Armed attacks and kidnappings escalated across Nigeria yesterday as President Bola Tinubu approved the Nigerian contingent for the U.S.–Nigeria Joint Working Group.
The initiative aims to strengthen bilateral security cooperation, even as corruption, underfunding, and operational failures continue to weaken frontline responses.
The Nigerian team, led by the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, includes senior officials from defence, intelligence, interior, foreign affairs, and humanitarian sectors.
Key members include the Ministers of Defence, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, and Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun.
President Tinubu urged close collaboration with U.S. counterparts to implement agreed security measures.
Nigerian officials engaged the U.S. Congress, White House, State Department, National Security Council, and Department of Defence to bolster intelligence sharing, equipment support, and humanitarian aid for violence-affected regions, particularly in the Middle Belt.
Washington pledged technical support, rapid-response enhancements, and potential provision of excess defence equipment to aid operations against terrorists, bandits, and violent extremists.
Rising Kidnappings and Attacks
Despite the security partnership, incidents continue to surge.
In Niger State, bandits abducted 24 farmers, including pregnant women, from Palaita community in Erena Ward. Residents said attackers struck while farmers were harvesting rice, escaping before military response.
Another incident in Kakuru community saw a blind man assaulted and his right hand severed after attackers stole a mobile phone.
Police confirmed ongoing rescue efforts for victims of the latest abductions, which follow the kidnapping of over 300 students and teachers from St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Niger State.
In the Federal Capital Territory, six girls and a teenage boy were abducted in Gidan-Bijimi, Kawu ward, Bwari.
Residents reported armed men used AK-47 rifles, firing into homes before fleeing with their victims.
Elsewhere, a woman was killed and a teenage shop owner injured during an ambush on the convoy of former Anambra Governor Dr. Chris Ngige in Idemili North, Anambra State.
The attackers, dressed in police and army camouflage, opened fire on the convoy, which prompted a brief gunfight with security operatives.
Ezekwesili Blames Corruption
Former Education Minister Obiageli Ezekwesili attributed the worsening insecurity to corruption in Nigeria’s security sector, describing a “bloody, thriving, and lucrative war economy” that undermines defence spending.
Citing Transparency International and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre reports, she noted that despite increasing defence budgets, frontline operations remain under-resourced.
Soldiers face equipment shortages, low morale, and abandoned missions, often resulting in loss of life and ineffective counterterrorism efforts.
Ezekwesili called for greater transparency, accountability, and proper management of security resources, emphasizing that mismanagement directly fuels insecurity.