The security challenges currently bedevilling Nigeria will soon become a thing of the past, the Service Chiefs and Inspector-General of Police Alkali Baba Usman have assured.
The Service Chiefs, led by the Chief of Defence Staff General Leo Irabor and heads of other National Security Agencies like the Department of State Security ( DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), gave the assurance during a situation report interface they had with the Senate Thursday.
And in the midst of all this, the criminal elements continued with their dastardly acts killing two Police Inspectors in Anambra and abducting some students of the Abia State University (ABSU) Uturu even as two of the students escaped unhurt.
This is just as popular Muslim cleric; Sheikh Ahmad Gumi assured that the remaining abducted Greenfield University students in Kaduna would soon regain their freedom.
Interface at Senate
After the interface between the service chiefs and the Senate which lasted about four hours behind closed doors, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said submissions made by the security chiefs showed the problems were being confronted head-on.
He said: “At the closed door session the Senate had with the Service Chiefs, desire, design and determination of the various security agencies in addressing the security situation, were explained to the satisfaction of all Senators around.
“Challenges confronting them were also tabled as well as required interventions needed.”
Earlier before the closed door session, Senate President Lawan had lamented that though the security agencies were doing their best in containing the security situation in the country, optimal results were not being achieved due to inadequate resources.
“You are doing your best in providing security for Nigeria and Nigerians in an extremely difficult situation, the very reason this Parliament is ever ready to make the necessary interventions required.
“The Senate and by extension, the National Assembly, is ready to give expeditious consideration to whatever supplementary budget is presented by the executive in this regard because the environment must be stabilised for Nigeria to be a hub of foreign and local investments,” he said.
Shedding more lights on what transpired at the closed door session at a media briefing , Senate’s spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru (APC Osun Central)said: “After listening to the briefings, I personally became upbeat that a lot of work had gone into addressing the problem of insecurity and from the various perspectives that were brought into the discussion which is very frank, clear and without any form of duplicity, it became very clear that Nigerian security agencies are not only looking at the internal dimension of the challenge we have, we look at all ramifications both in terms of the political context, economic context and international context to the development.
“There were even perspectives as to what happened recently in Chad, also considered. So it is a very thorough discussion and I also believe that the forthrightness of the leadership of the security agencies showed the seriousness that they attached to that exercise.
“So, I believe that going forward, the confidence has been built between the security chiefs on one hand and the Nigerian parliament on the other hand and that would be a good signal of what we expect in the future.”
Gunmen strike in Abia
Meanwhile, gunmen have abducted unspecified number of students of ABSU Uturu, with two of the students lucky to have escaped.
Blueprint gathered that the victims were abducted when the gunmen stopped the mini bus conveying them from Okigwe in Imo state to Uturu.
The incident, which occurred between the hours of 007/008 Wednesday, had already thrown the varsity community into the mood of anguish.
Confirming the development in an interview with journalists, the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr John Okiyi-Kalu, said the students were attacked by gunmen in Imo state and not Abia state as being spread on both the social and mainstream media.
While saying the Abia state government was monitoring development, the commissioner further disclosed that “when they (students) ran into the armed gang who marched them into the nearby forest along with others yet to be identified travellers, two of the students managed to escape from the hoodlums while others are still being held at a yet-to-be identified location.
“We are working with the government of Imo state and relevant security agencies in both states to ensure the rescue of the abducted students and others.
“Members of the public and ABSU community are advised to remain calm as we will spare no resource in ensuring the safety of the victims.
“No criminal operating within our environment will be allowed to escape justice as we take the job of protecting lives and property of Abians and visitors to the State very seriously,” he said.
Anambra
And from Anambra state, there are reports that some hoodlums also killed two Police Inspectors Thursday in an attack on Obosi Police Station, located in Idemili North local government area of the state.
Before fleeing the scene, the perpetrators destroyed Police vehicles and set the station ablaze.
Spokesperson of the state Police command, Ikenga Tochukwu confirmed the incident, saying “two of our officers sustained gunshot injuries, and as a result of that they paid the supreme price.”
He said the command had deployed a crack team of detectives led by an assistant commissioner of Police to the scene of the crime to conduct an on-the-spot assessment and investigation into the incident.
The Police spokesman described the attacks on their stations in the state as a call for more work in order to secure lives and properties in the state.
