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By News Editor, Abuja
Abuja, the seat of Nigeria’s feferation is under intense pressure following the Thursday night killings of soldiers by terrorists night’s attack on a military checkpoint near Zuma rock, close to Zuba, on the Abuja-Kaduna highway.
The incident happened not long after a similar attack occured at the Kuje Correctional facility where the terrorists had emptied inmates, mostly members of the Boko Haram and the Islamic West African Province, ISWAP. Within two weeks, this same group had ambushed and killed some soldiers from the elite Presidential Guards Brigade who were responding to a distress call on an imminent attack Nigeria’s Law School campus in Bwari.
The Presidential Guards Brigade is an elite arm of the Nigerian Army, that is responsible for protecting the President of Nigeria.
At least three personnel were killed in the ambush, while a number of others were wounded.
TMNews learned that during the Thursday night attack, the insurgents arrived at the checkpoint shortly after 7pm and opened fire on the troops, killing some soldiers instantly.
It was gathered that the terrorists took control of the area for about an hour as they continued to shoot sporadically before heading towards the Kaduna axis of the expressway.
A security source disclosed that soldiers from Zuma Barracks and police operatives were later deployed to the general area for surveillance and forestall further attacks.
Meanwhile, residents of the nation’s capital, have expressed concern over the worsening insecurity situation in the city.
A resident, Attah Echocho, criticized the current approach towards the threats of the terrorists in Abuja.
Echocho said that if the threat was in the Southeast, the military would have long ago deployed operation crocodile smile, operation python dance, operation lizard laugh, operation fowl run, etc to deal decisively with the insurgents but “Buhari is sleeping while Rome is on fire.”
Another resident who is a retired security personnel who would not want his name said that Nigeria was gradually becoming Africa’s Afghanistan due to leadership failure as far as defence and security was concerned.
He said that the leadership failure was due to the apparent deliberate decision by the federal government to treat terrorists with kid gloves instead of annihilating them with Nigeria’s military capacity to deploy maximum force.
According to him, modern defense and security war is fought with modern technology, adding that there is no way so many terrorists would go to a prison, break it and abduct hundreds of inmates without being tracked by security agents if there is no insider conspiracy.
He said that the prevailing situation in Nigeria is akin to what happened in Afghanistan, where terrorists overran a legitimate government causing the president to flee and then took over power to date.
It would be recalled that the terrorists recent vowed to kidnap President Buhari not long after attacking the advance team of his convoy in Katsina State.
The military is yet to make a statement on the recent raid but has confirmed the killing of it’s personnel in Bwari, pledging a proportionate response to the criminals.
