Oriire as anti-terror template

With the strategy applied in the recent hostage recovery in Oyo State, Nigeria may have hit on a useful template for dealing with the menace of terrorist kidnappings. If adopted and adapted in tackling abduction cases nationwide, the template could help rein in the tyranny of abductors and frustrate allied complicities that have made the crime into a thriving industry. 

Forty-four out of 46 pupils and teachers mass-kidnapped by suspected Ansaru terrorists in Oriire council area of Oyo State on 15th May were recovered by security operatives after 56 days in captivity. Two of the kidnapped teachers did not make it back because they were killed by the terrorists while the ordeal lasted. Terrorists belonging to Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina fi-Biladis Sudan, commonly known as Ansaru, had stormed three schools in Oriire local government  area near Ogbomoso, where they abducted 39 pupils and seven teachers including a grammar school principal. An assistant headteacher and a commercial motorcyclist who happened upon the scene were killed during the coordinated assault, after which the terrorists harried off their abductees into the difficult terrain of the Old Oyo National Park. 

Reports following the abductions said security agents moved swiftly to seal off all access routes from the expansive park, effectively hedging in the terrorists though they held back from assaulting them to prevent harm to the abductees who were being used as human shield. The point to note was the speed of activating security hunt for the abductors and the victims, which contrasted with past abductions since the 2014 Chibok incident where precious time was lost in coming to terms with the security breach before deciding on response measures.

While efforts to rescue the victims were underway, the terrorists demanded in exchange for the pupils and teachers the release of two of their top commanders who had been apprehended and were being put through court trial by the Department of State Services (DSS). Government stood its ground and refused to oblige that demand, while insisting on the abductees’ release. This was a departure from past disposition of granting concessions to criminals – especially monetary ransoms.  

Government often denied that ransoms were paid for the freedom of victims of mass abductions in the northern states. But reports are rife about ransoms being disbursed; and worse, that the sums were often progressively drawn down by officials channeling the funds, leaving only a fraction of initial disbursements getting to the terrorists. In other words, ransom payments constituted an avenue of self-enrichment for officials in the loop of negotiations and transaction with terrorists. Who says these officials cannot instigate abductions by terrorists to create opportunities for looting the national treasury through their dubious role in ransom payment? It was, perhaps, helpful that the Oriire abductors did not demand monetary ransoms for their victims. Still, the principle of government not granting concessions while working for hostage recovery is universally relevant and applicable.   

On 10th July, the Oriire abductees walked free from terrorist captivity. The Nigerian Army said the captives regained their freedom following an intelligence-led operation that lasted more than a month and targeted the kidnappers’ network and hideouts in the Old Oyo National Park and other parts of the country. A statement by the Acting Deputy Director, 2 Division Army Public Relations, Lieutenant-Col. Danjuma Danjuma, explained that the hostage recovery was pulled off through a carefully planned and executed operation led by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 2 Division, Major-General C.R. Nnebeife.

“The Oriire saga revealed that terrorists are after all humanly connected, and are protective of their own kin though they are sheer brutes dealing with hapless victims of their criminal enterprise”

According to the statement, the operation involved personnel from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), particularly the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the Defence Headquarters, special forces of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and Nigerian Air Force, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as well as local vigilantes, hunters and members of the Amotekun Corps. “The operation, which lasted for more than a month, focused on identifying the terrorist kingpins that masterminded the kidnapping, bursting and dismantling their networks and logistics links, including their informants and hideouts located within the Old Oyo National Park forest,” the statement said, adding: “Multiple arrests were made within Oyo State and in other locations across the country. These arrests completely disorganised the group, exerted overwhelming pressure on them and ultimately led the terrorist group to unconditionally release the pupils and teachers.”

Among other things, the statement stressed that the mission was meticulously planned to prevent collateral damage and ensure safe recovery of all the abducted pupils and teachers. It regretted that some security agencies suffered casualties during the operation, adding that follow-up operations were ongoing to completely dismantle remaining elements of the terror network responsible for the abductions.

On the heels of the 15th May abductions, the police had reported the arrest of some suspects who were said to have served as informants to the bandits and were tracked through phone conversations they had with the assailants while guiding them through forest paths. Informal accounts said these suspects were instrumental in leading security operatives to relations of the terrorists, who were arrested as counter-hostages to force the terrorists’ hand. 

According to some accounts, these arrested relations were made to speak on phone to the terrorists, urging them to let the abductees go unharmed as a condition for securing their own release from security forces. The Oriire saga revealed that terrorists are after all humanly connected, and are protective of their own kin though they are sheer brutes dealing with hapless victims of their criminal enterprise. The counter-hostage strategy worked, and contributed in a large measure to making the terrorists back down.

There has been some debate in the public space as to whether the hostage recovery was a rescue by security agents or a release by the terrorists. Government narrative emphasised the element of rescue, with Presidential Spokesman Bayo Onanuga saying the kidnapped pupils and teachers were rescued by security operatives. “In the course of the rescue operation, eight of the kidnappers were arrested and are now in DSS custody, while some of them were neutralised,” he added in a statement.

However, a participant account by one of the abducted teachers who regained freedom, Olatunde Zaccheaus, suggested that the abductees were let go by the captors, trekked for hours through the forest and crossed some rivers before being received by security operatives. Zaccheaus, in an interview with a media outlet, said on the day of their release, the victims were led through jungle paths for nearly an hour before reaching motorcycles arranged by the captors that dropped them off close to a village, from where they were instructed to proceed on their own for another long trek through the forest and river crossings that took them into the embrace of security personnel in two waiting vehicles.

Going by Zaccheaus’s account, it was not clear in what circumstance gallant security agents who lost their lives during the operation paid the supreme price. Meanwhile, the Army’s statement codeswitched between ‘rescue’ and ‘release’ – like when it described the operation as a rescue mission but said arrests made across the country “ultimately led the terrorist group to unconditionally release the pupils and teachers.”

I argue that this debate is splitting hairs and totally inconsequential to the value of the Oriire hostage recovery strategy. Whether by rescue or by release, whatever compelled the terrorists to loosen their vicious hold on abducted victims is a success tack worthy of application in other crisis contexts.

Even the courts have been uncharacteristically swift in dealing justice on suspects taken to trial in connection with the Oriire incident. The wo terror commanders that the abductors wanted released – Mahmud Usman, also known as Abu Bara’a and self-styled Emir of Ansaru, and Mahmud al-Nigeri (a.k.a Malam Mamuda), his deputy and chief of staff – have been handed life imprisonment sentences by a Federal High Court in Abuja that the DSS plans to appeal in quest for the death penalty. Also, three persons accused of conspiracy with, and aiding the abductors were slammed with life jail sentences by another Federal High Court judge in Abuja last week. Swift justice sends a strong dissuasive signal to other terrorists.

But the Oriire triumph isn’t the last word on the challenge of terrorist abductions in this country. On the same day that the bad guys stormed schools in Oyo, another set struck in Borno State and herded pupils into captivity who are yet to be recovered. And there is Kaiama in Kwara State, among others, where many remain in bandits’ captivity some five months on. The whole point here is that the Oriire template can be adapted in resolving these outstanding cases and stemming future breaches.