Banditry, abduction, insurgency, terrorism, and various social crimes have grown throughout Nigeria throughout the years, deteriorating the country’s security condition. Attacks by the terrorist organisation BokoHaram on people and property have persisted unabatedly throughout the northern region. Attacks by herdsmen on farmers and villagers are on the rise in the central belt and are progressively moving south.

The Southeast’s insurgency, thought to be a spinoff of the Indigenous People of Biafra’s (IPOB) call for self-determination, has recently deteriorated. A Sunday service at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, was shot at earlier in June. There are reports of at least 40 worshipers, including four children, being massacred on the church grounds by shooters. There have been rumours that the Islamic State West Africa Province was behind the incident (ISWAP).

The Kuje Medium Security Custodial Center in Abuja was bombed recently by terrorists despite the facility being guarded by numerous soldiers, Department of State agents, police officers, and members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps. According to reports, the terrorists released 600 prisoners during the attack, including 15 deadly Boko Haram commanders who planned the March 28 attack on the Kaduna-Abuja train at Katari, Kaduna, in which eight people were killed and over 68 passengers were abducted. The attack started at around 10:22 pm.

In a 30-second video, ISWAP claimed responsibility for the incident and depicted the shooters torching cars that were parked nearby. We notice that just a few hours prior to President Buhari’s departure to his hometown of Daura for the Sallah celebrations, terrorists assaulted a presidential advance vehicle.

This increased risk to life has had countless negative effects on economic activity, especially in rural areas where farming is the core industry and the source of food for the entire country. The article specifically mentioned the release of 237 additional people as well as 49 Boko Haram leaders. Evidently, this has increased worries about insecurity in Abuja and throughout the entire country.

The governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, expressed alarm earlier in the year about the state’s growing sophistication and the presence of the terrorist organisation Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP). The threat posed by the Boko Haram terrorist sect, he said, would be nothing compared to what the group would do once they achieved stability, thus the federal government must do everything in its power to combat ISWAP now. He claims that the terrorist organisation ISWAP is more advanced, more equipped, and more educated than its Boko Haram peers.

Between 2020 and 2021, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) conducted a study that led to the indictment of 424 associates of the financiers, 96 suspected terrorist financiers, 123 enterprises, and 33 bureaux de change. It claimed that 26 alleged bandits/kidnappers and seven accomplices had also been named by the investigation.

It’s crucial to bring peace to the Northeast and, consequently, the entire North. Beyond endangering the nation’s food security, recent events seriously jeopardise the smooth running of the general elections in 2023.

The Kuje prison break and its potential consequences.

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