Security experts have called on the federal government to forge a common front with neighbouring countries such as Benin, Chad and Niger to crush the Lakurawa terrorist sect in the country.
One of the experts who spoke to LEADERSHIP, Brig Gen Sani Usman (rtd), said the government should adopt a proactive and multi-dimensional approach to address the threat.
He said to avoid the mistakes that previously emboldened Boko Haram terrorists in the North East, a more proactive and multi-dimensional approach is essential in addressing the newly emerging terror threat in the North West as manifested by the Lakurawa sect”.
General Sani further urged security agencies work towards greater intelligence gathering and sharing among themselves in order to more effectively identify and intercept potential threats early on.
“There should also be a concerted effort to foster collaboration between the military, police, and local community leaders to create a united front against the group’s influence and recruitment.
“Socio-economic interventions are equally important; by addressing poverty, unemployment, and lack of education in affected regions, the government can weaken the appeal of terrorist ideologies,” he asserted.
The veteran, while calling for good governance, said, “These violent extremists are only filling the vacuum left by the government. Most of our border and rural communities are left at the mercy of these criminals.”
He stressed the need for clear communication and strategic engagement with local communities to build trust and encourage their participation in security efforts,
According to him, the local populace should not been seen “as bystanders but as critical partners in counterinsurgency operations.”.
General Sani went on: “Adopting non-kinetic measures, such as deradicalisation programmes and initiatives, should be pursued vigorously.
“All efforts to support a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the problem should not be spared to prevent escalation or the resurgence of terror networks across the region.
“We must constructively engage the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Benin on this matter; let forge a common front.”
A security consultant, Abdullahi Mohammed Jabi, called on the federal government to engage more personnel and ensure the Sokoto Caliphate does not fall into the hands of the extremists.
Jabi highlighted the possibility of international influence in
domestic terrorism and called on the Northern leaders to help the federal government crush the group as soon as possible.
He pointed out that the Northern region, due to its population of idle youths, was susceptible to terrorists’ influence.
He further urged the federal government to begin the mass recruitment and train enough people to end the threat before it escalates beyond the present state.
But in the interim, he advised the federal government to recall some retired soldiers and motivate them with good incentives to fight the threats.
“Anything that touches Sokoto has touched the entire Muslim community, and such shouldn’t be allowed,” Jabi said. “International influence in domestic terrorism has been there in the last two to three decades. The region that is more susceptible and more vulnerable to terrorist activities is the Northern region because they have an idle population.
“They have a population that is only used for political gains, so they penetrated through that part of the country but now the leaders have realised that they will become a mess if they don’t come together to address these challenges,”.
He warned that, like Boko Haram, the Lakurawa terror group will consume the entire country if its threat is not addressed promptly.
“Each zone in this country has peculiar challenges due to negligence, bad governance and official corruption. This monster coming up is an offshoot of the Maitatsine group and picked some elements from the Boko Haram group, so if Nigeria does not wake up to do what it needs to do quickly to crush them, that will give them room to expand. There is more to this than meets the eye, so if we want democracy to succeed, the federal government must do everything possible to quash it.”
LEADERSHIP recalls that the Defence Headquarters last week alerted the nation on the presence of a new terror group in the Northwest states Kebbi and Sokoto. At the weekend, its fighters reportedly killed 15 persons in Kebbi in additional to sacking police formations in areas it operates.
Lakurawa Not ANew Terror Group – Bulama
Bulama Bukarti, a lawyer and researcher, has said the Nigerian Military has known about the Lakurawa terror group since 2018.
Bulama, who spoke on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, which LEADERSHIP monitored, said the group was not a new terrorist group as the military claimed.
He explained that the Lakurawa group had been camping in the North of the country for over six years.
“They first started entering Nigeria illegally between 2016 and 2017, but they did not stay permanently. They move in, stay small and go back to where they were coming from. It is a group being fought by the Nigerien and Malian forces”.
According to him, the group migrates to the West whenever there is a hit on them from the Nigerien and Malian forces.
“They move to the Northwest to regroup and recuperate and then go back to continue to fight in the Sahel, and they have been doing that.
“The Nigerian Army is aware because in 2018, the communities reported this group, but the police said they have investigated and that the people are armed, but they are not violent. In the same year, in 2018, they killed a traditional ruler in Tangaza local government. They were reported to the military, who fought them back into the Niger Republic, and they returned after a few months, so it’s not a new group. It has been there.”
He disclosed that the group members do not speak Hausa, a local dialect popular in Northern Nigeria.
“They speak French, Arab and Taureg. They rely on local interpreters for their daily transactions.”
He said the group “imposes levies on cattle owned by individuals and confiscate cattle owed by government officials.”
