BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI

There had been patches of violent eruptions here and there before President Goodluck Jonathan assumed power but the situation got worse last year when on October 1, 2010, as the country celebrated its golden jubilee bombs went off some hundreds of meters from the theater of revelry at the Eagle Square in Abuja.

While the hullabaloo generated by that blast which killed many was still being investigated months after, another couple of deadly bombs went up in the perimeters of the largest military barrack in the federal capital territory, the Mogadishu Cantonment also killing and maiming many.

Since then, investigations have been ongoing without the nation getting to know the groups responsible for the dastardly acts. With the unending investigations and inability to nip these acts in the bud, those behind the act have become emboldened to do more as witnessed in Suleija, Jos, Maiduguri, Kaduna and in the South-South zone. In some states in the East, bombs planted did not go off before they were detonated.

As if these bombings and the havoc they create were not enough, the Boko Haram phenomenon surfaced with killings and attacks which as at the last count, have left no less that 16, 000 Policemen, Soldiers and civilians including politicians dead.

The election violence that took the nation and security agencies unawares in the Northern states of Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Kano, Adamawa, Plateau, during which over 800 Nigerians, among them NYSC members were slaughtered and property worth hundreds of millions of naira were destroyed, brought to fore, the fact that in spite of what has been done to move our security agencies forward, a lot more still needed to be done.

It would be recalled that prior to the commencement of the general elections, security agencies of the Nigeria Police, the SSS, the Nigerian Army, the Navy, the Airforce and the Defence headquarters, went the extra mile of not only sensitizing the populace of consequences of breaching the peace for whatever reason.

They also emphasized and drummed it into the ears of their personnel, the need to handle matters of over-reaction by Nigerians with care because as witnessed in trouble spots, the security agencies were trained to safeguard, not demolish their fellow citizens.

Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika, Naval Chief, Vice Admiral OS Ibrahim, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar, virtually went round the 36 states of the federation sensitizing the officers and men of the three services on their roles before, during and after the elections with a view to ensuring a synergy of purpose not only among the security agencies but also with the teeming Nigerians that would partake in the elections.

Part of the strategies of the Security agencies of the military towards containing the excesses of hoodlums and threat to security were the establishment of standby rapid deployment squads in all states in case of serious crises. The Nigeria Navy and Airforce were to increase surveillance of Nigeria ’s seaports, airspace, airports and continental shelf during elections through the air and sea. The SSS was to monitor the elections closely and carry out mop up operations of illegal weaponry, criminal hideouts as well as confine key trouble makers and their supporters.

Others like the National Drug Law enforcement agency were to use pre_emptive strikes on hard drug dealers and user’s hideout. The Customs and Immigrations were to prevent imports of weapons, fake election materials and liaise closely with other security agencies to cover porous boundary routes.

However, the rapidity with which the Boko Haram killings have continued to occur, after the elections and even after President Jonathan assured the nation that the sect and their killing acts would be checkmated, has continued to be a source of worry to every Nigerian. Right now, indigenes of Borno, Bauchi , Niger and Yobo States in particular no longer go home because of fear of Boko Haram attacks.

In the meatime, Vanguard is aware that a new operational order to tackle the menace of Boko Haram in Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Niger states among others has been put in place by the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim. Under the order, no Commissioner of Police posted to any of these troubled states including Kaduna and Katsina states, should spend more than six months in the position.