When Kogi turned the tide against kidnappers, robbers

A task force mobilised by the Kogi State government has so far demolished not less than 15 structures owned or used by suspected kidnappers and robbery kingpins in five towns in the Kogi Central senatorial district. The exercise began mid March in Okene. Some of the suspected kidnappers took great care to avoid ostentatious lifestyles […]

A task force mobilised by the Kogi State government has so far demolished not less than 15 structures owned or used by suspected kidnappers and robbery kingpins in five towns in the Kogi Central senatorial district. The exercise began mid March in Okene.

Some of the suspected kidnappers took great care to avoid ostentatious lifestyles that could draw attention to them. But some were not so careful and their wealth showed; hence many in the communities had to ask questions about the sources of such wealth. The suspects were exposed following the recent move by the authorities.

Among those who masked their wealth successfully was one famously called Malam, a hospital lab attendant. A resident said, “Malam looked like the kind you would not want to collect change from when you paid him for the services at the hospital. You would feel he needed the change to help his life. I was shocked when it was later revealed that his bank account contained N30 million.” 

The revelation on Malam came after he was picked up and paraded along with 16 others by the military on February 23, 2017.

Also paraded that day was one Alhaji Tijani Bakare, who was different in many ways from Malam. Bakare was clearly rich and lived in a neat apartment with exotic cars at Okoro, a hillside community around the Onyunkoko ward, east of Okene.

One of his neighbours who spoke in confidence said, “Everyone knew him to be financially comfortable; and not a few wondered where his money was coming from. But we did not guess that he was a kidnapper until now.” He added that the suspect was seeking to become the head of his clan, Akuta.

Speaking during the parade of the suspected kidnappers in Lokoja, Governor Yahaya Bello vowed that all the houses where the suspected criminals were arrested would be demolished. This, he said, would show that his government was not prepared to condone crime. 

Since then, a mosque and various houses and other properties in Okene, Ogaminana, Ihima, Eika and Egge, have been destroyed.

The Ahlul-Sunnah Mosque in Inike, widely believed to have been hijacked in 2015 by members of the Boko Haram sect, which security agents earlier raided in October that year, was the first to be demolished. On March 14, 2017, the bulldozers moved from the mosque to Tijani Bakare’s house at Oyunkoko. The house was pulled down while other properties, including four choice cars, were destroyed. 

The demolition squad later moved to Ogaminana, Adavi Local Government Area, where they pulled down properties that included a business enterprise of one of the arrested suspects. They also went to Ihima, Okehi Local Government Area, where four properties, including a house and a hotel owned by a suspected gang leader, Lamidi, alias Oyiekehi Opozuei, were leveled.

At Okengwe in Okene Local Government Area, the house of one infamous character widely called Dollar Mopol, was pulled down. He was killed in November 2016 during a gun duel with security agents. Although Dollar Mopol was killed, some of his boys who were arrested confessed that they still used the house as an armoury. On Thursday, March 23, at Egge in Adavi Local Government Area, a house from which arms were recovered, was also demolished.

Forest and urban kidnappers

The chairman of Abobo Community Development Association, Mr James Yusuf, told Daily Trust on Sunday in an interview that crime in the area and neigbouring Osara heightened in 2012. Abobo is the host community of the Itakpe Iron Ore Mining Company.

“Kidnapping and armed robbery attained the notoriety we know it today five years ago following the migration of Fulani herders from Benue communities. They also encouraged indigenous elements to participate in kidnapping and highway robbery.  We later discovered that we had variants: forest and urban kidnappers. Forest kidnappers are Fulani people who come to the highways along communities like Abobo and Osara, abduct their victims and return to their hideouts in the forest,” Yusuf said.

Two traditional rulers in Ajaokuta Local Government Area were kidnapped between May and December last year. The Ehtu Alaite, Aminu Akuh was kidnapped on May 20 and released on May 25, 2016. The paramount ruler of Eganyi, Musa Isah Achuja, who was kidnapped on December 31, 2016 and released four days later, allegedly fell into the hands of the ‘forest kidnappers.’ 

Achuja, who was taken away as he travelled on the Ajaokuta-Lokoja highway, recounted his experience in the hands of his abductors. He said the forest, which spanned Ajaokuta, Abobo, Zariaji and Obajana, was comparable in many respects to the infamous Sambisa in the North-East.

The chairman of Abobo Community Development Association, Yusuf, a retired police officer, said the ‘urban kidnappers’ usually carried out their activities around the Kogi Central towns, with Okene as the centre. 

“They seize their targets from the streets and homes and take them to their hideouts, which are mostly houses of their members,” he explained.

He further said, “Not everyone has the inclination to wait for the result of efforts. Not many can withstand the rigours of not having a regular means of livelihood without turning to these things that now give us a bad name. This is where government comes in, not necessarily by creating white collar jobs but by empowering people to try things on their own.”

