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Niger: Hard times for communities, as tension rise among soldiers at borders
Subtle hostilities have been reported between Nigerian and Nigerien soldiers constituting the Multinational Joint Task Force in Malam Fatori town, bordering Marte Local Government Area of Borno State, Nigeria and Bosso town in Niger Republic, in the Lake Chad region.
Following the sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Niger and the declaration of potential military action by ECOWAS, Nigerian soldiers have been denied access to Bosso town where they usually go to source items for their daily lives and basic provisions.
Nigerian Tribune quotes Liman, a Nigerian who resides in Diffa, as saying: “Commercial activities between the two countries have been suspended, while no individual is allowed entry into Diffa or Bosso from Nigeria. The price of commodities is also increasing because most of the goods that we are using here came from Nigeria. One litre of fuel is more than N1,000, one Maggie cube is now N30 and we are not supporting military operations in Niger.”
Musa Saminu, a commercial motorcyclist in Diffa was also quoted to have stated: “There is no light, no electricity because Nigeria cuts off the power supply, no fuel and everything is very expensive, including food items.”
In Kebbi State, vehicular movements were restricted along the major routes leading to Niger Republic from the fringes, but the movement of people of these areas was unhindered.
The report also said, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Department of Security Service (DSS) and soldiers have been put on the red alert as the deadline for the restoration of democratic rule in Niger Republic ended yesterday, Sunday, August 6, 2023, adding that the security on the Nigerian borders with Niger Republic has been intensified.
Immigration officials, DSS personnel and Nigerian Customs Service have been mandated to stop Nigerien citizens from crossing over to Nigeria through official or unofficial borders.
On the other hand, Nigerians were not allowed to cross over into Niger Republic through the Kamba border in Kebbi State, llela border in Sokoto, Jibiya, Maradi, Zango, Mai’Adua as well as Kaita borders in Katsina State. Other borders affected included Gurbin Bore, in Zamfara and Babura, Maigari in Jigawa State.
Speaking on the development, the Immigration Comptroller in charge of Special Border Command, Mustapha Sani, in an interview, stated: “Nigerians should stay at home and not attempt to go to the Niger Republic until the embargo is lifted,” adding that “we are determined to return any Nigerian citizen planning to come back to his country.”
According to him: “We have already put our officers on alert and we have already deployed some to man the orthodox routes through which some of the foreigners use to enter into Nigeria and from what we have on the ground, we know it will be impossible for them to enter into Nigeria. We have also already stationed our officers at strategic places for stop and search as usual.”
Sani explained that since the special border command received a signal that all borders with the Niger Republic should remain closed, officers of the command have been active in enforcing the sanction.
In Zamfara State, tight security had been mounted in Gurbin Bore village in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state to check illegal migrants from Niger Republic into the country.
In a chat, an indigene of Gurbin Bore town, Mallam Abdullahi Mohammed, said few weeks after the coup in Niger Republic, normal business transaction has dropped drastically in the area.
He further hinted that, though Gurbin Bore is not close to the Niger border, it is a few kilometres to Jibiya in Katsina State that has borderland with Niger and whatever affects Jibiya has affected residents of Gurbin Bore.
Similarly, in an interview with journalists, the state Comptroller of NIS, Ibrahim Dauda Sabimoro, posited that the primary responsibility of immigration is to check the influx of migrants in the country, stressing that security has been beefed up at the border to checkmate influx into the country through Niger border.
Also, in Sokoto, at Illela border community, residents were apprehensive over the ultimatum given by President Bola Tinubu-led Economic of West African States (ECOWAS), which ended on Sunday.
Some of the residents of the community who spoke on telephone appealed to the Federal Government to rescind its decision of using military option to resolve political instability in Niger Republic.
Nuhu Ibrahim, a motorcyclist in Illela, said any attack on Niger Republic would have negative effects on the people of Illela community, which he said, will be a soft target for the people of Niger Republic.
He added: “We are still appealing to President Bola Tinubu to have a rethink over his plan to invade Niger Republic through ECOWAS troops, because our people will suffer for it if the president goes ahead with the military action.”
Also speaking, Abubakar Bello, who sells foodstuffs in Illela, said most of his colleagues could not open their shops today due to fear of being attacked, expressing fear that “even if Niger Republic army didn’t attack the community, some hoodlums may take the advantage of what is happening to attack us, so we are being careful.”
In Jigawa, reports from the areas indicated that almost all business activities had been put on hold in fear of collateral damage that may be borne out of military action.
Findings revealed that movement and activities at the Maigatari-Niger border of Jigawa State had been stopped, while the number of soldiers and other security personnel had increased at Maigatari and Babura borders gates. (Adapted from a Nigerian Tribune report)
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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