• • • Deplores inability of security forces to stop rising crimes/terrorists infiltration of FCT

A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Tuesday, slammed the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency and other security agencies for their collective failure in fishing out Aso Rock burglars one year after the embarrassing incident.

Robbers, last May, had burgled the residence of the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and the incident was confirmed by Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, also said the incompetence of the security agents and their failure to arrest the Aso Rock burglars has buoyed burglars and bandits so much so that they sacked Abuja villagers and cause hundreds of dwellers to flee their homes despite living in the seat of power, kilometres away from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Residents of rural communities in the FCT reportedly fled their homes after bandits went on a rampage, killing a 23-year-old man, Nura Mai Gyada, and stealing 36 motorcycles.

According to news reports, daring bandits went on the rampage last weekend in the Adagba community of the Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, kidnapping residents and killing some.

Residents said the bandits numbering over 100, with sophisticated weapons, invaded the community around 9 pm on Saturday, divided themselves into groups, moved from house-to-house, while shooting into the air and made away with motorcycles, other valuables and cash.

Several other kidnappings, killings and disturbing attacks have occurred in Abuja in the last two years, including the attack and abduction of two Abuja-based journalists of PUNCH Newspapers, Solomon Odeniyi and Amarachi Orjiude, within 24 hours last March; the attack on the Abuja Bureau Chief of the Nigerian Tribune, Leon Usigbe, also in March 2022, the abduction of a PUNCH journalist, Okechukwu Nnodim, in February 2021; amongst numerous others that went unreported in the media.

Reacting, HURIWA said: “It is shameful and a pointer to the inefficiency of all the security agencies that one year after daring burglars invaded the residence of a whole Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, a street to that of the President in Aso Villa, the Police, the DSS, the Army and others were yet to fish out the perpetrators. Or have they gotten the so-called burglars but failed to revert to Nigerians about the development?

“The whole security architecture were also yet to ascertained how armed robbers gained access into the ‘well-fortified’ Presidential Villa manned by a combined team of Policemen, DSS operatives, and men of the Presidential Guards Brigade of the Nigeria Army. Sadly, till date, this invasion has yet to be resolved.

“Contrastively, more than 725 people have been arrested for storming the United State Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Over 71 rioters have also received criminal sentences, while the rest are waiting for their trials or haven’t yet reached plea agreements for charges ranging from obstruction of an official proceeding to assault.

“The continuous state of insecurity in Nigeria and the shameless incapacity of the security agencies to secure even the FCT is now obvious. If the security agents cannot even secure Aso Villa and the FCT that is about the smallest state if we take it to be a state and the seat of national power, then the hope of the common man is quashed.

“It’s pathetic that FCT residents now flee to the central business district of Abuja over attacks and invasion by marauding bandits in communities outside of the Central Areas of the metropolis.

“The Buhari regime must wake up and proffer radical solutions to the insecurity situation in the country.

“Nigerians must also demand accountability from the security agencies because the defence sector got the largest chunk of the budget this year. Why is nobody being punished for failing to safeguard lives of Nigerians despite that the cardinal role of the government is the security of lives and property? Enough is enough.”

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