Preamble: Few
days ago, Colonel Al-Amin Abubakar Garba who is the Commander, Division
Intelligence Command (DIC) of the Nigerian Army 1st Division, Kaduna,
stated the obvious that, ’’porous
borders and weak security system are routes through which
Boko Haram and other criminal groups source arms. In his words, ‘’the porous
Nigeria’s frontiers make it difficult to track movement of illegal arms and
immigrants, hence the proliferation of weapons among criminal groups’’. Also speaking on the sporadic attacks attributed to herdsmen,
the erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon
Arase opined that most of the herdsmen that allegedly attack locals were
foreigners who gained entrance into Nigeria due to border porosity. There’s
no gainsaying the fact that persistent human
trafficking and influx of illegal immigrants, weapons and ammunitions,
Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and their raw materials through Nigeria’s ubiquitous
porous borders and their far-reaching socio-economic and national security
implications. That Boko Haram militants abducted and have in their
custody, a chunk of the over 276 Chibok
school girls it seized over two years ago, underscores lax security and
porosity of Nigeria’s extensive borders.
Beyond tritely whining about hitherto
known shortcomings responsible for national security challenges, it is
high-time Nigeria’s security agencies and officials mandated to fix them, concentrated
on proffering innovative solutions. A holistic security approach, cutting-edge border
security and surveillance gadgets will rein in this porous border and the
attendant arms/weapons, drugs and human trafficking upshots.
Nigeria’s Extensive Illegal
Borders, Entry Points
Nigeria shares about 5,000 km radius mostly unprotected, unmarked
border with a couple of sister African countries. Aside national security
implications, Nigeria’s porous borders have socio-economic and health ramifications.
Sequel to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak, it was reported that Nigeria’s
over 1,479 Illegal porous borders could hamper efforts to
curtail the spread of the virus. While it is difficult to ascertain precisely
the number of illegal entry points into Nigeria, the NATFORCE - National
Taskforce on Illegal Importation of Small Arms and Light Weapons, SALW, raised
an alarm before the 2015 general elections over the increasing number of illegal
borders currently being used to smuggle dangerous weapons into
Nigeria, which NATFORCE says hit 6,000. Nigeria’s borders in the northeast is
so extensive and porous that at the border town of Banki, in Gombe State, the
southern entrance to a local mosque is reportedly inside Nigerian territory
while the northern exit of the same mosque lies in another country, Niger
Republic.
How Porous Borders Boost Proliferation
Weapons (SALW), Drug Trafficking
It is estimated that Nigeria accounts for about 70 percent of illegal small arms
and light weapons (SALW) circulating within the West African sub-region. Undoubtedly,
many of these weapons fall into the hands of non-state actors such as Boko
Haram Terrorists, BHTs, Niger Delta Militants and criminal elements. The
former Boss of NATFORCE, Mr. Okeke
accused a former National Security Adviser as masterminding
the importation of over 22 trucks of
illegal arms, ammunitions and light weapons into Nigeria through the
Nigeria-Seme border. In his piece - Border
Security, Arms Proliferation And Terrorism In Nigeria -
Colonel Sagir Musa submits inter-alia that, ‘’some border towns particularly in
the Northeastern flank serve as locus for trafficking of arms as well as
centers for stolen goods, drugs and hostages perpetrated by criminals,
terrorists and their collaborators’’.
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| Intercepted SALW in Nigeria/Image Credit: Aljazeera |
A
former Comptroller, Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Ade
Dosunmu, once narrated how his men seized 3, 000 shotgun cartridges allegedly smuggled
into the country through the border town of Agosasa, Ogun State. Recall how
Nigeria’s security agencies on July 17, 2010, intercepted
about 13 container loads of military-grade weapons including rocket launchers,
grenades amongst others at the Lagos port allegedly imported by an Iranian -
Mr. Azin Aghajani. 15 Russians were also arrested in Lagos by naval officers on
October 18, 2012 and subsequently arraigned for unlawful importation of arms
into Nigeria.
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| Nigeria-Idiroko Border, onward Benin Republic |
Boko Haram Weapon Trafficking Procedure, Itinerary
On Friday 30th April 2016, troops of the Nigerian Army reportedly busted
a clandestine Boko Haram Terrorists’ Improvised Explosive Devices-making factory in Ngala town, north eastern Nigeria. A
National Mirror Newspaper report: how
Nigeria’s leaky borders aid insurgents, asserts
that at the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency, hundreds of weapons including
rocket launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, military-grade bombs, RPGs and Ak47
rifles were intercepted by security operatives in Maiduguri and in border
villages plausibly routed from Libya and Mali and bought from rebels there. In his write-up titled, ‘’Boko
Haram’s Arms Trafficking Modus Operandi’’, Dr.
