Nigeria Orders Creation of Police Base in Remote Community After Mass Kidnappings

Police in Nigeria have ordered the creation of a new base for officers and the deployment of special forces in a remote village in northwest Kaduna state, where nearly 300 students were abducted by armed bandits on March 7.

Nigerian police chief Kayode Egbetokun announced plans for the new base and the deployment during a visit with Kaduna Governor Uba Sani on Tuesday.

He said the steps will help restore residents’ confidence in their safety while security forces continue the search for the missing students.

Last Thursday, armed bandits on motorbikes invaded an elementary school in the village of Kuriga in Kaduna state and abducted 287 school students — the highest single abduction of students in years.

Days later in a separate attack, bandits kidnapped 61 people from Kajuru district, about 150 kilometers miles away.

The new police base will be in Kuriga and deployment of extra officers to the area has begun.

Egbetokun says authorities are working to secure the abductees’ release.

"We're launching the special intervention squad for Kaduna state,” Egbetokun said. “If only to give confidence to the people, the men will be deployed and with the support that you have pledged to give, I’m sure that the community will start to feel safe again."

Sani said he is hopeful the police operations will succeed.

"We are extremely confident that the school children by the grace of God will return back home safely,” he said, “and I'm happy by the decision of the inspector general of police to quickly deploy mobile base in Kuriga community."

Last week, local media reported more than 300 women and children who were gathering firewood were kidnapped in northeastern Borno state by Islamic militants.

Insecurity is a major challenge for President Bola Tinubu, who launched an initiative called “Renewed Hope” after assuming office last May.

The recent kidnappings are blamed, in part, on the absence of security forces in those remote areas.

Last month, the president met with all 36 state governors to discuss decentralizing Nigeria’s police force and creating a police arm for each state.

Analyst Kabiru Adamu of Beacon Security said, if organized properly, this could be a step in the right direction.

“There are gaps within the security architecture,” Adamu said. “I am supportive of the decentralization of policing but I think what we need more than anything is accountability. So that by the time we create state police, the accountability elements that have been created in the federal level will trickle down to the state level."

Years of fighting Islamist militants and crime gangs have stretched Nigerian security forces thin.

Many are hoping the creation of new bases and state police arms will help keep the kidnappers away.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

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Kidnappers say they will kill all 287 school if $622,000 ransom not paid

Gunmen who kidnapped at least 287 school children in Nigeria last Thursday have demanded a ransom of 1 billion naira ($621,848) and threatened to kill all of the students if their demands are not met, a member of the local community told CNN on Wednesday.

“They called me from a hidden number yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at around 16 minutes past 12, and demanded 1 billion naira ($621,848) as a ransom for the students. They said [the ultimatum] will only last for three weeks or 20 days from the date they kidnapped the children and if there’s no action from the government, they will kill all of them,” said Aminu Jibril, a resident of Kuriga village, in Kaduna state, where the school is located.

The children were kidnapped on March 7.

Jibril also told CNN that the perpetrators said the kidnapping was “a way of getting back at the government and security agencies for killing their gang members.”

The member of the Kuriga community said he believed the kidnappers got his number from the head of the school’s junior secondary section, who was kidnapped alongside the students.

More than 300 students were taken early Thursday morning by armed bandits on motorcycles who stormed the LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga village, in Kaduna’s Chikun district, the state’s police spokesman Mansur Hassan told CNN on Friday.

Some of the students were rescued but 287 of them remain with the kidnappers. About 100 of them are from the primary school and the rest from the secondary school.

The Kaduna Governor Uba Sani said in a statement Thursday that his government was “doing everything possible to ensure the safe return of the pupils and students.”

Sani also said a member of the community who confronted the abductors during the attack was killed.

Kaduna state, which borders the Nigerian capital Abuja to the southwest, has grappled with recurring incidents of kidnappings for ransom by bandits and has witnessed several mass abductions in recent years, including in the district where the LEA Primary and Secondary School is located.

In 2021, at least 140 students were kidnapped by armed men from a private secondary school.

The incident came just months after around 20 students from a private university in Chikun’s Kasarami village were abducted by gunmen.

Five of those students were killed after a ransom deadline was not met, family members told CNN at the time.

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Police station attacked, cars, shops torched by mob at Market in Nigeria capital

Protesters on Tuesday attacked a police station and set some cars on fire at the popular Wuse Market in Abuja, after a hawker was shot dead by security operatives.

Witnesses said the hawker, who the police identified as 27-year-old Ibrahim Yahaya, was shot after he was arrested by some “task force officers” and the police.

The hawker was trying to escape from custody when he was shot, shop owners, who said they witnessed the incident, said.

The killing was said to have triggered angry reactions from some youths in the market.

The mob made their way to the police station in the market, destroying windows and setting some cars in the surrounding on fire. About eight cars were burnt down in the incident that went wild at about 3.30 p.m.

The police fired teargas to disperse the mob, according to those who said they witnessed the incident.

About 10 shops also caught fire in the chaos.

A black plume of smoke rising above the market was seen by residents at places away from the scene.

Some shop owners blamed the fire that razed the shops on police teargas.

A shop owner, John Abasi, told PREMIUM TIMES: “Truly it was the teargas that caused the fire. You know when someone is killed, people will react. So people tried to attack the person who shot the guy, but he ran away. So they were going to destroy his things. That is why they burnt the cars there (pointing to the direction of the burnt cars). The police then started shooting the teargas which went into people’s shops and burnt their goods.”

