Two years ago, a group of armed bandits ambushed troops of the 271 Nigerian Airforce at Ungwan Laya near Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, with many Airforce personnel losing their lives, others sustaining injuries. In January 2020, a similar event took place at Ungwan Yako, when over 70 armed bandits attacked troops of the Nigerian Airforce, leading to the death of an officer. In Zamfara State in 2021, insurgents waylaid troops of Operation Hadarin Daji near Yar-Katsina in Bungudu Local Government Area, as about 40 armed men engaged men of the Nigerian Airforce in a battle. Bandits assault on Nigeria’s military continue to persist, with the shooting down recently in mid-August of one M-71 fighter jet belonging to the Nigerian airforce at ChukubabWard in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, killing a pilot, Flight Lieutenant Ibrahim Adamu Abubakar.
THE Airforce jet was on a rescue mission of victims of an attack by 70 armed insurgents, this time the ambushing and killing of 22 soldiers along the Zungeru-Tegina road of the same Niger State. Soldiers killed included 37-year-old Major Segun Abiodun Oni of Ekiti State, a gallant, dedicated, and well decorated officer, Lieutenant Gbenga Michael Odunsami of Ogun State, another well-trained soldier, as well as others who lost their lives in the prime of youth in the course of serving their fatherland. The Hope condemns the attack on the Nigerian Airforce pilot who was going to evacuate victims of the assault by bandits, as well as the killing and decimating of Nigerian soldiers going to liberate victims of insurgents along Zungeru-Tegina road at Wushishi.
IN Borno State, no fewer than 389 police officers got killed the bandits in the past 11 years, with 450 others injured in the fracas, 24 police barracks and 30 stations destroyed, according to the Borno State Commissioner of Police Abdu Umar last year. In its review for 2022, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Security Tracker (NST) estimated that about 202 military personnel, 186 police officers, 154 vigilante operatives and 24 security guards faced massacre through violence carried out by insurgents and other armed characters.
THE escalation of violence is particularly frightening in the past two years, as between January 2021 and April 2023, 581 policemen and 384 military personnel, including officers of the Nigerian Airforce, suffered liquidation by armed non-state actors. If the authorities concerned did not address the issue at hand, the nation’s security architecture in the near future could get dismantled by bandits, especially when seen in the context of the alarming rate operatives of groups such as Boko Haram perpetrate violent acts against security personnel.
THE Nigeria Police Force employed approximately 371,800 officers across the country, a ratio of one police officer to 540 citizens, a rate lower than the United Nations’ recommendation of one police officer to 450 people. The Nigeria military engages 223,000 active officers as at present, a decline from 230,000 a few years ago, when the nation got ranked as the fourth most powerful in Africa and 35th internationally. The Nigerian Air Force lost 17 aircrafts and 33 personnel between 2015 and 2023, with the department not having recruited officers to replace the lost ones in sufficient numbers to defeat bandits. From the above, the rate of equipment loss in the Nigerian Airforce shows acceleration while the number of military employment nosedives, and if seen in the light of a police force having a lower UN recommendation rate of officers to people, then Nigeria faces danger, unless it employs security officers to tackle insurgents, particularly in the face of the exploding numbers of armed non-state actors.
CONSEQUENTLY, The Hope not only condemns the spate of attacks against the members of the nation’s military, it also calls on the force to quickly find a solution on how to crush the insurgents, whose activities are visible in some local government areas in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, and Borno States. To stop this situation, the military should evolve strategies to tackle the unfortunate incidents of armed attacks, because the situation where an army could lose 22 officers in one fell swoop is a dangerous signal.
GOING forward, the military should also look into the issue of employment, as the required figure may prove decisive to combat the growing population of insurgents. Communities should play a positive role, by passing information about the movements of insurgents to the military through community and traditional rulers. The current attitude of combating insurgents must change, through getting the right intelligence and the appropriate equipment and personnel to secure protection, as well as community involvement in the passing of information about insurgents to military authorities.
