LAKURAWA, the Islamic sect terrorising Nigeria, came with old tricks from a terrorist?s playbook. The vicious group from Niger and Mali quietly settled into some Sokoto State communities, posing as the people?s defenders against bandits. They started preaching their narrow version of Utopian Islam and installed traditional rulers, and inaugurated tax collectors and judges. It was not until they started stealing cattle that the locals suspected they were up to something sinister.

While luring recruits into their fold with N1 million, the group launched its most audacious attack on November 4, killing no fewer than 15 persons in a Kebbi State village. It was probably then that it dawned on everyone that a new monster had been born.

That attack roused the Arewa Consultative Forum, a northern elders? coalition, into calling on the military to step up intelligence gathering and inter-agency cooperation under the Office of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. The acting Army chief, Olufemi Oluyede, visited Sokoto to rally troops against the new monster.

A new terror group in the enemy column ismore bad news for the country. So, Lakurawa must be dislodged from Nigerian soil. Boko Haram and its splinter groups, Fulani herdsmen, and ethnic militias like the Independent Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, have strained the security forces. Having this many forces to contend with is a failure of the Nigerian state.

Boko Haram has wreaked considerable havoc in Nigeria since 2009. The insurgents grew from targeting police units and Islamic clerics who criticised them to bombing churches and bars.ABoko Haram suicide bomber in August 2011 rammed his car through two security blocks and detonated a bomb that damaged two floors of the UN headquarters building in Abuja. Up to 21 persons were killed in that attack.

The abduction of nearly 400 schoolgirls in 2014 and 2018 in Borno and Yobe states remains fresh in memory. The entry of bandits has worsened the insecurity profile.

Nigeria is 7.575 on the global terrorism index, a rating that places it among Burkina Faso, Mali, and Somalia. All four countries post high rates of deaths and injuries from violence, deterring foreign investment and development. This is not where Nigeria should be.

To keep Lakurawa and other terror groups at bay, however, some things must change. Theinsurgency in the North is a lucrative enterprise from which some people benefit and do not want it to end.

Security agents have arrested some arms and food suppliers to bandits while others are still in business. There are sponsors and other individuals who orbit the insurgents? sphere functioning as informants, messengers, and transporters. Even some community leaders are believed to accommodate the monsters that ultimately turn against them.

The governors must shape up too. Bad governance has thrown the North into peculiar poverty, making the region a nursery bed from which Boko Haram, Lakurawa and other terror groups recruit young and vulnerable people. If this does not change, more Lakurawas will spring up.

The greatest burden to protect Nigerians, however, lies with the security community. Where were they when Lakurawa stole into the country in 2018 pretending to be peacemakers? An armed group preaching to a converted people should have been a red flag.

When foreigners make themselves judges, magistrates, and tax collectors, community leadersshould speak up.They should confront this territorial quest. Nigeria and Niger must resume joint border patrols after the collaboration collapsed following the recent military coups in the Sahel.

To defeat Lakurawa and Co, Ribadu should temper his political passions and understand the seriousness of his office. His job requires focus and clandestineintelligence gathering and coordination. (The PUNCH Editorial)

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