Daily Trust reported that a senior official of the Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) inside the market confirmed that the shooting of the hawker provoked the attackers to burn down some shops. AMML office was said to have been affected by the fire. The official told the newspaper that the office and some vehicles in the car park within the market were torched by the youths.
 

Police confirm killing

The police, on Tuesday, confirmed the killing of the hawker, 27-year-old Mr Yahaya.

However, Police Public Relations Officer, FCT Command, Josephine Adeh, cleared the police of the shooting.

She said the deceased, who died after he was rushed to the hospital, was shot by a correctional service (prison) officer while he was trying to escape from custody.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that one Ibrahim Yahaya ‘27 years’ was apprehended by operatives of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Task Force and was taken before a mobile court which sits every Tuesday in Wuse Market, and he was convicted,” the spokesperson wrote.

“Suspect alongside others were being conveyed to the prison, when he reportedly jumped from the vehicle and took to his heels in an attempt to escape. Two armed corrections personnel who were in the vehicle went after him and in the process, shot him. They said Ibrahim Yahaya was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors on the ground confirmed him dead.”

The police spokesperson said, “The development led some irate mobs who witnessed the situation to set ablaze eight (8) vehicles and ten (10) shops in the environ.”

She added: “The whole fire situation erupted uproar from residents but was brought under control by a combined effort of Federal fire service and other security agencies present.

“While normalcy has since been restored, and investigation still ongoing, the Commissioner of Police FCT, CP Benneth Igweh psc, mni, enjoins residents to peacefully go about their lawful businesses without fear.”
 

Officials speak

No fewer than 10 shops were razed down by fire in Wuse Market during the incident, according to the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA’s Head of Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa, said this in a statement in Abuja.

Mrs Isa, who said that no life was lost, added that the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

She, however, said the fire was brought under control by a combined team of the Federal Fire Service, FCT Fire Service, and Julius Berger Fire Department.

The FEMA spokesperson said the agency received a distress call on the 112 emergency toll-free number at 4.05 p.m. about the fire incident at the market.

She added that the agency, being the lead coordinating body for all emergencies in the FCT, thereafter, activated its stakeholders to ensure maximum response.

Mrs Isa identified the stakeholders as the FCT Fire Service, Federal Fire Service, National Emergency Management Agency, FCT Police Command, and Julius Berger Fire Service.

The acting Director General of FEMA, Mohammed Sabo, appealed to FCT residents to equip their homes and business places with basic firefighting equipment like extinguishers and fire blankets.

Mr Sabo noted that the 10 shops affected by the fire incident did not have a fire extinguisher.

He also noted that access to the place was unhampered allowing the fire trucks to effectively fight the fire.

He advised market management to put a fire tinder in place to prevent loss of properties during fire outbreaks.

Mr Sabo also urged FCT residents to avoid storing petroleum products and other combustible items in their homes.

He called on residents to always use the 112-emergency toll-free number in the event of an emergency.

Earlier, Innocent Amaechina, spokesperson for the Abuja Market Management Ltd (AMML), who confirmed the outbreak of the fire, said that only a portion of the market was affected.

Mr Amaechina refuted the erroneous report in social media that the whole market was engulfed in fire.

The official, who also could not confirm the cause of the fire, said the incident reportedly began between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

He said that some shops, including the office of the AMML in the market, were burnt down by the fire.

He added that some vehicles parked at the northern parking lots in the market were equally burnt.

“I have not been able to have access to the market to assess the extent of the damage, but the police and fire service officials have arrived at the scene and taken control of the situation,” he said.

By Ademola Popoola, Premium Times

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Gabriel Osho of Luton Town called up for Nigeria Super Eagles

Luton Town's Gabriel Osho was handed his first international call up by Nigeria, along with Benjamin Ihefu of Tanzanian club Ihefu SC, for two friendlies against Ghana and Mali later this month.

Osho, 25, was born in England to Nigerian parents and is among 27 players called up by Nigeria for the tune up games, which will be played in Morocco.

But the Premier League defender could be doubtful for the games after being taken off late with a knee injury in the Hatters' 1-1 Premier League draw against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Returning to the squad, which is largely populated by returnees from the Africa Cup of Nations, is midfield general Wilfred Ndidi, who missed the tournament with injury.

The Leicester star leads a bunch of other returnees, including defenders Jamilu Collins and Tyronne Ebuehi, midfielder Tom Dele-Bashiru, as well as forwards Nathan Tella, Cyriel Dessers of Glasgow Rangers, and Nottingham Forest's Taiwo Awoniyi.

But there was no place for skipper Ahmed Musa, who recently parted ways with his Turkish club. Vice-captain WIlliam Troost-Ekong is also missing with a season-ending injury that he picked up during the tournament.

Nigeria are currently without a coach, after Jose Peseiro's contract lapsed at the end of February. The Portuguese and the NFF could not come to an agreement on a new contract and the federation have since begun the search for a new coach.

It is expected that Technical Director Augustin Eguavoen will lead the team to Morocco while the NFF continue their search for a permanent coach to replace Peseiro.

Nigeria take on arch rivals Ghana on March 22 at the Grand Stade de Marrakech in the first of the double-header friendly. Both teams last met in March 2022 in a two-legged play-off for a place at that year's FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar, with the Black Stars edging the fixture on the away-goal rule after a 1-1 aggregate.

Four days later, they play Mali at the same venue. Both sides last clashed in a friendly match in Rouen, France in the summer of 2016. The encounter ended scoreless. Three years earlier, Mali's Eagles lost 1-4 to the Super Eagles in the semifinal of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, who went on to win the title in Johannesburg.

By Colin Udoh, ESPN