The World Street Journal (WSJ) has written an expose on how the Nigerian military paid $50, 000 cash to buy back an anti-aircraft gun that posed a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari, who flew through the endangered airspace to his hometown, some 80 miles away.
According to the report headlined ‘Nigeria’s gangs raised millions by kidnapping children. Now the government can’t stop them’ the kidnapping gang encamped in Rugu forest had seized an anti-aircraft gun in a clash with a military unit.
The seizure posed a threat to the president who had been planning to fly to his hometown and the government needed to buy it back.
To retrieve the weapon, the report said a ransom of almost $50,000 in crisp Nigerian bank notes, was paid.
The report stated that soldiers, intelligence officers, and mediators, who had visited the kidnapping camps, described a surfeit of munitions, which included more anti-aircraft guns acquired since the mission to buy one back.
It further stated that over several months, the militant leader had agreed to part with the truck-mounted 12.7 millimetre anti-aircraft gun in exchange for the ransom.
“His men had plenty more munitions,” he was quoted to have said.
“I don’t need the army’s weapons,” according to an officer, whose account was corroborated by another senior Nigerian official involved in the previously undisclosed mission, the report said.
“If they don’t pay, we kill them,” a militant leader in Zamfara State, Shehu Rekeb, was quoted to have said in a phone interview.
His men were herdsmen, he said, who had been mistreated by the state and subjected to arbitrary arrests.
Once armed with machetes, they now have weapons on par with the military and collaborators inside the army, he was quoted to have claimed.
More so, the report disclosed that in forests in the North-west, the loosely organised criminal gangs that raised funds by kidnapping school children were now flush with arms, cash and operating beyond the reach of an increasingly fragile state.
In some instances, government officials in Africa’s most populous nation have been paying the gangs to return stolen weapons and kidnapped personnel, WSJ said, citing confidential documents and interviews with senior military officials, soldiers and independent mediators, and one of the gang leaders.
The newspaper narrated how during one of the incidents, masked men emerged from the forest on motorbikes, surrounding a young intelligence officer clutching a cash-filled bag.
“An hour later, the officer, who declined to be identified, was clasping hands with a leader of a diffuse network of criminals, whose campaign of kidnapping civilians—including hundreds of schoolchildren—has raised millions of dollars to build an arsenal of heavy weaponry they are using to wrest control of swaths of the north, including the president’s home state,” it stated
Nigeria’s government—still battling Islamic State militants in the North-east—refers to the lesser-known criminal groups in its North-west as “bandits”, the WSJ report said.
It said several senior security officials described mass kidnapping for ransom as the country’s primary new security crisis.
The report said one official, who had reviewed intercepts of bandit leaders’ communications, described how the militants spoke of accumulating weapons to defend themselves from rival gangs and from government-backed vigilantes and to conduct increasingly brazen operations against schools, villages, state officials and each other.
“They’re settling scores…government cannot do anything,” one senior government security said.
The bandits have seized more than 1,000 children from their schools this year. Thousands of schools have closed in a country, where half the population is under 18 and which has become home to the world’s largest population of out-of-class children
Most of the bandits are from the Fulani ethnic group, a traditionally cattle-rearing society, whose herdsmen have been fighting for years with farmers over access to dwindling grazing lands.
The report also alleged that more recently, some herdsmen had reorganised into kidnapping gangs, seizing everyone from villagers to prominent politicians.
However, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), in a statement, described the reported buy back of the anti-aircraft gun from bandits as “fake news.”
NAF said in a statement entitled ‘NAF did not make any payment to bandits in exchange for weapons’ that there was no basis for it to have paid bandits or any criminal elements stressing that it had continued to attack and decimate the marauders in Katsina State and other parts of the northwest.
The statement reads issued by spokesman for NAF, Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet, reads: “The attention of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been drawn to news reports circulating on some media platforms alleging that the NAF, through one of its personnel, paid the sum of N20 Million to armed bandits operating in Jibia Local Government Area (LGA) of Katsina State in exchange for an anti-aircraft gun allegedly seized. The report went on to state that the reason behind the payment was to retrieve the anti-aircraft gun which, it alleged, the NAF feared could be used against aircraft operating within Katsina State.
“The NAF wishes to categorically state that there is absolutely no iota of truth in the spurious allegation that was undoubtedly designed to cast aspersions on the good image of the Service. The said report is totally false. It should therefore be taken as fake news and disregarded. Indeed, we ordinarily would not have responded to such baseless and utterly illogical allegation but for the need to set the record straight as well as reaffirm the NAF’s unflinching commitment to decisively dealing with the armed bandits and all other criminal elements in the Country in partnership with other services of the Armed Forces and other security Agencies.
“For the avoidance of doubt, it must be stated that there is no basis for the NAF to pay bandits or any criminal elements that it has continued to attack and decimate in Katsina State, other parts of the North-West as well as other Theatres of Operation in the Country. Indeed, as recent as 12 October 2021, NAF aircraft conducted 5 missions in the Jibia general area and engaged targets with rockets and cannons at Bala Wuta bandits’ locations in Kadaoji. Similar successes were recorded at Fakai Dutsin Anfare, an area in Jibia LGA known for its high incidences of bandits’ activities. The false reportage therefore, begs the question as to why the NAF would negotiate for a weapon allegedly seized and still carry out air interdiction missions on the same bandits and their strongholds. The NAF is of the view that, this latest false report could be a part of a campaign to further the cause of insecurity in Nigeria by elements who see the NAF as a threat following series of successful exploits in operations against criminal gangs.
“Perhaps, this provides an avenue for the NAF to yet again appeal to members of the media, both local and international, as well as social media, to be circumspect in their reportage and endeavour to always verify their facts before going public. The public is enjoined to disregard the falsehood emanating from some sections of the social and mainstream media. The NAF also uses this opportunity to call on citizens to continue to cooperate with security agencies as efforts are ongoing to rid the entire Nation of criminals and their activities.
“On our part, the NAF, as a professional and disciplined force, will not in any way be discouraged from carrying out its mandate to rid the entire North-West Nigeria of banditry and other forms of criminality. We remain resolute in performing our function and will continue to work in synergy with other sister Services and security agencies to rid the Country of all criminal elements.
“Kindly bring this information to the awareness of the general public.”
