Nigerian State of Emergency Enacted in Northeastern States

Members of the Nigeria Joint Task Force say they have killed a Boko Haram commander and 30 members of the organization. Nigeria has been hit by sectional conflict in the last three years., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

War against terrorists begins

WEDNESDAY, 15 MAY 2013 00:00
FROM MADU ONUORAH , AZIMAZI MOMOH JIMOH, NKECHI ONYEDIKA (ABUJA), SAXONE AKHAINE (KADUNA), NIYI BELLO (AKURE) AND NJADVARA MUSA (DAMATURU)
Nigerian Guardian

• Military deploys troops in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe

• CAN, Afenifere, Gaidam back emergency rule

• ACN, PDP, northern leaders disagree

WITH a massive deployment of troops and equipment, the military Wednesday began the implementation of the state of emergency declared by President Goodluck Jonathan to fight terrorists in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.

The three states where the emergency action was declared share common borders with Cameroun, Chad and Niger. These border communities have become bases for terrorist training, insurgency and other criminal activities against Nigeria.

Borno State, the major base of the terrorist group, Boko Haram, has a border with Niger, Chad and Cameroun while Yobe and Adamawa share a border with Niger and Cameroun.

The deployment is a joint operation by the three services – Army, Navy and Air Force. While the Army will supply the bulk of the ground troops with its own equipment, the Air Force and Navy will supply aircraft and other necessary equipment.

The Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, said the focus of the operation would be the tracking down of criminal elements who have been using the border communities to violate the sovereignty of Nigeria.

Olukolade also said that the military had briefed participating troops appropriately on arrests, cordon and search.

Besides, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has described the declaration of the state of emergency as a justified action and a vindication of CAN’s position that negotiation with terrorists would always fail.

He observed that with the emergency action in the three states, the Amnesty Committee was no longer relevant and should be dissolved.

In a statement by his Special Assistant, Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Kenny Ashaka, the CAN president said that not dissolving the political structures, and the retention of the office of the governors, were signposts that President Jonathan is a democrat.

But the Anglican Bishop of Nnewi, Most Rev Godwin Okpala has said that it is confusing as to how the state of emergency declared in the three states would work if the governors and legislators of the affected states continue to stay in office. Okpala spoke in a telephone interview with The Guardian.

The leadership of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political and cultural organisation, yesterday described as “most appropriate”, the declaration of the state of emergency.

Octogenarian leader of the group, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, who spoke to The Guardian on telephone said: “We support the declaration because it is the most appropriate step to take in the circumstances that we found ourselves as a nation.

“We cannot continue to be in a state of anarchy where some people take the law into their hands and constitute a parallel authority. We have said it before, that government needed to assert its authority by deploying all its paraphernalia of maintaining security to curb the insurgency.”

Also, the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) applauded the Federal Government for the move, which it said, was taken “due to the embarrassing level of insecurity in those states among a few others.”

In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Ayo Fadaka, the party said: “While we appreciate the painstaking approach of Mr. President towards solving this crisis, we feel that it is of utmost importance to declare that no stone must be left unturned in the ultimate desire to quell this insurgency.”

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe yesterday supported the emergency rule in his state.

The expression of his support was contained in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Information, Abdullahi Bego in Damaturu.

In the statement, Gaidam said: “I agree with the President on the imposition of state of emergency in Yobe State; as there is no alternative to peace and security to people’s lives and property.”

But the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has described the declaration of the state of emergency as lacking in original thinking, and therefore asked the National Assembly to reject it.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said if the use of force was capable of ending the Boko Haram crisis, it would have ended a long time ago.

It said while the President was right in expressing outrage at the mindless killings and wanton destruction by the insurgents, he was wrong in proposing more of the same measures that had failed to yield results.

The party urged Jonathan to disband the amnesty committee “ he recently inaugurated and saddled with reaching out to the insurgents, because by opting to flood the states with more troops under an ill-advised emergency rule, he has succeeded in pulling the carpet from under the committee’s feet. Who negotiates genuinely with a gun to his head? The committee’s job is over, the members can as well pack up and go home.”

The PDP described the reaction of the

ACN as “that of a political party speaking from a diseased and confused state of mind.”

A statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in Abuja yesterday made it clear: “The state of emergency does not run contrary to the spirit and the assignment of the presidential committee on amnesty. The committee will take the job to its logical, fruitful end while the deployment of more troops under the emergency is an irreducible necessity to stem a determined war on the nation.”

Both the Arewa elders and youths yesterday condemned Federal Government’s emergency rule, saying that the move may not be panacea to the insurgency in the North.

Former Governor of Kaduna and human rights crusader, Col. Abubakar Umar (rtd) also cautioned the Federal Government on the emergency rule in the affected states, as it may lead to more hardship for the residents in those states.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani, who reacted to the emergency rule in the three northern states said that the elders in the North had earlier warned the government over the use of excessive force in resolving the insurgency in the north, pointing out that “there is no difference between the decision by government to impose a state of emergence and when the use of excessive force was deployed and this is what we have been preaching against.”

The President of AYF, Malam Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu noted: “As youths from the North who have seen the crisis first hand and the engagement of the soldiers even before now, we are of the belief that the President should have adopted a political approach in resolving the insurgency problem rather than apply this present stringent rule.”