How militia groups build-up arms in Nigeria

How militia groups build-up arms in Nigeria

Emeka Ibemere

 Either as Boko Haram, Odua’ People’s Congress (OPC), Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), or the Niger-Delta Militants, all are buying arms and ammunition waiting for the war day.

The news reports on arms and ammunition being discovered in almost all the six-geo political regions of the country would make Afghanistan run envy. But that is the reality on the ground

Since 2008, arms and ammunition have been entering into Nigeria with their attendant introduction into the hands of the restive youths, as if the country was at war.

 This indeed explains the perilous times under which Nigeria is going as one indivisible entity called nation- state.

 Accepted that the country is contending with assorted spate of insecurity, it seems the country has reached its last bus stop, as nation.

 Four days after a suicide bomber attacked the Saint Andrew Military Protestant Church, Jaji in Kaduna, Kaduna State, a combined team of soldiers and police on Thursday 29, November 2012 raided Kwanar Shahada, Jushin Ciki, Zaria, Kaduna, where a bomb making factory was uncovered.
The joint security team also arrested a sixty-year-old man, Umaru Mohammed within the raided premises and recovered Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs at stage one state of readiness to be used for bomb attack.
Briefing newsmen at the I Division Army Headquarters, Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman disclosed that during the operation, a two-bedroom bungalow of bomb making factory was discovered with several IEDs making components.
Other items recovered are; eleven primed suicide bombers vests, 36 primed IEDs in Bobo Juice cans, one military kit bag with support items such as hammer, cello tapes, saw and gums, one bag containing several sensors, twenty-five 9 volts Batteries, 17 sensor mechanical timers and two gallons of turkey oil brand with prepared IEDs.
Col. Usman however informed that both the sixty year old man and the items recovered are in the army custody at I Division, Army Headquarters, Kaduna.

For five years, the country has witnessed high level of security breaches, as it is presently going through troubled times.

Investigation revealed that the arms have been entering into the country unnoticed since 2007, such that the importations were coming into the country through seaports, airports, and various borders.

 It started with the British-based arms dealer, identified as Gary Hyde who was going trial in London, for allegedly helping an organized shipment of thousands of guns from China to Nigeria in 2007, without the necessary license.

The unfortunate thing about the arms shipment was that none of the government security agencies were aware of the deadly arms importation or people behind such arms and ammunition.

According to reports, about 80,000 rifles and pistols comprising 40,000 AK47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 9mm pistols and 32million rounds of ammunition were involved in the shipment.

  

It was gathered that Hyde carried out his part in the deals with his business partner Karl Kleberg, who is a German national.

The duo allegedly acted as middlemen between two Polish companies acting for the Nigerian buyers and Chinese companies.

More disturbing is the fact that no government agency has come to refute the claim that such arms were actually imported into the country or not. As if that was not enough, five men were arrested in Ghana early January, with truck loaded with guns and ammunition. The destination: Nigeria.

The merchants of war were arrested with a lorry of a seized soft drink that was laden with the illegally acquired weapons that included double-barreled shotguns and boxes of ammunition.

The arrest and seizures was sequel to a tip off garnered from intelligence reports that such weapons were headed to Nigeria. The haulage was discovered in Accra after intelligence reports had exposed it.

In October 2010, shipping containers labelled as building materials, which originated from Iran found its way to Nigeria. The arms said to be artillery rockets and other weapons, landed at the Apapa ports, in Lagos.

In November 2010, an arm shipment enroute Gambia from its destination in Iran were seized in Nigeria making analysts to begin to ask the question: why must Nigeria always serve as a route to ferry those illegal arms and ammunition?

Nigeria police force in Kano also impounded a large consignment of military uniform shipped into the country through the Nigeria/Niger Republic border in Kastina State.

The military uniforms were seized from a warehouse, close to the Kano Pillars Stadium in the Sabon Gari area of Kano State, and it was alleged to have been smuggled into the country. The police confirmed the arrest of some suspects in connection with the uniforms, pointing out that the police are interrogating them. It was gathered that the arrested suspects presented some documents indicating that the Ministry of Defence authorized the consignments.  

Also recall that the Kano/Jigawa command of Nigerian Customs Services also impounded large quantities of military uniform, comprising of Air Force uniform and army camouflage.

Customs’ agents at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), apprehended two suspects identified as Magaji Mohammed and Mohammed Auwal.

The Customs Area Comptroller, Kano/Jigawa Command, Sanusi Umar has since transferred the impounded uniforms and the suspects to the state police command.

Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, the former Lagos State Commissioner of Police in a telephone interview told Daily signpost that the dealers are exploiting the porousness of the border and the connivance of some politicians and their agents to allow some arms to enter Nigeria.

He traced the arms buildup to the past regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to him, politicians in 2007, who wanted power by all means used imported arms into the country and hired it out to their thugs to help them win election at all cost, so that they would continue their corruption run on the soul of the country.

