Throwing Spanners in their Works
By Abdulsalam Mahmud
The Boko Haram and Islamic State of West African Province, ISWAP, insurgency in our dear country has not lingered just like that. It is owing to the unpatriotic actions of some unscrupulous elements. Those who, deliberately, are sabotaging the efforts of our military in tackling Nigeria’s terrorism crisis.
A former National Security Adviser, NSA, retired Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi of blessed memory, sometime in 2012, attributed the escalation of the Boko Haram terrorism in the country (then) on the internal wranglings of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties, at the time.
In Asaba, the Delta State capital, during a South South Economic Summit event, where the nation’s security challenge was deliberated on, the late NSA (then) said that there is some level of political undertone to the (insurgency) carnage.
He also noted that the bombings, suicide attacks and jail breaks that were raging in the northern part of the country (then) “could be traced to the politics of exclusion of the PDP in the region.”
I have lost count of how many times the Nigerian military accused some unpatriotic citizens and perceived moles within its ranks of sabotaging its efforts towards effectively prosecuting the counter-insurgency war in the North East. May the soul of Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd) continue to rest in peace.
Badeh, a former Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, also, once lamented the mischievous antics of fifth columnists within the nation’s armed forces. He was quoted to have said, during his pulling out from the armed forces, that the effectiveness of the fight against Boko Haram was greatly hampered by fifth columnists within the military, who leaked sensitive information and operational plans to the terrorist sect.
Badeh, whose hometown of Mubi, in Adamawa State, was briefly captured by Boko Haram in 2014, explained that the activities of saboteurs within the military led to the unnecessary deaths of many soldiers and officers who unknowingly walked into ambushes laid by Boko Haram, with prior knowledge of troops movement.
“The activities of fifth columnists in the military and other security agencies who leaked operational plans and other sensitive military information to the terrorists, combined to make the fight against the insurgents particularly difficult. The activities of these unpatriotic members of the military not only blunted the effectiveness of the fight, but also led to the needless deaths of numerous officers and men who unwittingly fell into ambushes prepared by terrorists, who had advance warnings of the approach of such troops”.
Describing his task of coordinating the war against the insurgents as the “most complex and challenging assignment” of his 38-year-long career, the ex-Defence Chief (then) said he was saddled with the task of leading a military which lacked the “relevant equipment and motivation to fight an enemy that was invisible and embedded with the local populace”.
Furthermore, an investigation published by The Next Edition, an online newspaper, in 2018, also revealed that Nigerian security operatives are significantly sabotaging the government’s efforts to eliminate Boko Haram, as they aid the funnelling of huge volumes of petrol and other fuel products to the deadly group.
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“The newspaper, in its week-long investigation, reports that soldiers, police, customs, immigration and civil defense operatives frequently receive bribes and turn a blind eye as fuel marketers and smugglers divert truckloads of petrol and foodstuff to Boko Haram enclaves in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
“During interviews with security operatives, marketers and undercover exploration of the dark market, the newspaper obtained details of the well-coordinated transactions and is able to provide a glimpse into a largely unreported and unregulated operation that has clearly fed the insurgency in the Northeast and helped prolonged the nine-year war,” reads a part of the investigation, which was republished by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, ICIR.
One can say without any equivocation that the activities of anti-terrorism saboteurs persist because the federal government and other relevant institutions have failed to wield the big stick on identified culprits. That was why I was dazed when I also heard about the infamous role of the Nigerian Correctional Service, NCoS, in the saboteuring escapades hampering the counter-terrorism fight.
Speaking during a sectoral debate in the National Assembly, NASS, recently, the CDS, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, revealed that Boko Haram members held in prisons across the country still carry out their criminal operations, through the help of some prison warders.
According to Musa, some Boko Haram elements recently confessed how, from the prisons, they could plan operations and pass funds to the field, through the help of some prison warders. The confessions were made while the terrorists were being debriefed.
He said: “They passed funds across and we asked how. They told us they use some of the warders. We are not saying all of them are bad, but they use some of the warders’ accounts to transfer money and the deal is anybody whose account it is transferred shared it 50-50. Those are the challenges.”
It is gratifying that the federal government has taken necessary steps to bring some of the ‘agents of darkness’ sabotaging the terrorism war, to book. In the wake of Gen. Musa’s revelation, Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo ordered a probe into allegations of connivance between custodial personnel and terror inmates, to finance the operations of proscribed terrorist groups in some parts of the country.
The minister, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Babatunde Alao, condemned the unpatriotic act, directing the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa to investigate the disturbing allegation.
“The Minister has called for a speedy investigation into the matter, noting that any officer culpable or complicit in sabotaging the Nigerian Correctional Facility, and by extension the security of the country, shall face the full wrath of the law,” part of the statement reads.
At a time stakeholders are calling for effective synergy among security agencies and the military to bolster the counter-insurgency war, it is the most disturbing that some bad eggs, who are personnel of our para-military organisations, will be throwing spanners in the works of our armed forces. Whosoever the culprits are, a diligent investigation should be launched to fish them out swiftly.
They should be made to face the music. It would serve as a deterrence to the NCoS and other security agencies’ officers who may wish to toe the ignoble path. The right, and perfect time for all the encumbrances to the Nigerian military’s counter-terrorism mission, and general insecurity, to be cleared is now. Delay, as it is normally said in our local parlance, can be dangerous. No doubt!
*Mahmud is the Deputy Editor of PRNigeria, and wrote in via: [email protected].*
