Keeping hope alive in a season of insecurity

Photo: Vanguard

By Adekunle Adekoya

IT had the trappings of an action movie from one of those Hollywood film-makers. Tuesday night, news broke that bandits had opened fire on the advance security convoy of Mr. President at Dutsinma, on their way to Daura, Katsina State, to prepare for the President’s arrival in his home town and state for the for the forthcoming Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.

Presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, in a statement said: “The Presidency has described as sad and unwelcome, the shooting incident near Dutsinma, Katsina State, at the convoy of cars carrying the Advance Team of security guards, protocol and media officers ahead of the President, Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to Daura for Sallah.

 The attackers opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions, but were repelled by the military, police and DSS personnel accompanying the convoy. Two persons in the convoy are receiving treatment for the minor injuries they suffered.”

The nation was not just shocked but completely bewildered by the development, and while discussing the implications on the security of their persons and families, another attack was in the offing, this time at the Kuje Prisons in Abuja. At about 10pm, bomb blasts and sporadic gunshots rent the air in Kuje. It would later become common knowledge that the exchange of gunfire was between security agents and the gunmen who stormed the prison to rescue some inmates.

It is also now in the public domain that over 200 Boko Haram terrorists stormed the prison and freed  69 of their colleagues, in addition to hundreds of other inmates.

All of these, and worse before that, in a nation that has a government. We are yet to recover from the Owo Massacre of a few weeks ago, though it is not clear if we all will ever recover from the daily kidnappings, killings, and bombing that are slowly but steadily becoming daily fare in Nigeria. Human life suddenly became cheaper than gutter water. How did we get to this sorry pass? It was pathetic reading a frustrated President Buhari when he visited the prison.

His words: “How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work? How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”

So many questions, no answers. Perhaps, the answers would have been ready by the time the President returned from Senegal.