It is exactly 11 years today, June 16, 2011, when a saloon car meandered its way into the official convoy of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, as he drove into the Force Headquaters, Abuja, and a few minutes later, detonated the bombs loaded in the booth of the car, leaving scores of official and private cars mangled, while dozens of people, including Assisstamt Superintendent of Police, Mr. Dangfit Nangor, who was the traffic officer that bravely diverted the terrorist’s driver away from the IGP’s car park under the frontage of the seven-storey building to the adjoining car park where this writer’s official jeep was parked along with other vehicles.
As I write this piece, my heart is full of praise to God for His mercy and protection upon my life. As the managing editor and founder of the police newspaper, “The Dawn,” my day began very early like every other police official working at the police headquaters.
My office was situated on the sixth floor of the building, with members of my editorial staff comprising policemen and women and civilian staff. Usually, my driver, a uniformed operative, came to pick me from my residence and parked the Hilux jeep at the junction in the car park. Most days, as I alighted from the car, policemen accosted me with issues for publication and I often spent several minetes exchanging pleasantries and discussing issues with them.
On that particular day, as I was about driving into the office, the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, placed a call to me requesting to see me in her office. In order to cover my absence by leaving the official vehicle behind, I boarded a taxi to the EFCC headquarters. As the cab driver was approaching Eagle Square, the IGP’s convoy passed us, while we were stopped by the traffic officer, and as we were about to be passed on, we were jolted by a deafening noise whose vibrating effect shook the car.
The cab driver questioned what the vibration could be. I noticed that every person along the road was turning towards Force Headquaters. Oblivious of what had happened, we continued our trip, until my phone started buzzing and calls from everywhere and abroad from family and friends came in enquiring if I was safe. That was when I gathered that Boko Haram terrorists had detonated bombs at the police headquaters.
Turning back, I gathered that the time-bomb vehicle had been parked along the highway awaiting the convoy of the IGP and had forced iyself into the convoy unnoticed, until they entered the compound, tailing the convoy.
As the IGP was alighting from his car and walking into the building, an eagle-eyed traffic warden, ASP Dangtim, sighted the strange vehicle about to park close to other cars in the convoy. He was said to have stopped the strange driver and directed him to the general car park, unfortunately, he opened the car to direct and later interrogate him.
But as the driver was reversing into the car park, and on getting to where my official Hilux Jeep was parked, behold, the strange car exploded and both passengers in the car were blown to pieces. There was no bomb detector at the gate. (IGP M.D. Abubakar later installed bombed detectors).
The explosion was so devastating that framed pictures hanging in my office fell down and there was commotion and hysteria from every floor of the building as every one tried to escape through every available route. In fact, many were injured in the stampede that ensued. Even a Deputy Inspector-General of Police was seen barefooted making his escape to the ground floor without the electronic lift.
Today, the pains and trauma of that historic explosion are almost like a forgotten page in the life of all that witnessed the bombing. From all indications, it seems the hierarchy of the police and the government have completely erased the incident from their memory.
Even as security historians and observers are engaged in trying to further unravel the nitty-gritty of the entire episode, one obvious fact is unchangeable and constant, which is, that the Nigeria Police is constitutionally mandated to provide security for citizens and also to take care of the internal security of the country. In other words, every unpalatable security situation in every part of the country falls on the strong shoulders of the Nigeria Police, and not the military.
However, based on the situation, if it overwhelms the police, then the military could be called upon to assist by complementing their efforts. The Force Headquaters bombing was clearly aided by the failure of the police leadership at the time.
One would have expected a public pronouncement of acceptance of guilt of abysmal failure in professionalism. First, how can the security guards at the gate with their eyes wide open allow a strange vehicle to smuggle itself into the convoy of the number one police officer, without attracting any sanctions for those posted at the gate and those on suivelance duty around the headquuaters?
What happened to the CCTV camera footage and was there no one on duty in the operation room to have detected the strange vehicle? More disturbing is the allegation at the time that intelligence was obtained from one of the sister agencies on a probable attack by the insurgents in Abuja.
In fact, three major institutions were bombed at the time, they were the Mambilla Barracks, Force Headquaters and the United Nations building, as well as the Nyanya motor park.
Was the intelligence made available to the police authorities, and, if yes, what happened and was anyone held responsible? Shall we continue in this fashion?
Record shows that, in 2002, United States President George W. Bush had appointed a commission to look into the September 11 attacks, and, two years later, it issued its final report. The report blamed about 50 CIA agents (they were prosecuted) for failing to pass intelligence to officials of the FBI concerning the Al-Qaeda suspects responsible for the 9/11 bombing.
Eleven years gone, there has not been any official report from any inquiry, nor were individuals whose vehicles were bombed compensated, not even to families of the dead, despite political speeches to compensate the bereaved and vehicle owners by the then President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and the Minister of Police Affairs, Mallam Adamu Waziri. Not a dine has been released to any victim of the June 16 police headquaters bombing. It should be noted that the grave that is swallowing many Nigerians was dug during the Jonathan administration.
At the time, there were calls for his government to institute a probe into police complicity in their operational handling of the Boko Haram imbroglio, especially the unprofessional handling of the suspects handed over to the police by the military. The death of those suspects sparked off the agitation that created Boko Haram in Borno State.
Neither was there any report on the incident. Institutions and countries do not progress when there is deliberate decision to sweep serious issues of public concern under the carpet of forgotten history.