Recently in Abuja alone, the Nigerian Army has had different encounters with the armed bandits and terrorists wreaking havoc as they deem fit.
The same group of bandits threatened to come for Nigeria’s first citizen, talking about President Muhammadu Buhari, after they are done addressing the Abuja-Kaduna train victims in captivity.
On Thursday, 28, 2022, around nighttime, reports started circulating of how these Boko Haram terrorists and members of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province, ISWAP, attacked and killed an undisclosed number of soldiers.
The sad incident happened when the Boko Haram/ISWAP stormed one of the Nigerian Army checkpoints following the Zuma Rock shooting, a shared border connecting Niger State to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
To worsen the situation, a few days back, the bandits brutally ambushed and outgunned the 7 Guards Battalion of the Nigerian Army Presidential Guards Brigade.
It was gathered that eight died out of the entire guards, while several other guards sustained various degrees of injuries.
The scary part of every calculated move by the terrorists is they outrightly declare what they intend to do and carry it out without fear of any consequences.
Some two, three days ago, the terrorists threat also put the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, on alert to the level that they had to signal all their commands around the states under ISWAP radar.
Despite numerous sources claiming to have seen the sporadic shooting by some armed gunmen around the Minister’s Hill towards Nicon Junction, and Dantata Bridge along Airport Road of FCT, the Nigerian Police denied nothing happened of that nature.
The activities of Bandits in Abuja alone are becoming alarming, much less their coordinated attacks in the North Eastern parts of Nigeria.
On the part of the Nigerian Army, there have also been pockets of successful clampdown on the terrorists’ schemings and plots within the city centre and its environs.
The just concluded attack staged against the Nigerian soldiers stationed at Zuma Rock Madalla-Suleja axis, got a reprisal response from the army that reportedly moved into swift action, counter-fired the terrorists and eventually sent them packing.
Initially, it was gathered that the Bandits moved along the Abuja-Kaduna highway route to cause panic within some settlements in the area.
To contain the situation before it got out of hand, a report confirmed the deployment of men of the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, to the Zuma Rock checkpoint and other vulnerable sites around the axis.
Earlier on Thursday, the Nigerian defence headquarters released a press statement pointing to their ‘clearance patrol’ conducted moments after the fatal gun battle that took the presidential elite guards by surprise.
The statement revealed that our military personnel gathered their courage and went to the same location where several of their colleagues fell to sweep the perimeters. However, they successfully killed no fewer than thirty (30) terrorists on the same day.
For now, it is hard determining the party winning the fight here in Abuja. Is it the army or bandits?
The days ahead will tell if Nigerian security operatives could completely wipe them off the soil of Abuja and the country at large, or if the bandits in abuja would triumph.
These are pertinent questions on the minds of Nigerians which the outcome would determine their safety in the country called Nigeria.
For now, all most people can do is hope and pray that God stops the progression of these Boko Haram/ISWAP members causing nightmares where ever they touch.
Most people turned to God because they have completely lost faith in the present administration of President Buhari, that seemed overwhelmed by gunmen’s activities.
To you reading this piece, do you think the Government or terrorist is winning the fight? Feel free to objectively share your thoughts on realistic events happening in the country today.