A BLACK MONDAY IN DAPCHI, YOBE STATE!

ZION B-BC   NEWSLETTER.  

(Looking at Nigeria's Political System from a godly Perspective).

A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 7. NO 239. 11th March, 2018.} “…ONLY The Truth, Will Set You   Free! (John.8:32).

A BLACK MONDAY IN DAPCHI, YOBE STATE!

Dereliction of constitutionally assigned duties amongst rival security agencies have been identified as the major cause of an avoidable abduction of 110 Science/Technical Secondary School Girls, Dapchi, Yobe State, (aged between 11-16), who have now become pawns and human shields in the hands of insurgents who are very desperate to prove that they were undefeated! This is the second time in FOUR years that insurgents would abduct the endangered species from their school premises en-mass, uninterrupted and undetected and disappeared into thin air as it were! The first time was the abduction of over 270 girls from Chibok Girls Secondary School, Borno State on 14th April, 2014, to register their disdain for WESTERN EDUCATION! As at the time of this publication, almost 100 of the Chibok girls have been rescued while attempts are in motion to bring back the others; including the DAPCHI girls, with combined efforts of all the security forces that have converged on Yobe, the adjoining States and neighbouring countries.

On the day of this fresh abduction, 19th February, 2018, the camouflaged gunmen had free entry and exit into the school premises; because all they needed do was to fire some warning shots to create pandemonium, harass, intimidate and order as many panicking children into their trucks and drove away without hindrance because the nearby Army unit personnel that would have forestalled the invasion, was withdrawn some two weeks earlier as a back-up force to fight Boko Haram insurgents at the Niger border area!  Were there no official procedures in respect of postings, replacements, etc, especially in such sudden exigency of troops movement from one location to another? Should there be a vacuum of security logistics/ apparatuses in a soft target such as the Dapchi Girls School, especially when mass abduction of innocent children had taken place in neighbouring Bornu State, previously? Of course not! The Army Unit Commander claimed that he handed over the security location to the Commissioner of the Nigerian Police, Yobe, who promptly denied the claim! Since the first unfortunate military intervention in Nigerian politics on 15th January,1966, soldiers have been accustomed to playing civilian roles because they remained for too long (almost 30 years), in quasi-politicking engagements that they almost forgot all professional ethics until they were divinely booted out on 29th May, 1999! Constitutional duties of the Armed Forces of the Federation, which consist of an Army, a Navy, an Air Force, are spelt out in Section 217 - (1) (2) (a-d) & (3), Part III, Supplemental, of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, to include; defending Nigeria from external aggression, maintaining its territorial integrity, securing its borders from violation on land, sea or air; suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the President, but subject to such conditions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.The Nigerian Police Force on the other hand is saddled with internal maintenance of law and order prosecution of offenders etc, and such order duties as may be prescribed to them by the National Assembly.

If the Army was not involved in Internal Security (IS), duty at the Dapchi Girls School, would the Commissioner of Police have left the soft target open and defenceless in spite of his avowed constitutional duty? Should there not have been Police plain clothes security surveillance to complement the Army even when they were on ground? Would passing of buck between the two security agencies which is though, very regrettable, ascertain the safety or the immediate release of the innocent tender-aged teenagers? There is no doubt on our minds that this particular abduction was targeted by detractors to indict and embarrass the APC administration which has been struggling to surmount the myriads of security challenges, economic/social decay of strategic infrastructure, which it inherited from past PDP administrations! The PDP, which created and nurtured the insurgents known as Boko Haram, and which did nothing to rescue the Chibok Girls, throughout ex-President Jonathan's woeful tenure, is now quick to blame the incumbent of lacking in security management - what an irony of fate?

Though, PDP's vituperation was contrary to the reality on ground, it is incumbent on all patriotic Nigerians to rise in unity an seek divine intervention for the urgent rescue of these innocent children, because the master-minds of this fresh national catastrophe are within the rank and file of those who are very desperate to SEIZE POWER AT ALL COST, EVEN THROUGH THE BARRELS OF THE GUNS AS IKE EKEREMADU, THE CONTROVERSIAL SENATE DEPUTY PRESIDENT IS NOW SUGGESTING! Having formed some COALITIONS targeted to wrestle power at the centre without any success but condemnation from the masses, they resorted to succinct blackmail of President Muhammadu Buhari by alleging his insensibility towards the plight of States that were devastated with wanton human killings and for not visiting them at the appropriate times! And to score cheap political point the chiefest among them, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, who ordered his soldiers to kill, destroy and burn down ZAKI BIAM, VASSE, AGBAYIN, GBEJI, SANKARA, AND SEVERAL OTHER COMMUNITIES IN BENUE STATE, in 2001, visited Makurdi on Thursday, 8th March, 2018, (either to commiserate or to gloat), over the graves of the unfortunate dead of January 1st 2018! Were the people of Benue - especially Governor Samuel Ortom fooled? Could Obasanjo re-write the history of events as they unfolded to suit his whims and caprices?

