ThursdayRapAround: Between Abducted Train Passengers And Mamu Arrest

By Michael Ayotunde

Nigeria is indeed a lovely place to be, among committee of nations. A place where the government appears to be at home with terror sponsors rather than tame them.

The way and manner by which security issues are being handled in Nigeria, no doubt, leaves more to be desired.

Rather than provide leadership and tackle debilitating security issues head-on, authorities are laid-back, and frolicking with insane security indices – while the nation continue to burn and slip further into an inglorious quagmire.
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The unfortunate incidents of 28th March, 2022 at around 7:45 pm, during which hundreds of passengers travelling northwards on their way to Nigeria’s northwest were kidnapped in Katari, a community in Kaduna State, will forever remain in our heart of hearts.

During the crisis, a handful were kidnapped while others were killed and injured by bandits who bombed an Abuja-Kaduna train.

According to report, approximately 970 passengers were on board; and several were abducted into the bush by the marauding bandits who arrived on motorbikes holding firearms and other deadly weapons, according to one of the passengers who escaped the onslaught.

The train was reported to have left Abuja’s Idu station at 6 pm and was scheduled to arrive in Kaduna’s Rigasa train station by 8 pm. According to eyewitness accounts, the train was bombed twice before the armed bandits opened fire at the passengers.
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In the aftermath of the attack, the Nigerian Air Force conducted raids in the forest on the boundary of Niger State and Kaduna State, killing several terrorists in the process.

Government authorities later said that intelligence and investigations by security forces pointed to an “unholy handshake” of bandits cooperating with insurgent jihadist groups such as Boko Haram that were suspected to have carried out the attack, after analyzing videos of hostages and statements by the attackers as evidence.

Some of the detainees, however, have been released after back & forth negotiations midwifed majorly by a Kaduna-based publisher, Mr. Tukur Mamu. Negotiations have continued to hold between these non-state actors and some individuals who at the end of the day contact victims’ families or representatives where applicable. These negotiations, according to sources, were arranged without govt’s involvement.

Part of the posers this development has raised include the fact that individuals can take the initiatives to contact, negotiate the release of innocent travellers while government whose responsibility it is to provide leadership; to protect lives and property of the people; and safeguard the sovereignty of the country appears to be idle and or bereft of ideas on the to tackle security issues in the country.

Before now, Mr. Mamu had come out to tackle government for not doing enough to rescue the abductors and apparently condemned the lack of support from government agencies in his team’s effort to intervene in the rescue mission. At a time, he even vowed to discontinue in the move to secure the release of the remaining kidnapped train passengers from their abductors.

All along, there was no sign government was prepared to go beyond the usual shock and condemnation threats, to intervene, hence the surprise and mixed reactions to the reported arrest of Mamu while in Egypt.

For the avoidance of doubt, Mamu had lived and still live and carry out his activities in Nigeria without a single word of caution or encouragement. It is curious then that FG has suddenly woken up from its slumber to now say Mamu has some questions to answer.

As at the last count, about over 20 of the kidnapped train passengers are said to be in custody of the abductors.

Mamu was picked up on Tuesday by security operatives in Cairo, Egypt allegedly for his involvement in collecting ransom and taking same to terrorists in exchange for kidnapped victims, reliable security sources have confirmed.

Some of the security sources said beyond his relationship with insurgents in Nigeria, Mamu was also arrested because of his “Strong ties with a terror group in Sinai area in Egypt”.

Sinai Peninsula, according to reports, is the northeastern region of Egypt where terror extremism much pronounced and adjoins Israel and the Gaza Strip on the east. Like in Nigeria, militancy remains active and pose a serious threat to Egyptian security operatives and other symbols of Sinai.

Mamu has however denied any wrongdoing saying he was on a legitimate journey to Saudi Arabia.

The Kaduna publisher, who was involved in the controversial negotiations that led to the release of several abducted passengers of the March 28 Abuja-Kaduna train attack, was arrested together with his family by operatives of the Department of State Services (SSS) shortly after he was repatriated to Nigeria from Egypt.

All in a bid to unravel the circumstances leading to taking and remitting of ransom payment to his office must be subjected to true forensic checks; all perpetrators (both within and outside the shore of Nigeria) must also be brought to book.

This is where government laxity may have emboldened the likes of Mamu to pounce on the situation at hand – all for whatever they get out of it.