The growing criminal enterprise that accounts for the loss of hundreds of lives daily, displaces millions of people, women and children face abuse while towns and villages are unsettled by bombardment and ransacked by terrorist groups with a majority of Fulani militia, better known as armed bandits, appears to overshadow Nigerian security, despite injecting millions to fund both the armed forces and the paramilitaries in Nigeria.
The deadly and heartless attacks launched within a week in Kaduna state may prove to be a total loss of control in securing the lives and property of citizens, including the government and its property.
It has become routine for bandits to attack villages or block highways, especially those plying Abuja-Kaduna, Kaduna-Zaria, and the most terrorized Kaduna-Birnin Gwari expressway, to kidnap dozens of travelers while demanding ransom with a death threat to the victims’ families.
In the absence of seaports, the two alternative lines for inter-state journeys linking Kaduna to other parts of the country are the Abuja-Kaduna train and the available local flights from the Kaduna international airport, which has now become a death trap, leaving Kaduna residents and visitors in total dismay.
The Horo Days of Bloodshed Amidst Bomb Returns In Kaduna
On March 28th, 2021, came a dark cloud over an attack on 398 passengers who boarded a train from Abuja around 6 pm, hoping to arrive in Kaduna by 8:40 pm.
A confirmed report proves that the terrorist groups have mounted highly explosive bombs that damage the rail track and locomotives to pave the way for their terror attack on innocent civilians boarded on the Abuja-Kaduna train.
Nearly nine passengers lost their lives at the scene after the terrorist fired several bullets at them. About twenty-nine people sustained numerous injuries, while an unspecified number of people are still missing, as the attackers succeeded in mass abduction.
This comes 48 hours after a terrorist group’s attack at the Kaduna International Airport, where the terrorist attempted to open fire on Azman aircraft, but was repulsed by Nigerian troops, resulting in the loss of NAMA staff after sustaining gunshot wounds.
Many airlines have announced the suspension of operations at the Kaduna airport due to escalating insecurity. Despite the assurance of the Nigerian troops who surrounded the vicinity of the international airport with the Nigerian Airforce base and the Nigerian Defence Academy, sharing the borderline and local government area.
In another report, Daily Episode gathered that the terrorist groups had killed no fewer than fifty (50) people in a fresh attack launched on the villages of Giwa local government area.
A police report confirmed the incidents only that ASP Mohammed Jalinge did not give exact figures, as the authorities were compiling the numbers of the slain and abducted victims, he said.
Although a report from the Guardian Nigeria quoted a local vigilante simply identified as Mansur Ibrahim, confirmed that no fewer than 100 cows were rustled as many houses, motorcycles, and vehicles were also burnt during the attacks on the affected villages of Zango Tama, Durumi, Anguwan Bakko, Dillalai, Gidan Alhajin Kida, Kadanya, and others in the Giwa local government area of Kaduna state.
However, communities like Kabala in Kaduna south, Hayin Danmani, and Hayin Rigasa in Igabi local government area have witnessed bomb explosions, and security operatives detected and deactivated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
Two people, including Rabi’atu Ibrahim and the suspect, sustained injuries, but no lives were lost from both explosions in the two communities.
Victims’ Accounts
The Nigerian vice president, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, who visited Kaduna to commiserate with the victims of the heinous attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, promised victims medical assistance while commending the efforts of the Malam Nasir Ahmed El-rufai-led administration and Nigerian troops in repelling the attacks and evacuating the injured victims for emergency medical treatment.
One Fatima Said, who spoke to Daily Episode about her ordeal, denied receiving state or federal government assistance with her medical bills, as stated by the vice president during his visit to the state.
Fatima, who was discharged on March 30th from St. Gerard’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna, revealed how the bandits operated for close to an hour, killing and kidnapping several people.
Before the arrival of the Nigerian troops, the bandits loaded the abducted people onto a bus and a motorcycle. However, the troops succeeded in rescuing many people while rushing some to the St. Gerard’s Catholic Hospital and 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospitals in Kaduna.
“Recounting the Death of Dr. Chinelo”
Nigerians mourn the victims who were brutally killed in the terror attack. But for Dr. Chinelo, who saw it coming while she tweeted a request for prayer announcing that a terrorist shot her,
Many regretted mocking her with different words, some calling her a liar before her demise, the whole country mourned and prayed for her departed soul, and many others shortly after the news of her death.
Protesting Citizens in Demand
Nigerians have agitated with regret to vote for the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and APC as a political party, but like many other times, security operatives usually prevented Nigerians from exercising the right to protest the bloodshed and mass killing.
When some selected groups of people in northern Nigeria staged a protest in demand for the government to end killings, kidnappings, cattle rustling, and ransacking of villages in the region, many of the organizers were questioned by the Nigerian security forces in a demand to either stop or protest under certain conditions.
However, Abba Hikima, a Nigerian lawyer who led the #SecureNorth protest in Kano, claimed that Nigerians do not need permission from the police, DSS, or any other security agency before exercising their right to protest.
Similarly, a protest against police brutality with the hashtag #EndSARS turned bloody when protesters claimed Nigerian troops opened fire on them at the Leki toll gate in Lagos, a state in southwestern Nigeria.