Freedom C. Onuoha, a research fellow at Nigeria’s Centre for Strategic Research
and Studies, National Defence College, Abuja, inter-alia submits that Boko
Haram terrorists conceal and smuggle arms into Nigeria via ‘’specially crafted
skin or thatched bags attached to camels, donkeys and cows, trucks, trailers,
lorries, tunneling and underground bunkers’’. The report cites that in July
2013, Nigerian security forces discovered a vast network of underground tunnels
connecting houses and many bunkers (some have the capacity to accommodate over
100 persons) used by Boko Haram for trafficking SALWs in Bulabulin area of
Borno State.
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| Boko Haram Underground Tunnel |
A
conservative estimate by locals in Kuros-Kawwa, a village in Monguno council
area of Borno State claims there are tenably 300 unmanned and unprotected walkways
which are potential arms trafficking routes connecting the Borno -
Damaturu/Maiduguri axis with Niger, Chad or Cameroon. Out of the 27 local
government areas in Borno State, nine are said to crisscross into a couple of
neighbouring countries through unsecured common borders. It is understood that in
southern Borno, it is easier to walk-in to Cameroon from some adjoining mountainous
settlements in Gwoza council area than to come to Maiduguri, the state capital.
Central Borno towns - Bama, Kala Balge and Ngala councils are said to have
direct links with Cameroon. Aside Banki, Maksamari, Kumshe, Sigal Diba,
Mokhole, Djilbe, Wulgo and Gamboru, several villages such as Zaga, Fage, Bula
Batube, Ngilewa, Kabbal Balram, Ngurno, Baga, Kawwa, Barwati, Bisagana, Arage,
Mitile and Mallam Fatori, Kadi, Asagar, Gashagar, Foguwa and Galjiya, amongst
others are peopled, interspersed with Nigerians, Nigeriens and Chadians bound
with historical, religious, cultural and language ties.
Last year, the police in Maiduguri arrested a 35-year-old woman, Lucy Dangana, with 10 AK-47 rifles and nine
magazines. In Adamawa
State, there are possibly 30 illegal entry routes interspersed between Ganye,
Belel, Mubi, Madagali, Toungo and Maiha through which contraband and weapons
are smuggled into Nigeria from Cameroon or vice versa. In Katsina State, local
council areas such as Jibia, Kaita, Maiadua, and Zango, amongst others,
crisscross into neighbouring Niger Republic. Other notorious trafficking and smuggling
routes in Sokoto State include Illela and Birnin Konni, Gani
Kashine, Kwaras-Kwaras, Bayan gidan doune, Araba , Kalmalu and Kes-Guda border
towns where thousands of illegal Nigerien migrants waltz into Nigeria yearly,
with the collusion of corrupt border and immigration officials.
Niger Delta Militancy
Buoyed By Massive Arms Proliferation
Chairman
of the Presidential Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PRESCOM), Mr.
Emmanuel Imohe blamed rising
incidents of armed struggle, including militancy championed by the Niger Delta
Avengers (NDA) on the poor implementation of the Presidential Amnesty Programme
(PAP) and proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) in Nigeria. Mr.
Imohe said this during an Inter –Ministerial Roundtable on the ATT in Nigeria organized
in collaboration with West African Action Network on Small Arms and Light
Weapons (WAANSA) and Control Arms Coalition. According to him, ‘’the
implementation of the Amnesty programme was poorly carried out in that the
militants might have returned knocked out weapons in exchange for funds with
which some might have likely used to purchase more sophisticated arms’’. The then Flag Officer Commanding Nigerian Navy (Western
Naval Command) Rear-Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim reportedly blamed the worrisome proliferation of small arms in the Niger
Delta on illegal bunkering of crude oil in the Niger Delta region. Also,
the Bayelsa state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson revealed that, ‘’Niger Delta militants steal crude oil to buy arms,
recruit members’’. Mr. Dickson says, ‘’oil theft is a threat to national security and
responsible for the proliferation of arms in the Niger Delta’’. According
to him, ‘’criminals sustain their operations over
the years through the proceeds from illegal bunkering activities’’ and
likened the scenario to, ‘’more of a threat to
national security than the loss of revenue that everybody is shouting
about”. Also recall how a Russian tanker – MT African Pride laden with thousands of barrels of crude oil with 13 Russian
sailors seized by the Nigerian navy on suspicion of smuggling ‘disappeared’. On
July 2013, the Police arrested a former Niger Delta militant, one Anietie Etim and four others
who reportedly specialize in trafficking arms in the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula
area. Lax security in sea ports, unprotected water ways, thousands of
creeks, dozens of private jetties, in the Niger Delta are said to be arms
trafficking havens through which militants and criminals trade stolen crude oil
for sophisticated weapons.
