Ajaokuta now safe haven for terrorists

The rising activities of terrorists and other criminal elements in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State have put residents and travelers along that axis on edge, Daily Trust Saturday reports. Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State has become a nightmare for motorists, travellers and residents because of frightening cases of blood-letting in the […]

The rising activities of terrorists and other criminal elements in Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State have put residents and travelers along that axis on edge, Daily Trust Saturday reports.

Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi State has become a nightmare for motorists, travellers and residents because of frightening cases of blood-letting in the area recently.

Hoodlums are said to have laid siege to the area, unleashing terror on the people with impunity, visiting homes and inflicting pains and sorrows.

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Within a week, at least 14 people, including expatriates and policemen, were shot and killed, while many others were kidnapped for ransom, a situation that is causing uneasiness among people in the state and the country in general.

A motorist, Mallam Hassan Usman, who plies that route regularly, painted a gloomy picture of the situation, saying it was created by poverty and leadership failure.

“Poverty has taken over the land. A generation that is not ready to toil have resulted to terrorism and sharp practices to survive. The chemistry of it is being expressed in form of banditry, religious extremism and thuggery. 

“Our roads and homes are no longer safe. They have become safe havens for these terrorists in their attempt to survive the hardship of the time.

“Motorists feel it the most. These days, if one picks passengers, no matter how cheerful they are, on reaching Ajaokuta you will feel their uneasiness in their body language until one gets across the area. It is that bad,” he said.

Ajaokuta Local Government Area is bounded to the northeast by Lokoja, Bassa to northwest, Ofu Local Government to the east, and southwest by Okene and Adavi local government areas respectively. 

 

The lush vegetation that spreads through these local government areas and other states remains its albatross as hoodlums have reportedly taken over its forest and terrorising people.  For instance, the scrubs between Ajaokuta and Adogo spread via Okene at the River Niger bank up to Aganabode and Okpila in Edo State, a forest dreaded as a den of criminals and reported to be under security watch always.

Also, the iron and steel company, which was envisaged to serve as the bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation, is now in comatose, paving way for these idle hands to operate unchallenged.

It is believed that the area occupied by the steel company, which is bounded by a massive vegetation via Bassa, Dekina and Omalla, after River Niger and Benue, serves as a fertile ground for terrorists operating from the flank of Abuja and Nasarawa State to build their cell and unleash terror on Kogi State.

There is also a school of thought that politicians made the ground fertile for hoodlums to perpetrate their activities in that part of the state. It is believed that during elections, politicians arm some youths in their attempt to actualise their political bids, and afterwards, the affected youths are abandoned without especially retrieving the weapons from them.

“These boys who were used as bodyguards to prosecute their political ambitions have been offloaded into the society with their guns.  Their masters have abandoned them to their fate. And they are now using what they have to survive. 

“Unfortunately, the poverty-stricken society is their target, not their former pay masters,” Godwin Akintude said.

The peak of banditry in the area is the recent gruesome murder of 14 people between July 30 and August 6.

It was reported that gunmen ambushed some security men at Jidda-Bassa community in Ajaokuta community, killing three police officers and five vigilante members who responded to a distress call.

Fact later emerged that the slain security agents and vigilantes were on the trail of some hoodlums suspected to be into oil bunkering and hibernating in the bush close to the oil pipeline from South to the northern region.  

It was learnt that an informant of the bunkering group, who was monitoring the movement of the security operatives, alerted the hoodlums in the bush, who subsequently laid ambush and attacked them. The alleged informant was said to have been killed in the process.

Barely a week after that horrible incident, the gunmen struck again on the same route, killing six staff members of the West Africa Ceramics Company, Ajaokuta:   two expatriates, two police escorts and two drivers. The incident drew the ire of the state government, security chiefs and others.

A brother to one of the deceased drivers who condemned the incident said he communicated with his brother few minutes before he was killed. 

“I got the information of the death of my brother an hour after we talked. I learnt that he died about 15 minutes after our last call. It is quite unfortunate,” he lamented.

When Daily Trust Saturday visited the area, residents were afraid to talk to strangers for fear of the unknown.

It was observed that the company laying the gas pipeline from Ajaokuta to Kano was shut down for fear of attacks.

Also, the popular roadside yam and akara market that always calls the attention of motorists and travellers at Ajaokuta, located about 10 kilometers to the ceramic company, was seen operating at a very low frequency.

Daily Trust Saturday also reports that despite the presence of two soldiers that are keeping watch at a roadblock in the area, residents and passersby are gripped with fear. 

Also said to be heightening fear among residents is a reported kidnap of  a driver, one Kashim Musa and two of  his female  passengers from  Angwar-Muslimi at Anyigba in Dekina Local Government. The sum of N10 million was placed on them as ransom few days before the deadly attack. 

The plight of one Mr Abdazeez Siyaka, a ward attendant in a hospital operating in the area, who was alleged to have been shot around the Geregu power plant, located 2 kilometers to the scene of the previous attack on the road on August 6, is still a source of concern in the town.

Siyaka was said to have been abandoned by his abductors  because of excessive bleeding, but other occupants of  the car were taken to the bush. 

However, the Kogi State police command said its operatives were on top of the situation, assuring that the criminals operating in the area would soon be smashed and brought to book.

The public relations officer of the command, SP William, said the commissioner, Edward Egbuka, had visited the scene of the incident and accessed the security situation in the area, with the aim of frustrating the activities of the criminals terrorising the people.

“The commissioner of police, Kogi State command, Edward Egbuka, has visited the scene for an on-the-spot assessment. He equally ordered the deployment of additional operational assets, consisting of operatives of the Police Mobile Force, Counterterrorism Unit, Quick Response Unit, State Intelligence Bureau, in synergy with other security agencies, to restore normalcy in the area,” he said.

He also said the deputy commissioner of police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) had been ordered to commence investigation into the unfortunate incident to unravel the remote and immediate cause of the attack.

Also responding to the situation, Governor Yahaya Bello promised to protect the lives and property of citizens in the state, saying, “Enough is enough. The time for action against insurgency and other forms of insecurity in the country is now.”

The governor, who met traditional rulers, council chairmen and various interest groups and charged them not to rest on their oars in the battle against criminals in their domains, reiterated his commitment to ensure that the state is peaceful for the people to carry out their lawful business.

“I will do everything humanly possible to protect the lives and property of Nigerian citizens in Kogi State,” he said.

He called on lawmakers in the National Assembly to continue deliberating on issues of insecurity until proper action is taken against terrorists and other criminals across the country.

In response to the Jidda-Bassa attack, Governor Bello suspended the Ohi of Eganyi, Alhaji Musa Isah Achuja, and the Traditional Council, and queried the chairman of Ajaokuta Local Government, Mustapha Aka’aba, over the  security breach that led to the killing of three police officers and seven vigilantes  in their domain.

The governor advised monarchs in the state and council chairmen to sit up and ensure that their domains are free from terrorism, warning that the state government would not hesitate to deal decisively with any person,  no matter his  status, if found wanting in matters of security.