TACKLING INSECURITY IN THE SOUTH-EAST

The authorities will have to do something drastic to stem the illegal flow of arms and ammunition into the country

Prompted by the deteriorating security situation in the South-East, governors of the region last week in Owerri, Imo State capital, launched a joint security outfit codenamed Ebube Agu to tackle increasing criminality. The security outfit was coming a year after the South-West governors launched the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Operation Amotekun, in Ibadan, Oyo State capital. But the South-east governors are already on collision course with the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that has rejected the idea, warning Igbo youths not to enlist. Meanwhile, it is the reluctance of President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference that has made all these regional attempts at providing security a pleasing alternative to the much more desired restructuring of the Nigerian federation. The conference had recommended several steps that would devolve many of the responsibilities on the exclusive list to the concurrent list in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) so that the states and local governments could appropriate and deliver on them for the betterment of their people.

Before the response by the South-east governors, some gunmen wielding explosives and rockets had blasted their way into Owerri prison and freed some 1800 inmates. These criminal gangs also invaded the State Police Headquarters, looted the armoury, torched the building and dozens of vehicles within the vicinity. Even though the operation lasted for about two hours, the criminals were practically unchallenged. “This incident is cowardly,” said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. “An attack on institutions of law and order is an attack on the well-being of the citizens.” President Muhammadu Buhari described it as an “act of terrorism.”

The challenge of insecurity in the South-east is quite enormous. On 29th March, some suspected herders wielding machetes and AK-47 rifles invaded four communities in Ishielu local council of Ebonyi State and killed about 15 innocent persons. The Ishielu incident came barely 24 hours after some unknown gunmen had attacked Adani, in Uzo-Uwani local government of Enugu State where some six people were brutally murdered. Within the same period, three policemen were also killed by gunmen in Aguata Local Council, Anambra State, where an APGA governorship aspirant and former Central Bank Governor, Chukwuma Soludo was holding a townhall meeting.

Each of these attacks is a catastrophe. Taken together, they make for something much worse. The former Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu blamed the attack on the banned IPOB, a claim initially accepted by the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma before curiously transferring the blame to his ‘political opponents.’ In the midst of the pervading blame game and confusion, a faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation said the increasing insecurity in the South-east may just be confirmation of a recent warning by the American security agency that the “bandits” ravaging the north are heading south to disrupt peaceful territories and unleash violence, especially in the South-east.

While the country can ill-afford another front for uncontrollable violence, in the present chaotic state, anything is possible. Nigeria is already violence writ large, afflicted by decade-long Islamic insurgency, kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, all manner of criminality. The violence is partly driven by the proliferation of small arms and ammunition. Indeed, the level of insecurity and conflicts across the nation highlights the prevalence of weapons in the hands of non-state actors. Only recently, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar expressed deep concern over the proliferation of all calibre of weapons in the country. Abubakar, who chairs the National Peace Committee, said the arms and ammunition in the hands of non-state actors are about 12 times those in the hands of law enforcement agents, an assertion corroborated by SBM Intelligence report. The increasing wave of bloody violence across the country can be traced partly to the ease to small and light weapons (SALWs) by some unscrupulous elements.

With the inability of federal authorities to contain spreading violence in the country, the idea of geopolitical regions pooling resources together to form security networks is a clarion call that we must tinker with the current suffocating structure that is more unitary than federal.

The increasing wave of bloody violence across the country can be traced partly to the ease to small and light weapons by some unscrupulous elements