Nigeria steps up security measures after deadly attacks

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria

An overhaul of security was announced Thursday following a series of deadly attacks that led to fresh doubts about the safety of Nigerians.

A suicide bombing in Adamawa state on Tuesday left at least 50 Muslim worshippers dead, just hours after 30 mostly women and children were killed in ethnic violence in the northeastern state.

Police said new security measures had been put in place across the northeast, which has suffered for nearly a decade at the hands of Boko Haram terrorists.

Jimoh Moshood, spokesman for the Nigeria Police Force, told Anadolu Agency that extra round-the-clock patrols had been ordered and intelligence-gathering stepped up to prevent further attacks.

He said Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris had ordered senior officers “nationwide to be on red-alert... to nip in the bud and prevent the spread of the renewed Boko Haram attacks on soft targets… in the northeast states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.”

The new measures would also tackle a rise in attacks on herders, following Tuesday’s attack on the Fulani village of Numan.

Moshood said other states that had experienced a rise in ethnic attacks between herders and local farmers would also receive added attention.

Special anti-crime and intelligence-gathering squads had been deployed to coordinate with vulnerable communities across the country.

The measures were ordered on Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari, who also instituted fresh troop deployments to areas struck by banditry and terrorism.

A new intelligence center in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, would orchestrate intelligence-sharing among various security agencies, the president’s office said in a statement.

“This phase of the war will be intelligence-driven and the new center is expected to intensify the harvesting and sharing of intelligence so as to bring to an early closure the desperate last-minute activities of the terrorists,” the statement added.

Buhari came to power in 2015 promising to end the Boko Haram terror campaign that has resulted in more than 20,000 deaths and displaced millions across Nigeria and neighboring countries.

Although the Nigerian military has retaken much of Boko Haram’s northeastern stronghold in recent months, the group is still conducting large-scale attacks despite Buhari’s claim to have “crushed” terrorism.