Chris Otaigbe
After months of agitations and anxiety fuelled by all sorts of criminalities visited on Nasarawa State, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nasarawa State Command on Friday paraded 17-suspected criminals for various offences committed in some parts of the state, NAN reports.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Mohammed Mahmoud-Fari, Commander of NSCDC in the state, made this known while parading the suspects in Lafia. He said the suspects committed crimes such as rape, theft, cybercrime and vandalism.
According to him, five of the suspects were arrested for rape, one for armed robbery, two for vandalism, seven for theft, while the remaining two were busted for cybercrime and criminal breach of trust.
“We have five suspected rapists. The worst part is that one of them is suspected of raping a six-year-old girl while another raped a seven-year-old girl. The other one impregnated a 13-year-old girl and one suspected homosexual who defiled an 11-year-old boy. Then we have one suspected case of armed robbery, and two suspected vandals who vandalized railway materials. We also have seven-suspected theft of different kinds. We have two cyber criminals who use their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards to withdraw money from people’s accounts,” he said.
Most of them, Mahmoud-Fari disclosed, had already confessed to the crimes and would soon be charged to court to face justice, adding that most of them were arrested in Lafia excluding those who use their ATM cards to withdraw money from accounts. One, he said, was arrested in Keffi, while another, in Lafia.
The NSCDC commander assured that the command would continue to work hard to rid the society of criminal elements, appealing, however, for support, from the public, through useful information on activities of criminal elements in their communities.
Fear and foreboding among the people, which arose as a result of the criminalities in the state, became more heightened as many alleged general collapse of governance, unpaid arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuity across the state; and intense suffering in the rural and semi urban areas, as the probable cause of banditry, kidnapping and violent crimes.
The menace reached an unbearable boiling point when a 3-month-old baby was hospitalized at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), after she was allegedly raped by an individual yet to be identified in Adogi, Nasarawa State,
According to the victim’s mother, Maimuna, who said she left her door and windows open as a result of the humid temperature on May 27, 2020, she woke up to see that her baby daughter was nowhere to be found.
Following this development, the mother of the victim notified other residents who in turn went out in search of the 3-month-old baby, who was eventually found in a classroom raped and abandoned.
“The incident occurred on Wednesday, 27th of last month when suddenly, I woke up around 3am and found that my baby was missing. I checked my phone, which was also close to me before I slept, but it was also missing. Everywhere across her private part was blood and then we rushed her to the hospital,” said Maimuna.
According to Maimuna, a member of the family had reported the incident a day after to a police station in Adogi for immediate action to be carried out but there has been no response.
The baby, who was treated at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Plateau State, had to undergo a minimum of three surgeries.
The heat brought upon the state by the criminals had become so much that it became political as opposition parties had to appeal to the State government to arrest the situation and save the North Central State from sliding into a haven for evil people. Among the crimes sweeping across Nasarawa, rape ranked very high and worrisome for the people.
In March, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Nasarawa State urged the State government to concentrate on fighting poverty, banditry and kidnapping in order to secure lives and property as well as improve the standard of living of the people.
This was contained in a statement signed by the state Chairman of the party, Mr Adams Nyisana, and made available to the Nigeria News Agency in Keffi on Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
Worried about the danger this state, that is closest to Abuja, which is the seat of the federal government, had sunk into, the Nigerian Air Force headquarters in Abuja, in May, deployed a team of Special Forces personnel to Nassarawa to curb activities of bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other criminal groups terrorizing people of the state.
Similarly, the NAF had announced the activation of the 22 Quick Response Wing (22 QRW) Lafia to fast rack restoration of peace and security to the North Central Zone.
In its bid to add impetus to ongoing operations in the North Central Zone of the country, In a statement issued in Abuja, NAF director public relations and information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on 17 May, 2020, deployed additional Special Forces (SF) operatives to Lafia in Nasarawa State. The deployment of the SF elements follows the earlier deployment of a NAF Mi-35P Helicopter Gunship to conduct operations in the area and marks the formal activation of the 22 Quick Response Wing (22 QRW) Lafia. The objective of the deployment was to hasten the restoration of peace and security to the North Central Zone.
In his address to the troops during the deployment, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, represented by the Air Officer Commanding Special Operations Command (AOC SOC), Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Charles Ohwo, stated that the deployment was aimed at enhancing the existing security architecture in the area.
He stated that the 22 QRW was established in 2018 with the objective of bringing security closer to the people by curbing the activities of bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other criminal elements in Nasarawa State and its environs, working in synergy with sister services and other security agencies.
He noted, however, that the Unit could not fully commence operations at that time due to some logistics and manpower constraints, which, he said, had recently been overcome in 2 ways.
The first, the AOC disclosed, was the recent graduation of additional 94 SF personnel at the NAF Regiment Training Centre (RTC) Annex in Bauchi, while the second was the support provided by the Nasarawa State Government, which paved way for the deployment of the SF elements and equipment.
He, therefore, used the opportunity to thank the Governor and his entire cabinet for their unrelenting support towards ensuring that security agencies in the state succeed in performing their constitutionally assigned roles.
AVM Ohwo also used the opportunity to congratulate the troops for being chosen as part of SF personnel to activate the 22 QRW Lafia, admonishing them to continue to uphold the NAF’s core values of ‘Integrity’, ‘Service before Self’ and ‘Excellence’, as they carry out their assigned tasks.
The Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Engineer Abdullahi Sule, who was present to receive the troops, expressed appreciation for the swift response by the NAF to deploy SF elements to the state, which he said, would help to end acts of criminality in the state.
In a bid to dispel growing misconception promoted by opposition about its management of affairs in the state, the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, two months later in June, promised to enact a stringent law that will protect women against rape in the interest of peace and the overall development of the state and the country at large.
Speaker of the House, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, stated this on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, when Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, a former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and a former Amirat of the State chapter of the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN), led a rally against rape to the House. Hajiya Zainab Ahmed had visited the assembly to seek the support of the House in the area of legislation against rape.
The speaker said the law, if enacted, would not only protect women against rape, but would also punish those found guilty to serve as deterrent to others.
“Cases of rape are alarming in the country. What is happening to our mothers, wives, daughters is sad and unfortunate.” He said.
He further affirmed the assembly would collaborate with the Ministry of justice in order to tackle the situation.
With the arrest of these criminals, many in Nasarawa State and indeed, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which is less than 45 minutes’ drive from the crime-infested state, would heave a slight sigh of relief as a surge in crime in Nasarawa is a threat to the peace of the nation’s capital and seat of power.
