Emeka Ibemere
In its bid
to assist Nigeria overcome the threats posed by incessant insurgency in the
country, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, recently took some
Nigerians to classroom in an effort to strengthening capacity for
counter-terrorism efforts in Nigeria.
Its on
record the Nigeria has suffered more terror attacks, most of the time on daily
basis since the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari mounted the saddle
as the President since May 29, 2015 handover party.
Two bomb
attacks on the city of Jos have left up to 67 people dead on Sunday in a recent
surge of attacks by the Islamist militant group. President Buhari vowed to
stamp out the group in his inauguration address just over a month ago.
Since May 30
to July 18 it has been one bomb attack to another culminating into the sacking
of the service chiefs and appointment of another batch of security chiefs in
the country.
It would be
recalled that on June 12 there were several days of night-time raids on six
remote villages that left at least 37 people dead in North-eastern Nigeria.
June 16 – a twin suicide- bomb attacks in Chad capital - twin suicide bombings
blamed on Boko Haram jihadists killed 24 people and wounded more than 100 in
the first such attacks in Chad's capital N'Djamena. That Monday's attacks,
which targeted the police headquarters and a police academy, were the first in
the capital. On June 17, the Chad bans Burqa's and tinted Cars - Chad and
banned people from wearing the full-face veil, following two suicide bomb
attacks.
They also banned vehicles with tinted windows.
June 22, Maiduguri Mosque bombing latter took place and 30 killed at crowded
mosque by two young female suicide bombers.
Boko Haram
marks the start of Ramadan by targeting a mosque that they see as falling short
in following 'The Prophet'. The second teen appeared to run away and blew up
further away, killing only herself, eyewitnesses said.
July 1 and 2nd, there was a
Mosque massacres by Boko Haram militants who attacked multiple mosques between
July the two days.
Forty-eight
men and boys were killed on the 1st at one mosque in Kukawa while 17 were
wounded in the attack. 97 others, mostly men, were also killed in numerous
mosques on the 2nd with a number of women and young girls killed in their
homes. An unknown number were wounded. As that wasn’t enough, on July 5, a
suicide bomber attacks a church in the Potiskum area of Yobe State, killing
five.
July 6 explosions
at a mosque and a Muslim restaurant in the Jos left scores dead, in an attack
being blamed on Boko Haram and that promises Nigeria's continued conflict with
the militant group under new President Muhammadu Buhari now in his second month
in office.
Reports said
the mosque bombing appeared to be targeted at a leading cleric Sani Yahaya of
the Jama'atu Izalatul Bidia organization. The group advocates peace between
faiths. Mr. Yahaya was said to be preaching to a crowded congregation in Jos
when the attack took place, involving both gunfire and a suicide bomber but
that Yahaya survived the bombing.
The second
attack took place at the Shagalinku restaurant, which is a regular place for
the state politicians and elite figures. The restaurant was full of people when
the bomb exploded, just after the break of the daily fast during Ramadan.
National Emergency Management Agency told said
that 23 were killed at the restaurant and 21 at the mosque. It was reported
that at least 67 more were injured. The Islamic militant group Boko Haram has
waged a years-long campaign against the Nigerian government.
The group is
based in the northeast where it captured a large swath of territory last year;
it has since been beaten back severely by multinational forces during former
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
President
Buhari, who was sworn in just over two months ago, and during his campaign, he
promised to defeat the goons and that fighting insurgency was going to top
priority of his administration.
Since Boko Haram had said explicitly that its
aim was to create conditions to remove previous Nigerian president Goodluck
Jonathan from office. President Jonathan is a Christian from the south; however
hopes remain that the group may slowly reduce its terror tactics during Buhari,
who is a Muslim but to no avail.
Yet Boko
Haram over the two months has been more deadly. Since the last days of June, it
launched several suicide bombings and gun attacks on sites in the northeast
Nigeria, leaving more than 500 dead. Buhari called the spate of violence a
"heinous atrocity."
Based on the
aforementioned cases, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last
week trained 640 Nigerians in different aspects of anti-terrorism intervention
to boost the national response to terrorism and multi-dimensional security
threats in the country.
Drawn from
33 organizations, beneficiaries of the training will serve as in-country
counter-terrorism national officials. The training was conducted over a
20-month period, with funds provided by the European Union under the framework
of the Nigeria-EU-UNODC-CTED Partnership on Strengthening Criminal Justice
Responses for Multidimensional Security. Trainees included investigators,
prosecutors, and legal advisers of relevant government agencies, law
enforcement agencies, and judges of the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal,
and Supreme Court. Speaking at a stakeholders’ roundtable in Abuja to
disseminate and discuss achievements of the project, Mr. Alan Munday, Head of
Political Governance and Democracy (Development Cooperation) at the EU
Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said the knowledge gained from this training
was significant and very important.
"The
training has delivered a core of better trained and better aware Nigerian
officials dealing with counter-terrorism in different ways and at different
levels. We hope that the program has helped to strengthen the ability not only
to counter terrorism but to also deal with perpetrators of the terrorism act,”
he said.
UNODC is
actively involved in the fight against terrorism globally and provides capacity
building programs that are adapted to local needs. The counter-terrorism
project in Nigeria aims to enhance criminal justice capacity for effective
rule-of-law-based investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of terrorist
cases; promote inter-agency collaboration on counter-terrorism matters, enhance
the national legal regime against terrorism, strengthen international
cooperation against terrorism and ensure respect for human rights.
The project
featured 24 training sessions with practical lessons, role-plays, mentoring,
and experience-sharing by counter-terrorism professionals from different parts
of the world.
“The capacity building program has been
focused on practical issues relevant to the challenges that Nigeria is facing
right now. We’re making sure that the technical assistance is specific and tailored
to the needs of Nigeria,” said Mr. Trevor Rajah, Chief of Terrorism Prevention
Branch at UNODC headquarters.
“UNODC is pleased to serve an important role
of building capacity to bring terrorists to justice. The project has been
successful and we hope that it will help in taking the fight against terrorism
further,” said Mr. KoliKouame, UNODC Nigeria Country Representative.
Mr. Bassey Akpanyung,
Secretary of the National Planning Commission, delivered opening remarks at the
roundtable. Other high level representatives of 21 Nigerian entities participated
in the roundtable included representatives of the Supreme Court, the Court of
Appeal, Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigerian Police Force, Department of State
Security Services, Office of the National Security Advisor, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, Nigerian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies,
Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Prisons Service,
Nigeria Securities and Civil Defense Corps, embassies, and the National
Judicial Institute.
Participants
in the roundtable discussed achievements and lessons learned from the project
and agreed on priority issues for technical assistance, helping to ensure that
the next phase of UNODC’s technical assistance program will be developed with
the full input, support and ownership of the Nigerian national stakeholders.
