Increased terrorist attacks: Defence strategy not working; sack NSA; Defence Minister, says HURIWA tells Buhari

A civil rights advocacy group Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has expressed strong disappointment with the increasing spate and sophistication of coordinated attacks by both the North West based terrorists; unknown gunmen in Imo State and other segments of the South East of Nigeria.

HURIWA reacted against the backdrops of the weekend’s temporary take-over of the Kaduna International Airport by over 200 armed terrorists operating within the North West axis and the attack in the wee hours of Monday, March 28, 2022, at Obowo Police formation in Imo State in which two police operatives were reportedly seriously injured, just as some officials of the Federal Aviation Authority were allegedly gunned down by the invading terror group in Kaduna which disrupted flights operations for hours at the Weekend.

HURIWA is appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to take action urgently because the terrorists are becoming even more daring and emboldened because they feel they have nothing to fear.

HURIWA blames what it calls the dysfunctionality of the national defence strategy and the non-workability of any sort of national security strategy by the National Security Adviser to the President, Major-General Babagana Monguno (rtd) and the Minister of Defence, Major-General Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd), for the upsurge in terror attacks resulting in the horrendous afflictions of unprecedented casualties made up mostly of civilians and innocent members of the population.

HURIWA has therefore asked the President to immediately rejig his national defence strategy by appointing serving senior military Generals as Minister of Defence and National Security Adviser because, according to the rights group, the appointments of very senior and experienced military officers currently abreast with the global best practices and the 21st century compliant innovative ideas to beat back the attacks of terrorists and the so-called unknown gunmen were exactly the expertise the country needs to navigate successfully away from terrorists attacks.

The rights group urged the Federal Government to probe the heads of security services in states whereby terrorists were having a field day to ascertain whether these security heads were inevitably working with armed non-State actors in the South East of Nigeria and North West for them to be recording the kind of successes that they have achieved in the past months at the cost of the economic dislocation of Igboland and the North West.

HURIWA said the President should sack both the Minister of Defence and the National Security Adviser and appoint the Chief of Defence Staff to double up as the Minister of Defence whilst the President searches for a versatile and reputable senior General in any of the three segments of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the National security Adviser to bridge the gaps existing between the different arms of the armed forces and to offer credible defence strategic and innovative ideas to the President as he enters the eleventh hours of his final tenure so the President can fix his challenged security strategy before it becomes irreparable.

HURIWA recalled that at the Weekend suspected terrorists attacked the Kaduna International Airport located in Igabi Local Government Area the Kaduna State on Saturday. The attackers, numbering over 200 were said to have taken over the airport. The development caused panic at the airport as the suspected terrorists reportedly killed one security official of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency.

HURIWA recalled that the attack, it was gathered, forced the authority to temporarily shut down activities while the military battled the suspected terrorists just as information available disclosed that the terrorists insisted on shutting down the airport. Following the presence of the terrorists on the runway area of the airport, workers attached to the airport were said to have left their duty posts.

HURIWA regretted that the security agencies have become so slow in preventing such terrorist attacks targeting a high profile national assets like the Kaduna International Airport. It also stated that it was totally unacceptable also that an aircraft scheduled to take off for Lagos at 12:30pm could not fly as a result of the presence of the terrorists at the runway of the airport.

Besides, HURIWA recalled that gunmen, on Monday morning, attacked the Otoko Divisional Police Headquarters situated in the Obowo Local Government Area of Imo State, leaving two officers injured.

The attack was said to have started around 3am and lasted a long time as residents feared for the unknown.