A human rights organization, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, has revealed that at least 15 terrorist organizations are aiming to take over Nigeria to sabotage the upcoming general elections, which are slated for 2023.
Intersociety was responding to the terror alert that various western nations had issued to their nationals living in Abuja, the area around it, and other states across the country.
In a statement on Friday, signed by its principal officers, Emeka Umeagbalasi Chidinma Udegbunam, Chinwe Umeche, and Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Intersociety said, "There are no fewer than 15 Islamic jihadist groups presently operating or assembling in the country.
"There are also scores of embryonic others littered across the country.
"As of May 2015, Nigeria had only three well-known Islamic Jihadist groups: Boko Haram, Ansaru, and ISWAP.
Locally and regionally assembled Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen became full-blown and widespread Islamic Jihadist terror groups after their state-actor radicalization and romance with the present Government of Nigeria which started in late 2015.
"By 2016, they started moving southward and middle belt ward in widespread under Government security establishments’ watch and protection, using the existing centuries’ old cattle grazing routes.
"As if the above was not enough, the Nigerian Government and its security establishments dangerously embarked on sundry jihadist animal husbandry plans camouflaged in different names including “Military Ranching”, “RUGA”, “National Livestock Transformation Plan”, “Waterway Control Plan”, etc.
"The pluralistic and secularism doctrine of the country’s security forces was also dealt a heavy blow under the present Government of Nigeria which also introduced ethnic and religious domination in their command and rank and file structures leading to rabid operational crudity and partisanship or segregated and discriminatory policing and soldiering."
The group also revealed that "It is our further observation that the rising jihadist terror threats ahead of Nigeria’s crucial Presidential poll and others are not accidental as the present Nigerian Government had since its inception in 2015 behaved through its policies and actions as if its cardinal governance mission is to promote State Jihadism.
"The indices on the ground have also practically shown that apart from an increase in the number of Islamic Jihadist groups and regionalization and internationalization of same using Nigerian landscapes or spaces, the Islamic Jihadists also made far much inroad or encroachment into Nigeria’s state power, territories and regions than in the previous years before mid-2015.
The Nigerian government, according to Intersociety, is inadvertently encouraging violent change in the country by not allowing actions that may otherwise result in peaceful change.
"The Government of Nigeria is making peaceful change impossible and violent change inevitable and riotously clearing the road for the emergence of the Biafra Republic and others,” the group said.
The rights group further warned that " if jihadists succeeded in capturing Abuja, Nigerians would be left with three choices of the "Velvet Revolution, the Berlin Wall or the Yugoslav Fragmentation".
Intersociety noted that "The present Government of Nigeria cannot extricate itself from being remotely responsible for violent and conquest occupation of no fewer than 400 locations in the Southeast alone by Islamic Terror Fulani Herdsmen and their foreign recruits armed with AK-47s, etc.
"The number of defenseless citizens and civilian properties wantonly destroyed in Old Eastern Nigeria by Nigerian security forces since August 2015 has never been recorded since the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War of 1967-70, " Intersociety said.
Threat Alert.
In light of the increased risk of terrorist attacks, Germany, Bulgaria, Ireland, and Denmark are among the nations that have advised their nationals against making none essential trips to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
The travel warnings came after the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada had issued a similar alert about potential terrorist strikes in Abuja a few days earlier.
The UK government said in a statement on Monday that "attacks might be indiscriminate and directed against western interests."
Therefore, the British High Commission in Nigeria advised British nationals to avoid traveling to Abuja and 14 other states.
According to Premium Times, it also limited access to its premises in an updated terrorism alert.
In reaction to the increased risk of terrorist attacks, the US government on Tuesday authorized the departure from Nigeria of its non-essential personnel and their families.
Targets included in the lists provided by the governments were international organizations, schools, hotels, markets, shopping centers, bars, athletic events, transportation hubs, and law enforcement institutions.
The Nigerian government, through the minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, however, asserted on Wednesday that both citizens and non-citizens were safe in Nigeria and said that it would not be stampeded by whatever any government instructed its people to do.
Image: The Punch
35 Suspected ISWAP Fighters Arrested
Meanwhile, on Thursday, a team of agents from the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency, the Police, and other security agencies carried out a series of raids in Abuja during which they detained 30 fighters and five commanders of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The suspected terrorists who have been brought into DSS custody were apprehended at their different hideouts in Abuja, Mararaba, and other Federal Capital Territory, FCT satellite towns, according to The Punch.
According to security sources who spoke to The Punch, the ISWAP militants moved to the FCT after the Nigerian Air Force heavily bombed their camps and enclaves in the North-West.
The suspects in the terror investigation were preparing a significant attack in Abuja before their detention, according to a security source who spoke to The Punch.
According to the source, the fighters who were detained were giving helpful information that had resulted in the arrest of several of their members who had been hiding out in the city as security guards, cart pushers, and artists.
At Trademore Estate in Abuja's Lugbe neighborhood earlier on Monday, security personnel detained two suspected terrorists.
Security Measures
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has recaptured portions of land in Bwari town belonging to the Nigeria Law School that had been taken over by suspected criminals as a result of the elevated security alert.
The shanties on the land were removed to restore sanity in the area as part of measures to check insecurity in the area, according to Mr. Attah Ikharo, Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement to the FCT Minister, who was in charge of overseeing the process.
According to Mr. Ikharo, the demolition project will cover the area between the Bwari law school and the major market.
Abuja
To counter security concerns in the region, the FCTA also issued 60 operational vehicles to security agencies on Thursday in Abuja, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The report said that the FCTA Minister Muhammad Bello announced that the FCTA Security Council had also approved the distribution of N500 million for community policing in the six area councils of the territory while presenting the vehicles.
For his part, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao said on Thursday that the Nigerian Air Force would receive more fighter helicopters in December 2022 and other new acquisitions in 2023.
He said that President Mohammadu Buhari's administration has bought 38 new aircraft since 2015 in addition to the new fighter helicopters.
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