 |
| Seized SALW |
South-West Nigeria Weapon, Human
Smuggling Routes
In
South-west Nigeria border areas, the Seme-Badagry-Idi Iroko and Saki axis, Oke Ogun
area of Oyo State, Ilesa-Ibariba, Iwere Oke, Ejio and Iseyin-Ayetoro road are
notorious for trafficking. Policemen reportedly arrested a man conveying 3,500
rounds of live ammunition and an AK-47 assault rifle. Idiroko border in Ogun State
is perhaps, the second busiest border in South Western Nigeria after Seme in
Lagos state. It is an old border town that takes one to Porto Novo and Cotonou,
all in Benin Republic in less than an hour by road via Lagos or Sango Ota
through Owode, Ajegunle to Idiroko and across to Igolor, a small but busy town
in Benin Republic. Obelle is another quiet village in Nigeria that borders Pobe
in Republic of Benin is a major human trafficking route. Notwithstanding the plethora
of Customs officials on the Obelle Oja-odan-Ilaro-Papalanto route, truckloads
of rice, second hand clothes and shoes, frozen chicken and possibly arms, are
smuggled into Nigeria through this axis, especially at nights. Baruten Local
Government Area and connecting
communities in Kwara State share common borders with the Republic of
Benin. This area is reportedly porous and serves as smuggling, human trafficking
route.
The Approach So Far: Penchant For
Kneejerk, Quick Fixes
Many of the socioeconomic and security challenges bedeviling
Nigeria are not new. What we have as Boko Haram today is a variant of
‘Maitatsine’ which ravaged the North-East Nigeria in the early
1980’s. The Niger Delta militancy was birthed in the
1960s with Adaka Boro’s formation of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force. The
recurring agitation for actualization of Biafra is intertwined with events
leading to the 1966 coup d'état and the 1967-1970 civil war. In the
aforesaid conflicts, there’s a penchant to postpone the evil day by tackling
the symptoms of the disease as against eradicating the remote and causative
agents. A Committee is set up. Another Committee ensues to review the submissions
of the earlier Committee and the cycle continues.
Just
recently, the Federal government set up a Committee
tasked with recovering illegal weapons in the Niger Delta. Similarly, Rivers,
Imo states also assembled Committees, granted amnesty
to militants, cultists and criminals in a bid to make them surrender their
arms. They made a show of recouping unserviceable weapons from the blokes and
no one seem to bother how the arms come into Nigeria in the first instance.
Conclusion/Recommendation/Solutions:
In my essay - Widespread
Insecurity in Nigeria: A Case For URGENT Restructuring of Security,
Intelligence Agencies, I inter alia postulated that restructuring and equipping Nigeria’s
security and intelligence agencies, in other words making them to be proactive
rather than reactive will go a long way to rein in terrorism and insecurity in
Nigeria. It is inexcusable for the security and intelligence agencies to bandy
porous borders as alibi. Perhaps the State Security Service (SSS) or Department
of State Security (DSS) as they are sometimes called, should focus on issues
impinging national security - intelligence gathering than chasing, clamping
down on Bureau De Change operators and trying to regulate foreign exchange
transactions. Checking massive proliferation of arms through our borders will
require seamless synergy, intelligence sharing between Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, deployment
of innovative gadgets such as unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs or drones as they
are popularly called; mobile surveillance systems and satellite technology, communication
devices, rugged and fast patrol vehicles, reining in entrenched
corruption amongst Customs, Immigration officers at border posts and
partnership with countries we share common borders with.
The Ministry of Interior must synergize with Office of the National Security
Adviser and relevant stakeholders and brainstorm a robust border
security roadmap.
Founder of Bulwark Intelligence, Tanwa
Ashiru, believes the discovery of IEDs making factories and materials in some northern states is
a positive step in Nigeria’s counter terrorism fight since according to her,
‘’proper forensic examination of the IEDs will help security agencies to
identify several key information including the actors involved in making the
bombs, the profiles of those who implant the IEDs, and the key ingredients and
components used in the creation’’.
Written by:
Don Okereke, security consultant/analyst, writer
CEO, Holistic Security Background Checks Limited
Twitter: @DonOkereke
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