Lagos Island, one of the targets of the arrested terror suspects
The news of the arrest of some folks at their hide-out in Ijora area of Lagos State last Thursday for their suspected links to Boko Haram did not come as a surprise to many Lagosians. The state in the last one year or so has apparently teemed with such elements in their hundreds. Residents
of the state would be quick to admit that the event of last Thursday had long been on their ‘waiting-to-happen list’ for several months; their dilemma had remained that no one could tell when the bubble would burst. This security breakthrough was recorded when about 100 soldiers and men of the State Security Service (SSS) stormed the area, which is predominantly an Hausa settlement, in search of suspects said to be members of Boko Haram and arrested five persons in the process.
It was reported that after the raid, the soldiers found on one of the suspects, Ibrahim Musa, an illegal Chadian, a bomb kept in a cooler and hidden inside the ceiling of one of the rooms in the house he was apprehended. Other items found in the same house were AK-47 rifles, live cartridges and daggers. The collateral damage a bomb attack could cause in any part of Lagos State can only be imagined!
Now, it is the duty of every Lagosian to ensure that the sect is not allowed to co-habit with us. I am confident that if we take the security of the state as our collective responsibility, we’ll succeed in making the city hostile for their habitation; once this is achieved, they will certainly bury their dream of causing some mayhem here. This state is simply too strategic to be allowed to fall to terrorists. I am not in any way suggesting that other states are less-strategic to the corporate existence of Nigeria.
Of course, this simply calls for extra-vigilance. We must be seen to be involved in this fight that we have on our hands. It’s true that it is the duty of the government to provide security for its citizens, but recent events everywhere in the world, including parts of the northern region of our dear country, have clearly shown that no single government can stand and successfully fight insurgents, a people whose death wish seeks to destabilise their targets.
In fact, if the lessons of the activities of the group in Borno and Yobe States are anything to go by, Lagos residents must resolve to take the bull-by-horn and stand up against the group.
It is no longer secret that at the onset, a number of northern elite merely assumed that Boko Haram was an insurgency against Jonathan’s administration and as long as that assumption remained, the group would be tolerated, given some measure of support and allowed a free reign. It no doubt received a large dose of sympathy from their hosts, some of whom had cried aloud against the presence of the Joint military Task Forces (JTFs) in their areas accusing them of carrying out extra-judicial killings against their ‘children’. None deemed it necessary to voice concern about the economy that has been ruined by the insurgency and none also showed concern that the non-indigenes in their midst were fleeing down south while young graduates mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme rejected their postings to the areas. Today, Boko Haram has assumed the status of a Frankenstein monster, holding good for no one!
Therefore, Lagos residents must be prepared to break the boundaries where they exist and be security conscious. This is not advocating discriminatory actions against anyone. This country belongs to all Nigerians, irrespective of state, political party, religion, tribe, race or region. But it sounds absurd that many of us know little or nothing about the backgrounds of those young chaps we carelessly sign on as guards. Did you know that most of these folks you find as guards at several gated estates in this state are illegal aliens from Niger, Mali, Chad, etc? Have you also noticed that more than 50 per cent of motorbike operators in the state are also nationals of those countries? Does it not strike you that given their influx, they could have been sent on any mission here, including forming advance cells in anticipation of an insurgency?
Interestingly, the Hausa community in Lagos has come out as the first ethnic bloc in the state to publicly declare their opposition to Boko Haram, or any insurgency group for that matter, to have a foothold in the state.
Addressing the Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai Aromire on behalf of the Arewa leaders in Lagos, the Sarkin Hausawa Lagos, Alhaji Sani Kabir, urged all the Hausa leaders (Sarkins) to be vigilant.
Kabir was reported to have said: “We are here (Ojora’s palace) to show our concern over the discovery of bomb and pledge our support for all efforts to rid Lagos of any incursion of terrorists.
“We are a part and parcel of Lagos and this community. We will not allow anybody to destroy the state. Therefore, all the Arewa leaders in Lagos have resolved to be vigilant. If we notice strange faces, we will report them to the nearest police station.” This is very instructive and I feel it is the best option for us if we must secure Lagos.
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