Lifestyle

Introduction According to the Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme that tracks and maps violence in Nigeria, no fewer than 8,058 lives were cut short violently across Nigeria in 2022. Specifically, no fewer than 138 policemen were killed across Nigeria in the last eight months – January to August, 2022. ‘’States with the highest number of policemen killed within this period are Niger with 24, Enugu with 18, Anambra with 13, Imo 12, Borno and Kogi with nine each. Others include Delta and Kastina with 7 each, Kebbi with 5, Ebonyi and Benue with 4, Cross River, Edo, Oyo, Taraba with 3 each, Jigawa, Rivers, Bayelsa and Ondo with 2 each, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Osun and the FCT with 1 each’’. The unrelenting and unfolding security challenges in Nigeria seem to have boosted the demand for armed protection services, close or VIP protection, with attendant up-tick in the sale of armoured, bullet proof, reinforced, or treated vehicles. Perhaps this is why Senator Shehu Sani describes bullet-proof vehicles ‘’as a major lifeline in the face of rising insecurity in Nigeria’’. Report by Punch Newspaper, September 26, 2022, shows that as preparations for the 2023 general elections gain momentum and amidst worsening insecurity across the country, the demand for bullet-proof Sports Utility Vehicles in Nigeria have increased significantly. According to Colonel Hassan Stan-Labo (retd.), ‘’politicians were rushing to purchase bullet-proof vehicles because they are very vulnerable, having failed to use public resources judiciously’’. Recall that the use of bullet proof vehicles in Nigeria is regulated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). This means that an end user certificate (EUC) is needed and granted to private individuals who provide evidence of threat to their lives. Again, like many paper-tiger stipulations in Nigeria, aforesaid is far from been a hard-and-fast rule. On armed protection and escort It is not unusual to see nouveau-riches, high-net worth individuals (HNWI) having scores of armed policemen, government security forces (GSF) in their escort team. The more armed security escort one can muster in Nigeria suggests how moneyed or connected the individual is. Granted deployment of armed security protection is supposed to offer some confidence or deterrent but in practice, it provides no guarantee and cannot forestall targeted, surprise attack by determined criminals. All the assailants need to do is, lay an ambush and launch a kamikaze attack at say, a bad portion of the road where vehicles must slow down. In this analysis, I will zero in on policemen and some GSF killed especially during an ambush while providing armed escort to high-net worth individuals (HNWI).   Between Friday, January 6 and Sunday, January 09, 2023, seven personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (possibly comprising police, soldiers as well as members of vigilantes) were killed during an ambush while escorting an expatriate to a mining site in Birnin Gwari area of Kaduna state. On Monday, January 02, 2023, a driver and four police orderlies were killed as the convoy of a former governor of Imo state and an APC leader, Chief Ikedi Ohakim was attacked by gunmen at Umualumoke, Oriagu in Ehime Mbano LGA of Imo state. Ohakim escaped death by the hair’s breadth because he was in a bulletproof vehicle with two of his children while his security details were tenably in an open Hilux truck. A similar scenario played out when Senator Ifeanyi Ubah was attacked at Enugwukwu, Njikoka LGA of Anambra on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Five of his police escort in addition to other aides were killed. Ubah escaped because he was ensconced in his bullet proof vehicle.  Armed assailants on December 22, 2022, reportedly attacked a vehicle carrying two Chinese contractors and their police escort while en route to Maradun LGA, Zamfara State. One of the Chinese nationals was reportedly killed and another wounded in the ambush Seven persons, including three policemen were on Friday, October 21, 2022, killed when suspected assassins attacked the convoy of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleiman along the Benin-Auchi expressway in Edo State. Apostle Suleman, his wife, and children were unscathed because they were reportedly in his treated Sports Utility Vehicle when the attack occurred. After his close shave, Suleman was reported to have said, ”if I had the money, I would buy bulletproof cars for every member in this church”. Why not ‘anointing oil’ or handkerchief? That’s by the way. Three police officers who were on escort duty in Port Harcourt on Thursday, November 24, 2022 were shot dead at Rumuokoro flyover when gunmen kidnapped their victim, an oil executive and carted away valuables with an undisclosed amount of money. On Tuesday, July 5, 2022, gunmen attacked the advance team of President Muhammadu Buhari near Dutsinma, on their way to Daura, Katsina State. Two persons in the convoy are receiving treatment for the minor injuries they suffered. Two police orderlies of the Enugu State Commissioner for Lands, Chidi Aroh, were on Sunday, February 22, 2022, killed when gunmen ambushed their Hilux van along Ukpo-Nimo Road, Anambra State. The commissioner reportedly escaped in his SUV. One of the policemen escorting Chinese expatriates was on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, killed as gunmen abducted four Chinese expatriates working on the Lagos-Ibadan railway project. Prior to his emergence as governor, gunmen at Isuofia, in Aguata LGA of Anambra State on Wednesday 31, 2021, attacked the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Charles Soludo, killing three of his escorts and kidnapped a Commissioner. Aforesaid instances are evidence of government security forces killed while escorting VIPs. Regrettably, very meagre financial compensation are paid to the next-of-kin of diseased personnel who pay the supreme price after unending paper-work, bureaucracy that could take several months. For instance, as part of a welfare insurance scheme for police officers who died in active service, on Tuesday, January 10, 2022, Nigerian Police authorities presented a cheque of N43.2 million to families of