365 Days of President Yar'Adua: Nigerians now sleep with one eye opened

By Rotimi Omole and Adelowo Oladipo

Some suspected impersonators who pose as
army officers to rob people of their valuables.SOME prominent personalties including security experts have thumbed down on the security situation in the country since the inception of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration in May 2007.

They also described as appalling the insensitivity on the part of the Federal government not to have employed dialogue on the situation in the Niger Delta region particularly in PortHarcourt, Rivers State, where foreigners in oil companies are leaving in droves thereby pushing Nigeria to number two position in Africa after Angola as an oil producing nation.

Rampant kidnapping of expatriates in the area had continued unabated in the last one year of President Yar’Adua’s administration while billions of naira must have gone down the drain through vandalisation of Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) pipelines across the state by oil thieves.

Appraising one year administration of President Yar’Adua, a security expert who is also a retired major General (names withheld) miffed at the situation whereby a National Assembly member from Oyo State, late Honourable Segun Oladimeji, was murdered in cold blood, while the assassin could not be traced by the police till now, just like the case of the late Chief Bola Ige.

According to him, “it is most unfortunate that this administration is yet to come out with any clear policy on the nation’s security, as people now sleeps with their two eyes open. There is no significant change in the nation’s security network. The president has inherited lot of security lapses from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“Just recently, a commissioner in the cabinet of the present Edo State government was reported to have been murdered in an hotel. As the police were trying to unravel the mystery behind his death, another top shot was found dead in another hotel.

Highway robbers arrested in Lagos
recently.

“Though the Inspector General of Police Mr. Mike Okiro had tried, all in vain, to find the killers through his Assistant Inspector General of Police in that zone, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, the police are yet to tell members of the public the mystery surrounding their deaths as their killers are yet to be found.

While also appraising President Yar’Adua’s one year administration, an Ibadan-based security consultant, Chief Roland Ogunlana condemned in strong terms the extra judicial killings of innocent members of the public by the police across the nation, “President, Yar’Adua inherited this from his predecessor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but has not put in place some measures to curb it; the list of members of the public who had fallen victims of police extra-judicial killings are legion across the nation,” said the security expert.

Also speaking, a security consultant, Mr. Frank Odita was of the view that one year was not sufficient to assess a government but believed that the present government had performed well so far.

Odita stressed that the administration had been able to motivate security agencies particularly the police, pointing out that such was lacking during past administrations. According to him, “Yar Adua has increased the salaries of policemen and with the payment of their salary arrears, they are now motivated.”

In his assessment, a respondent, who is a Barrister-at-law based in Abuja, Mojeed Rauf cited the federal capital territory, Abuja and Lagos as the heart of the nation’s security network.

According to him, “you cannot talk about the nation’s security under President Yar’Adua’s without considering Abuja and Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of the country.
A fake soldier arrested by the police in
Enugu.“The FCT minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo had donated an helicopter, fleet of cars and horses to police for patrol.

Through his efforts, crime rate has reduced considerably in Abuja; while in Lagos, the immediate past Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar arrested more than 500 bandits and killed about 50 armed robbers during his short stay in the state.

“The police boss also recovered from bandits about 247 arms and over 3172 ammunitions.” However, a respondent who craved for anonymity, in a chat with the Nigerian Tribune, said the security situation in the country was nothing to write home about, arguing that if the country was at peace with itself, why would the federal government still be keeping the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the streets of the Niger Delta states. According to him, “no first class white men, such as the US nationals, the Britons, Australians, the Germans among others, in the Niger Delta any longer except the third class white men like the Chinese, the Indians and the Lebanese who are mere commercial traders.