, Niger, and the rest of Central Africa can head to the Lagos ports or to the Ibaka/PH ports zone in the new economic triangle.
He said with power supply made stable, good roads, excellent security system, and ease of doing business enthroned in the zone, the South-South and South East would become the biggest economic nerve in the near future.
Mayor of Housing called on governors of the three states to be intentional about the new corridor, put away political differences (if any), and create this corridor by agreeing on projects each state would execute with a short period of time so the states would be linked by good roads, communication, security, trade laws, concessions to investors, etc.
He remarked that northerners were already heading to the Onne Port in Rivers State to export goods, saying creating a commission to oversee the development of the ‘Economic Triangle’ would fast-track its emergence.
He observed that people of the three states are peaceful and usually preoccupied with zeal for economic prosperity, saying that if they are linked to such huge opportunities staring at them in the emerging economic triangle, they would totally shun violence and focus on prosperity.
Mr China insisted that the emerging economic triangle would form a big node not only into the Gulf of Guinea economic zone but into Africa because AfCFTA is about production, certification, market availability, and easy transport nodes by sea and air. He said the new economic triangle boasts of all the factors.
“They can only realise this by working together, through collaboration. One state cannot do it but a triangle of the three will create it through seamless interconnection, ports, industrial park, etc. The people will be the richest and internally generated revenue (IGR) will be the biggest in the country,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu has sent the names of 32 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, days after he sent the first batch of three names.
Among them are the immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmud Yakubu, an aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri (Delta), and former Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, among others.
“In two separate letters to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, President Tinubu asked the Senate to consider and confirm expeditiously 15 nominees as career ambassadors and 17 nominees as non-career ambassadors,” read a statement on Saturday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement titled, ‘Tinubu nominates 32 additional ambassadors,’ Onanuga noted, “There are four women on the career ambassadors’ list and six women on the non-career ambassadors’ list.”
“Among the non-career ambassador designates are Ogbonnaya Kalu from Abia, a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri (Delta), former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmud Yakubu, former Ekiti first lady, Erelu Adebayo, and former Enugu governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
“Others are Tasiu Musa Maigari, the former speaker of the Katsina House of Assembly, Yakubu N. Gambo, a former Commissioner in Plateau State and former Deputy Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission.
“Professor Nora Ladi Daduut, a former senator from Plateau; Otunba Femi Pedro, a former Deputy Governor of Lagos State; Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister from Osun State; and Nkechi Ufochukwu from Anambra State are on the nomination list,” the statement read.
Also on the list are former First Lady of Oyo, Fatima Florence Ajimobi, former Lagos Commissioner, Lola Akande, former Adamawa Senator, Grace Bent, former governor of Abia, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, businessman, lawyer and Senator from Ondo State, and the former ambassador of Nigeria to the Holy See, Ambassador Paul Oga Adikwu from Benue State.
Among the nominees for career ambassador and high commissioner-designates are: Enebechi Monica Okwuchukwu (Abia), Yakubu Nyaku Danladi (Taraba), Miamuna Ibrahim Besto (Adamawa), Musa Musa Abubakar (Kebbi), Syndoph Paebi Endoni (Bayelsa), Chima Geoffrey Lioma David (Ebonyi) and Mopelola Adeola-Ibrahim (Ogun).
The other nominees are Abimbola Samuel Reuben (Ondo), Yvonne Ehinosen Odumah(Edo), Hamza Mohammed Salau (Niger), Ambassador Shehu Barde (Katsina), Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Monguno (Borno), Ambassador Muhammad Saidu Dahiru (Kaduna), Ambassador Olatunji Ahmed Sulu Gambari (Kwara) and Ambassador Wahab Adekola Akande (Osun).
“The new nominees are expected to be posted to countries with which Nigeria maintains excellent and strategic bilateral relations, such as China, India, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, South Africa, Kenya, and to Permanent Missions such as the United Nations, UNESCO, and the African Union.
“All the nominees will know their diplomatic assignments after their confirmation by the Senate,” it read.
Last week, Tinubu sent three ambassadorial nominees for screening and confirmation.
The nominees were Ambassador Ayodele Oke (Oyo), Ambassador Amin Mohammed Dalhatu (Jigawa), and Retired Colonel Lateef Kayode Are (Ogun).
All three are in the pot for posting to the UK, USA, or France after their confirmation.
“More nominees for ambassadorial positions will be announced soon,” Onanuga revealed.
The Secretary to Rivers State Government, Dr. Benibo Anabraba, has reiterated that the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara remains committed to improving access to quality education at all levels.
Dr. Anabraba gave the assurance while receiving the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan in Port Harcourt during a courtesy visit.
He emphasised that Governor Fubara remains resolute in sustaining investment in the education sector to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
According to him, “We appreciate the work you are doing and know that our students are amongst the highest in ranking.
“His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, takes education very seriously. He is sponsoring the free registration of students for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Government Schools.
“Also, Governor Fubara has approved the establishment of Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centres across the State’s three senatorial districts and the 23 LGAs. The project is intended to improve access to digital learning and examination facilities for students so that our children are at breast with digital literacy, a prerequisite for today’s students.
“We are currently working assiduously to get those centres, both mega and mini, across the three senatorial districts and the 23 local government ready in order to meet up with your deadline,” he said.
The SSG also conveyed the assurances of the Governor to WAEC on Government’s willingness in providing land for its Zonal Office.
Earlier, the Deputy Registrar/Zonal Coordinator of the West African Examination Council, Mr Ayanfemi Adeniran-Amusan, promised to collaborate with the State Government in matters concerning education development.
In another development, the Secretary to State Government, Dr Benibo Anabraba, also met with officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, led by the Assistant Director of Intelligence, Rivers State Command, Barr. Ikediashi Nwamaka.
The SSG while appreciating the Agency for its effort in the protection of vulnerable persons, also raised Government’s concern on the activities of orphanages and care homes in unwholesome practices such as child trafficking, abuse of underaged girls also known as baby-factory, and the lack of regulations on surrogacy.
He however assured that the Rivers State Government has already put plans in place towards legislation to regulate these acts against vulnerable persons, particularly women and children.
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