By Benjamin Auta Yohanna
A Public Affairs Analyst and Security Consultant
Friday June 22, 2018
It is very unfortunate, sad and pathetic when a policeman 👮♀ was killed in the central business district of Kaduna on Thursday 21/06/2018 and the corpse allowed to be mutilated and waste for a while on the street. Meanwhile, the gory pictures and videos immediately went viral on social media, which left many devastated and shocked.
This type of incidence of confrontation between security agencies and the citizenry is avoidable wherever you have an effective government. The killing of the policeman surprised many, where many have thrown the question of what really is happening to the once peaceful Kaduna that gradually is sliding into a state of lawlessness?
Reports from Kaduna State pointed the killing of the policeman to a violent clash, which was sparked by the Shiites protests over the continuous and illegal detention of their leader Shiekh Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife by the state government.
Zakzaky’s detention followed a violent clash between his followers and the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai in Zaria on Dec. 14, 2015. The Kaduna state government is prosecuting the Shiites leader for the crises.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday 2/12/2016 had ordered for the unconditional release of detained Shiite’s Islamic leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenatudeen within 45 days. Delivering the judgment, the Presiding Judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that the continued detention of El-Zakzaky and his wife by state instrumentality was an arbitrary act.
No extant law within the country’s statutory legal frameworks and external ones subscribed to by the state had allowed anybody to be held against his or her wishes.
El-Zakzaky had filed a fundamental right enforcement suit against the Federal Government challenging both him and his spouse detention.
The court therefore, held that the continued detention of the applicant without trial amounted to a gross violation of the constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
In addition the court also award the sum of N50 million as general damages against the Federal government in favour of the applicant and his wife. It also ordered the construction of a new accommodation for El-Zakzaky’s family in any part of Kaduna State or any town so approved by the applicant within the Northern region.
In flagrant abuse of the rule of law and the fundamental principles of freedom to liberty and rights, the federal and state governments have failed to obey the court orders.
The security implications for these gross violations of fundamental human rights is that we may be creating a new Boko Haram in Kaduna State, without knowing.
What we would then witness is the country’s slow slide into anarchy.
Ironically, it is also annoying the way some politicians associate themselves with extreme religious groups to solicit for votes, but only to come back later after they have won elections and say they will fight them. As was the case with Senator Ali Modu Sherrif and Boko Haram in Borno State, so it is the case of El-Rufai and the Shiites group in Kaduna State.
It is estimated that there are around 800, 000 Shiites living in Kaduna State. Unlike Boko Haram, many of shiites are well educated, and are self- employed or gainfully employed with government and private companies. There are many of them who are working as security personnel with the country’s security agencies. Hence, the need by the Kaduna state government to be very careful in how this issue is addressed.
Many have written on these foreseeable danger before it escalates, and now here we are with the monster.
The hands of Kaduna state government today is already full with myriad of security challenges, which ranges from the activities of street thuggery (‘yan shara), cattle rustling, armed banditry and kidnapping.
In the highways and in the streets of Kaduna today one sees restless youths wander around and brazenly with machetes and knives snatching phones, intimidating passer-bys and sometimes even stopping people from saying the daily prayers in mosques.
It is the same with Kidnapping and armed banditry, these criminals are seen in surrounding Birnin gwari villages and surrounding markets with guns without being arrested by the security agencies. The ABUJA- Kaduna and -Zaria roads have continued to be unsafe for traveling.
Kaduna state government under El-Rufa’i has failed in its primary responsibility, that of protecting the lives and properties of the people in the state. The governor’s style of handling of security issues is poor, his many action and utterances since assuming office on May 29th only aggravated the security situation of the state. This is besides the huge resources earmarked to ensure that there is security and peaceful coexistence.
As governor and the chief security officer of Kaduna State, El-Rufai no longer stays in Kaduna State, he is more engaged with his post-graduate studies in the Netherlands, and if he happens to be in Nigeria, he is mostly in Abuja preparing for President Muhammadu Buhari 2019 re-election bid.
Regrettably, 24 hours after the gory incident, where a policeman, not a statement was issued by government to condemn the action and inform citizens of efforts being done by the state government to curb the violence from further escalation.
In sane climes the governor should have taken the next available flight and come back to kaduna, and hold series of security meetings to see how to remedy the security situation.
