UNODC: strengthening capacity for counter-terrorism efforts in Nigeria

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 2^nd, 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.