Sheikh Gumi assures
Also in a related development, Sheikh Gumi has stated that negotiation is ongoing with the abductors to ensure release of the remaining 16 students of Greenfield University, Kasarami, Kaduna, having convinced the gunmen not to kill any of the students.
After killing five of the students, the kidnappers had threatened to kill the remaining students, if their demands were not met.
But Gumi assured of their safety when parents of the recently released Afaka students paid him a ‘thank you visit’ Thursday for his role in securing their children’s release.
The parents, who were led by their chairman and secretary of their association, Usman Abdullahi and Friday Sanni respectively, thanked the Islamic cleric and begged him to help convey their appreciation to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who worked alongside the cleric in the struggle to bring back their children from the bandits’ den.
Fielding questions from journalists after the visit, Sheikh Gumi said:”The role myself and former President Olusegun Obasanjo played in the release of the 27 Afaka students is the role of mediators, because the fight is not between us and them, but between the bandits and the government.
“What we understand is that these people are trying to attack the government by attacking the government institutions and taking innocent children. Having understood that, we came to the conclusion that, this is not a hopeless situation; we can really go in and negotiate for the release of these children which we did after so much ups and downs.
“But in the long run, a conclusion was reached and these children are out. So, we are happy that all of them are out and none was killed.
“The talk with the Greenfield University students’ abductors is also going on, because we are concerned about them too. You know they threatened to kill all of them after a particular deadline, but after talking to them, they are now lowering their bar.
“So, we are thankful they have stopped killing the students. And we are still negotiating with them. I hope this Afaka case will also encourage people to know that there is hope in negotiation to release the children,” Gumi said.
When asked about the reported swap of bandit for the Afaka students, Sheikh Gumi neither confirmed nor denied it.
“I cannot confirm that, but I can quote the Governor of Kaduna state when the children of Chibok were kidnapped by Boko Haram, he said ‘it is the duty of the government to use whatever means possible to save the lives of Chibok girls’.
“This is a general rule that life is more precious. Now, I am happy that 27 lives have been saved,” the Islamic scholar said.
South Korean envoy
But giving the hope of possible way out of the challenges, South Korean Ambassador to Nigeria Young-Chae Kim said Nigerians and their neighbours can deal decisively with lingering insecurity issues bedevilling their country.
The envoy spoke at a media parley marking his 100 days in Abuja.
He said Nigeria, like any other country, has the primary duty of securing its territory.
Ambassador Kim however expressed his country’s readiness to equally collaborate with Nigeria to further resolve the security problem.
He said: “Insecurity affects every aspect of life. To resolve the problem Nigeria needs international cooperation largely with its neighbouring countries. Nigeria needs to make peace in the region to enhance security.”
“Our military is number six in the world in military defence, and number 6 in the globe in military spending. Our new defence attaché, the first after a long time is strengthening Korea’s relationship with the Nigeria’s defence team,” he said.
Kim said the proposed defence collaboration initiated by his predecessor, Lee In Tae (rtd), “demands one-on-one dialogue with both nations’ ministers of defence to set out modalities, and a scheduled invitation of Nigeria’s ministry of defence to Korea later in the year.”
On business, the Korean envoy said the falling prices of oil and gas, delay in ports and shipping costs had negatively impacted bilateral trade between Korea and Nigeria.
He said the volume of trade between Korea and Nigeria fell from $4.6b in 2017 to $1.2bn in 2020 as a result of the decrease of the prices of oil and gas.
Kim also noted that the month-long delay in ports of exported and imported goods in and outside of Nigeria, in addition to the expensive shipping costs contributed to the steady decrease in trade between both countries in the past few years.
“Our survey of Korean companies on other obstacles to bilateral trade indicated that delays in the Apapa Port where they had to wait for a month to export products out of Nigeria, and another month’s wait on the sea to import their products into Nigeria are major challenges. These, and also the rise in shipping costs affect the competitiveness of Nigeria’s products negatively.
“We have to ensure that export-import is done by the private sector and not by government. Government should be just middlemen, the facilitators. We have to make sure that private companies can do this easily; and that when they export ensure the shipping is efficient,” the envoy further said.
The ambassador also revealed that as part of bilateral cooperation with Nigeria, Korea has embarked on a trilateral cooperation project with Katsina state farmers and Dangote Group in rice production.