The year 2018 began on the sad note of the killings of innocent peasant farmers and members of their families in Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Taraba etc by alleged NORMADIC HERDERS and even into the third month, these murderous incursions has spread to virtually all the SIX GEO-POLITICAL ZONES OF THE FEDERATION! Can the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity escape divine judgement even though they always struck at soft targets and then hide? Surely they would be exposed when they least expected and punished through the long arm of the law because their plan to turn Nigeria into a PARIAH NATION would not work! Patriotic Nigerians have been counselled not to neither retaliate through MILITIA GROUPS nor take up illegal arms to defend themselves but to trust GOD and the APC Government which would provide adequate security and bring to justice, all culpable elements in the imbroglio!

ABDUCTION OF DAPCHI GIRLS IS A NATIONAL TRAGEDY!
That patriotic citizens of Nigeria, except the psychopaths, are greatly traumatized over this ugly development would tantamount to an understatement; because, the mental and spiritual torture being experienced especially by the parents and families of the abductees as they trooped to Abuja, wept profusely and appealed to the President for a quick intervention in the rescue operations that are already in progress was an avalanche! Unlike  2014, when former President Jonathan, declared that the alleged abduction of Chibok Girls was a HOAX, even two weeks after the dastard act, this government has acted very fast and appropriately for early and positive rescue results to be expected! President Buhari did not waste time to deploy all security chiefs and personnel to YOBE STATE immediately he got the report and even though it has been about three weeks as at the time of this publication, tremendous success about the exact location and reasons behind the abduction have been established for possible negotiations for the release of the victims. It had been very difficult to apply any form of force by air or land because the innocent children who are to be rescued would be endangered as they were purposely positioned by their abductors as HUMAN SHIELDS!

THE ROLES OF SSS AND ICRC IN PAST RESCUE OPERATIONS:
In July, 2017, a team of THREE University lecturers of Geology Department of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), who were prospecting for crude oil in the Lake Chad Basin was ambushed while TEN women who were in the convoy of a dead police personnel being conveyed to his hometown for burial, were abducted by insurgents in Borno State and it took the grace of God for both the State Security Service (SSS), and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), officials to negotiate their freedom which was finally concluded on Saturday 10th February, 2018! SICRC, revealed in a statement released by its deputy regional director for Africa that it was contacted to play the role of negotiator just like a similar action it carried out in October 2016 and May 2017, when two batches of Chibok girls were released to the Federal Government following successful negotiations. He concluded that his outfit, “remains ready to provide similar humanitarian services in the future when asked by relevant parties to the conflict."

SHOULD GOVERNMENT CONTINUE TO NEGOTIATE WITH INSURGENTS?
Although negotiations with rebels is akin to an invitation to continuous and repeated BLACKMAIL, which would elongate the process of crisis as we are now witnessing, but it is very expedient for now in the present circumstances to choose this path - in order to counter the insurgents doctrine of "Boko Haram" (meaning that western education is bad)! It is also very imperative to save lives of innocent abductees who were in no way responsible nor involved in the CONFLICT(S) currently in contention, through these negotiations, no matter how unpalatable for now! We should also be united in prayer for GOD to touch the insurgents to have a change of heart and embrace dialogue and eventual surrender for PEACE to reign again in our country that is "flowing with milk and honey" and positively save our POSTERITY!

IMMEDIATE, MEDIUM AND LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS!
Blame game must give way to inter-services collaboration. Police should intensify, Community /Neighbourhood policing by recruiting informants from every hamlet, village and remote settlements, for security information and intelligence gatherings by all willing patriotic citizens. Civilian JTF, and other para-military bodies, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), Nigerian Customs Service, the Nigerian Immigration Service, at the border posts of entry and exit points. Nigerian workers under the umbrella of Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), and Civil Society Groups (CSOs), must be involved in a more COMPREHENSIVE intelligence gathering through sophisticated and well-co-ordinated information network at the highest level of government, in order to NIP IN THE BUD any form of CRIME OR CRIMINALITY BEFORE THEY COULD BE PERPETRATED! More and more recruitments into the POLICE, ARMY, IMMIGRATION, CUSTOMS etc. must be urgently pursued and placed on the PRIORITY LISTS OF THE THREE TIERS OF GOVERNMENT! "A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE!"

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access, to this newsletter, log on to:  facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch or http://www.zfbbc1.blogspot.com, https://www.google.com/+zionfaithbiblebelievingchurch.

If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations.

I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.