By Amos Tauna
Leak of intelligence Information divulged to Nigerian police have led to the killing of 18 villagers who volunteered information on kidnappers along Abuja – Kaduna express way.
“Everybody knows in this community that in the process of giving out information to the security, we have lost 18 people. There was one of us who was seen as a very brave man. He gave list of suspects to the security and he was cut into pieces three days after, in the presence of his wife,” said a resident of Rijana, a community along Kaduna-Abuja express way, to visiting Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazzau.
The villagers who felt betrayed by the police said, synergy with security personnel in the area could no longer be guaranteed.
Rijana, a small village along Abuja-Kaduna highway has been a hot bed of kidnapping, armed robbery and rustling.
The fear of the high cases of the kidnap among others had led many travelers plying Abuja—Kaduna expressway resort to travelling by train.
Reports of the constant kidnappings and attacks have led to the deployment of a special force by the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris,
Visiting Minister
Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazzau who was on an official visit to the community on what he called fact finding mission, sympathised with the villagers, and described the Kidnappers as terrorist, who must be crushed by all means.
He observed that there was the need for synergy between the locals and the security operatives deployed to the area by the federal government to put an end to the heinous acts.
Responding to the complaints laid before him by the locals, General Danbazau assured that everything possible would be done to put the situation under control.
According to the Minister, “We are here on fact finding mission because of the incessant kidnapping going on in this area.
“Government is interested because it is its responsibility to protect lives and property and besides, it is a promise this government made before it was elected into office. So I’m here to meet with the community and see how the ongoing special operation is going.
“We see this as an act of terrorism because every element of terrorism is reflecting and it must stop. I’m aware that most of the people involved are foreigners but they cannot succeed without connivance with those that reside here in the community.
“Many of the youths are unemployed which is partly responsible for their connivance with criminals to terrorise their victims. We will look at your complaints.
“Government has resolved to end this kidnapping. It is a promise and we will do everything possible to address the situation. We will also protect our informants.”
Community Voice
Earlier, a former Special Assistant to former governor Ahmed Makarfi on Rural Development who spoke on behalf of the community, Abdulsalam Abubakar, said though the presence of security chiefs and other top government functionaries had brought some relief to them and expressed worry over killing of his people for attempting to provide police with information on kidnapping activities.
According to him, “Sincerely, we have started getting relief with the presence of security chiefs and top government officials like you who have come to show concern about what is happening in our domain.
“What is happening on this road is very disheartening and we members of the communities around are living in fear and anxiety specifically we members of the Rijana community are very interested in supporting this operation with useful information but, we are in serious trouble in this community.
“Its not that we don’t have information to give but we are scared because we can’t see reasons why 600 security personnel will be around here and they will not be able to enter the bush and flush out the criminals. Our youths are now spoilt. They have mixed with criminals and they have been corrupted by them.
“But our major problem is the fear of death. Our people are now scared to give information to the security. We have hitherto been giving information to the police but instead of seeing improvement and progress in the area of security, it is the other way round.
“There was a gentleman, Mallam Abdulrahman, who also gave information to the security he was also macheted to death. Same with Yakubu, Sani and Solomon, son of a village chief (Galadima). All died through information given to the security agents.
“Wallahi Tallahi, there are bad eggs among the security personnel especially the police. Whoever tells you Honourable Minister that these bad eggs do not exists in the police is telling you lies.
“Our patriotic Inspector General if Police has done very well because we have observed that at every u-turn along this express way, there is a police patrol van with minimum of ten personnel.
“Unfortunately, you will hear that in-between there are cases of armed robbery or kidnapping. And if you tell the policeman that robbery or kidnapping is ongoing somewhere close by, he will tell you point blank that he will not go because he does not carry the weapon criminals carry.
“It is very disturbing that IGP has deployed 600 policemen to this area and not even a common chicken has been arrested. We believed that, our police have requisite intelligence to tackle this problem.
“Since the last IGP’s visit, I have not been sleeping in my house because I’m scared that the way I spoke before the IG that day, the criminals will come after me.”
