SECURITY THREATS TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Security agencies could do more to secure the Federal Capital Territory
Amid rising security concerns in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), chairman of the House of Representatives committee on internal security, Garba Muhammad has raised the alarm that the National Assembly complex is under security threats. During a public hearing on a bill seeking to establish a specialised legislative internal security agency last Tuesday, Muhammad said intelligence reports and security incidents in recent months have revealed that the legislative complex has increasingly become a target for criminal attacks. He added that the influx of people, including visitors, lobbyists, and demonstrators, has made the complex a vulnerable target. Indeed, the National Assembly is already a bustling bazaar of criminality, with reported cases of people bearing fake identity cards, cases of car thefts, vandalism, and others appearing in offices without formal appointment.
Though Muhammad did not mention when the recent threat was issued or the group responsible, such threats are not new in the FCT, nor across the nation at large. We therefore enjoin the federal government to take the warning seriously than dismissing the terror alerts as mere scaremongering. In May 2021, a security alert warned lawmakers of a planned Boko Haram attack on the National Assembly complex, and other prime government locations in Abuja, leading to intense security measures around its premises. Besides, suicide bombers have indiscriminately targeted public infrastructure and civilians in Abuja, including the 2011 attack on headquarters of the United Nations in Abuja, killing at least 18. A year after killing dozens of people in separate attacks around Nyanya, another bomb blast in Abuja in 2015 killed dozens of others and injured many more.
What compounds the situation is that in recent times, Abuja residents have been sounding the alarm and expressing frustration over the failure of security forces to safeguard the city. Kidnapping, armed robberies and other opportunistic crimes are on the rise. The violence is accentuated by the recent tragedies of an armed robbery in Katampe Extension, Mabushi, resulting in the death of an Arise Television reporter, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, and the killing few days later of a veterinary doctor, Ifeanyi Ogbu and the abduction of his three children.
When residents of the capital city of a country not only move around with a sense of foreboding but also feel uncertain about the capacity of the authorities to deal with such challenge, then there is a problem. Besides, when a country cannot guarantee the security of life and property for residents of its federal capital, people have reasons to fear. Today in the FCT, armed robbers operate within the city centre, including in highbrow areas like Maitama and Asokoro, and they have now been joined by kidnappers who abduct people in broad daylight. Yet, the strategic importance of Abuja not only as the seat of power but also the home to all foreign embassies and international agencies cannot be overemphasised.
Initially, the rising tide of insecurity within the FCT was confined to the satellite communities that are home to low-income earners. Angry youths bereft of opportunities across the country had been moving into communities like Kuje and Gwagwalada. But what started with occasional cases of opportunistic criminals robbing unsuspecting passengers inside commercial vehicles in those suburbs has since escalated into the emergence of terror cells. The July 2022 attack by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) operatives on Kuje Prison in Abuja where hundreds of inmates (including their detained members) were let loose, after killing several people should be an eye opener.
While it may not be necessary to create a separate security directorate for the National Assembly because of increased bureaucracy and overlapping functions, there is need to strengthen its security, as indeed, other parts of the country.