“This is a creation of politicians and it started during Obasanjo’s administration. That is why there is total insecurity throughout the country, politicians use the arms and thugs to win election at all cost to continue with corruption”, Tsav stated.

“The situation is even worse now that President Goodluck Jonathan is in power because he is empowering his Niger-Delta Militants to acquire arms and silence who ever oppose him in 2015.”

 Most times, it was gathered that some customs officials after collecting alleged gratification served as escorts to the passage of such shipment to make sure that the preying eyes of some security officials from seeing them.

 Finding also shows that such illegal shipments are met to pass through the border at a time officials that would stop such practice are not on duty making it a leeway for business in illicit arms deal to triumph.

Illegal arm shipment has continued to be a source of huge challenge to security men who are in doubt as to where and how some of these arms found their way into the country.  It is embarrassing developments the rate at which militia groups, miscreants and recently Boko Haram sects has access to lethal weapons of mass destruction to perpetrate their threats.

The arms entering into the country points to the ominous sign of dissidents warming up for war. Investigations and reports are pointing figures to

political class who after losing out at elections indulge in arm importation to equip their thugs for maximum opposition against the party at the centre.

The thugs armed with the weapons created phony groups and militia gangs and backed by their influential and wealthy political godfathers launched an unprecedented attack on innocent citizens just to make the government ‘ungovernable’.

Close to it was when the President raised an alarm that Boko Haram members have infiltrated his government, the army, the police and other security agencies. Just few days ago, Commissioner of police in the Federal Capital (FCT), Abuja Zakari Biu has been suspended for the alleged escape of the December Day bombing suspect in his custody.

As serious as these allegations are, one thing that stood out remains that the country is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

It’s more worrisome when in the last few years, the number of arms seizure that has been made across the country leaves one in doubt as to where the country is headed. 

With the level of insecurity in the country at the moment, the country cannot afford to accommodate all manners of illegal possession of firearms as this could exacerbate the already bad situation especially now that the country is going tough security problems.

‘The suspicion is that when illegal weapons flood the nooks and crannies of the country, there is the temptation that lawbreakers might have access to those weapons and use it against the peaceful co-existence of the country’s jarring unity’. Madu Ekwueme, social commentator stated.

It would be the most unfortunate incident of history to see the country gradually sliding into a dumping ground for all shapes and sizes of illegally possessed weapons.

According to some security analyst, ‘what we are witnessing in terms of arms proliferation today is principally due to the decadent nature of politicians who would stop at nothing to wrestle political power in order to gain political ascendancy and societal relevance whether right or wrong’. He said.

 ‘When the centre can no longer hold and out of desperation to get power, politicians resort to all instrumentality of power to get something worthwhile from it including using thugs that must be armed to gain what they deserves’. Abiola Johnson observed.

At different forum, there have been several discussions on the porousness of the Nigerian border which makes it possible for illegal aliens to sneak into the country without been detected by the Nigerian Immigration Service. Investigation indicates that such importations of arms into the country might have foreign sponsors who might not wish the country well.

There have been so many predications that Nigeria entity would collapse in 2015 and since after the predictions, it has been one problem to another.

Implicitly, concerned Nigerians have expressed worry over the importation of arms into Nigeria.

According to a survey, the Nigeria/Benin Republic border post in Seme has over 30 other illegal routes known to some Customs and Immigration officers.

 An impeccable source told that such routes serve as ‘viable illegal toll gates’ for the security officers to rake dubious money at the security expense of the country’s unity and co-existence.

Last year, during the Chief of Army Staff, media briefing as part of the event marking the 2011 Army Day celebration (NADCEL), COAS said one of the ways to check the proliferation of illegal weapons been used by the Boko Haram sects and other criminals in the country was for the Nigerian Immigration and Customs service to be proactive in their surveillance and checks. He said it would deter criminals from using the ‘porous border as conduit’ pipes for arms trafficking and proliferation into Nigeria.

In Niger Delta, despite the voluntary submission of illegal arms following the federal government’s amnesty programme granted to the ex-militant, there are still fears that pockets of arms are still in the hands of some militants predisposing the region to serious security threats.

Analysts are of the view that there was desperate need to mop up such arms before it is too late as some of them so claimed repentant militants might in the future be compelled to go back into the creeks, using uncovered arms as motivating factor.

Studies also show that most of the arms ferried into the country come through waterways.

As it is, it behoves on the federal government and other security agencies to hold the International shipping company based in France, CMA CGM, and other shipping agencies responsible for illegal arms brought into the country through their company.

 Until the federal government in stronger terms start prosecuting individuals responsible for arms importation irrespective of their political affiliations or persuasions, the journey to ending illegal arms shipping into Nigeria will continue.