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From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
The modus operandi of terrorists in Kaduna city which usually occurs between the hours of 8:00p.m and 10:00p.m in recent times has taken shine off night life in the state capital as residents now live in fears.
Consequently, as night falls, residents are usually seen rushing back home, for the fear of the unknown, just as they pray involuntarily for night never to fall.
However, rushing home is like standing between the deep blue sea and the red devil as whoever is rushing home could be kidnapped on the way or having kidnappers knocking at the door having rushed home to ‘safety’.
Since the recent terrorism attacks at the Kaduna international airport as well as on Abuja-Kaduna bound train, fears of night fall and the nightmare have enveloped Kaduna city.
Worsening the fear of Kaduna residents is the recent terrorism attacks on Sabo Tasha GRA, Ungwan Bulus, Juji, Barkallahu, communities in the state capital where terrorists have made abduction and killing of their victims on many occasions.
On more than two occasions, the Rigasa axis of the metropolis had witnessed bombs planted by terrorists in residential areas, sending fears into the residents even though the bombs were demobilised by the police bomb detecting experts.
Expectedly, many residents have relocated to safer areas in the city, some of them squatting with relatives, sleeping with one eye opened. They go back to check on their homes at day time to see if they have been vandalised or not.
Encouraging people not to exercise any fear about the terrorists, a resident, Abdul Ibrahim said: “We shouldn’t allow evil to triumph over good. If we do, we have failed as human beings here and after. Our minds should not even accept this situation”.
Interestingly, the position of the state governor, Nasir el-Rufai that terrorists’ hideouts should be bombed by the military appears to have given the people of the state some sigh of relief if only the governor’s call is implemented by the Federal Government without further delay.
Perhaps overwhelmed by insecurity in his state, Governor el-Rufai had in late March declared 24-hour curfew in two local government areas where bandits killed 15 in Southern part of Kaduna State.
The 24-hour curfew was declared in Jema’a and Kaura local government areas of the state, with no fewer than 15 people allegedly killed in Kaura LGA alone.
Apparently pained by the incident, the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called on the people of the state to defend themselves in the face of what it described as government’s failure to defend the citizens against attackers.
An eyewitness had said: “I was able to count and get about 15 people killed. There is the likelihood that there are those killed in their houses while others could have died in the buses as a result of gun wounds they sustained.”
The fear of the eyewitness was vindicated as the state government later confirmed 37 killed and 200 housed burnt by the attackers.
According to the state CAN Chairman, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, Kaduna has lost several lives in the past four years, while the leaders scarcely show empathy or concern for the victims seeing that the government’s response is usually in the media.
“The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Kaduna State Chapter is sad and grieving following the continued killings, kidnappings, banditry, and the unimaginable evil going on in our state unabated without any substantial action by the government and security forces.
“One only needs to see how human beings are killed and roasted by bandits who attacked Kagoro to conclude that this is one loss too many”.
Also, in late March, bandits allegedly numbering over 200, on a Saturday afternoon took over the runway of the Kaduna International Airport, killing a security personnel of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
The bandits attack as gathered by our correspondent forced the authority to temporarily shutdown activities at the airport, while the military battled the gunmen, killing about 12 of them.
As if the terrorists earmarked the month of March to cause havoc, men of the Nigeria Police Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) had in this month demobilised an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Rigasa, the Kaduna community where the Abuja-Kaduna train station is located.
The explosive device, according to sources, in Rigasa was found in a bucket along Makarfi road area of the community.
Kaduna State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Muhammad Jalige, said their men were immediately deployed to the scene after receiving a tip-off.
In apparent support of Governor El-Rufai, some pastors in Kaduna took to the streets lately to protest the incessant attacks and killings by terrorists in the state, and called on the Federal Government to bomb the terrorists out of existence without further delay.
Under the banner of the Inter-faith Alliance, the pastors urged the Federal Government to step up actions against the hoodlums, who had over the years, launched attacks on various parts of the state.
They also appealed to the Federal Government to compensate all the victims of bandits attacks, award scholarships to children affected by the banditry and also rebuild communities ravaged by attacks.
This, the Convener of the Inter-faith Alliance, Reverend Emmanuel Adebayo said that it would cushion the sufferings of the victims to make them overcome the psychological trauma they passed through during the attacks.
With the hastag:#Kadunaprays#, Adebayo said the government should be more proactive in whatever actions that are being taken against the terrorists.
He said: “The essence of our protest is to put together what we refer to as ‘Kaduna prays’, a prayer work against insecurity. I am sure everybody knows that Kaduna is one of the states plagued by incidences of banditry and terrorism and various forms of criminality and of late, it has been on the increase.
“We believe that the government is doing their best, but their best was not good enough. That’s why we have come out to seek for divine intervention concerning the issue of peace and security in Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.
“Obviously we are not satisfied with the way the government is going about insecurity at the federal level. However, we want to actually acknowledge the little efforts that have been made, but we believe that more can still be done. Government needs to be preemptive.
“The government needs to be more proactive. We have been hearing about cry of our governor; he said he has taken the reports to those concerned; he said they know where they are and that they listen to their telephone conversation, but the response from the security agencies are not good enough.
“So we are praying that God should touch their hearts to put in more efforts and to be more responsive so that thus issues of insecurity won’t be more reactionary but be preventive and we pray that God will give them more wisdoms on how to go about it in Jesus name.
“Some of the statements that the Kaduna State government has made such as bombing the forest, sure it’s a welcome development, but what we expect is that the government should carry out precession attacks. When you said carpet bomb, they can hide among innocent people. So, if you carpet bomb them, innocent people will die. So we believe that the government monitors their movement through intelligence and carry out the bombing”.
As sound of sporadic shooting was heard the previous night in the city suburbs which was also recorded by an eyewitness and played on a private FM Radio, making the residents to come to the conclusion that thier heartbeat will continue to increase amidst sleepless nights.
Meanwhile, military helicopters have continued to hover around suspicious areas day and night in the state.