A source in Okene identified a third variant of kidnappers, comprising members of Ebira locals and their Fulani counterparts. “Many prominent residents who have been picked from their homes in Okene and surrounding communities have been Fulani-speaking individuals. They are known to be working hand-in-hand with their Ebira partners who man their kidnapping cells, receive the victims and handle ransom negotiations. Ebira folks who fear that they could be easily identified should they come into town to do the actual picking up of victims, stay in their hideouts while the Fulani members come out,” the source said.

A prominent traditional ruler holds the opinion that events in far away Libya during the Muammar Gaddafi era have a bearing on the happenings around the Kogi Central. 

The Ohi of Ihima, Alhaji Ahmed Abdulraheem, told Daily Trust on Sunday, “Many of our youths went to Libya in the 1970s and 1980s and trained for engagement under Gaddafi. After Gaddafi died in the late 2011, they started returning home. These crimes, which were strange to us, became common around 2012.”

Boko Haram connection

With specific reference to deadly attacks, political leaders and security agencies had, until recently, denied Boko Haram influence. They made it look like it was only armed robbers, cultists, kidnappers or miscreants that were wreaking all the havoc.

Credible sources said relevant authorities were fully aware that many of the attacks were actually perpetrated by Boko Haram insurgents with ‘solid roots’ in Kogi State.

“One of the reasons is that Kogi is in the centre and if authorities admitted that Boko Haram insurgents were there, the tension would be very high,” a security source said.

Many Boko Haram commanders and footsoldiers from Kogi State had been with the group long before they took up arms against the Federal Government of Nigeria.

While some Boko Haram elements who are indigenes of Kogi State established schools and mosques in parts of the state and engaged in propagating the ideals of the founder of the group, Mohammed Yusuf, many others lived in Maiduguri, the epicentre of the violence. Many fighters of the group, who are not necessarily indigenes of the state, had at the height of the crisis, seen Kogi as a safe haven, and therefore, relocated there from the North-East. 

At a time, an indigene of the state, Mohammed Shaibu, was on the seat of the Shura Council (highest decision making body of the group). Shaibu was using the nom de guerre, Abu Dardaa, Mohammed Bello Abdullahi, Abu Taimiyya, Abdulrahim Abdullahi and much later, Abul Qaqa when the first Qaqa was killed by security forces in 2011. 

During his fame in Boko Haram, Qaqa, who was a nurse by profession, based in Maiduguri and served as the chief communication officer and later, commander of strategic planning. Before his arrest on February 1, 2012, he was instrumental to many attacks, formation of many cells in the North-East and establishment of camps and recruitment of hundreds of youths from Kogi and other states.

In April 2016, Nigerian security forces made another landmark arrest in Lokoja. Khalid Albarnawi, the second in command to Abubakar Shekau was arrested.

Though an indigene of Borno State, Al-Barnawi was known as a notorious terrorist who perfected many deadly attacks. He was arrested at a military barracks in Lokoja, where he went to attend to the naming ceremony of his new baby. He had taken his wife to the military barracks to stay with his younger sister who was married to a soldier. It was said that the soldier did not know that Qaqa was a terrorist. 

The Al-Sunnah sect 

The mosque at Inike, the first property that went down in the wave of demolition in Kogi Central, was the property of a faction of the Al-Sunnah sect. The mosque became the scene of a bloody confrontation between sect members and the military in 2015 when their 15 members were killed. The gun battle followed a long time of suspicion that the sect members were involved in violent activities. 

Since then, they have been in conflict with security agents. Such encounters were highlights of the activities of the growing threats of the group of youths, said to be a splinter faction of a bigger Al-Sunnah sect, founded in 1985 by one Sadiq Omuya. The sect established itself from the beginning as strict believers in its own principles. 

The teachings of the sect brought it to constant conflict with other sects. They became increasingly associated with criminal activities.

Way out

It is said in some quarters that kidnapping and armed robbery continued in Kogi Central for several years because past governments were not decisive. To this end, Governor Bello has been hailed for the steps he has taken so far. Some of the steps are the provision of logistics to security agencies, creating a crime bursting outfit for his Operation Total Freedom, and destroying properties put up from the proceeds of crime.

Speaking on the current efforts of the state government, the security adviser to the governor, Commander Jerry Omodara (retired), said the launch of Operation Total Freedom had enabled them to achieve a great level of success in addressing the menace.

“We are reviewing our security strategies. In less than two weeks we will also be graduating 500 vigilantes who have been properly trained to handle the issues of security in their localities. After that, we are going to train another 500, then another 500 to work alongside with other security agencies,” he said. 

Also speaking, the new commissioner of police, Kogi State command, Mr Wilson Inalegwu, promised to collaborate with all critical stakeholders to make Kogi safe.