IN today’s Platform, an Asaba-based businessman and one-time Senior Special Assistant to former Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, Chief Cassidy Iloba, alias CASLOBA shares his experiences with EDNA EMENI on his security strides as SSA, his involvement in ridding popular Abraka Market in Asaba of criminals and it’s eventual relocation, sending notorious Fulani herdsmen and other criminal elements packing in Oko community, an operation he led to keep kidnappers at bay at the Asaba axis of the Niger Bridge Head and many more. Excerpts.
You’ve been involved in security matters for a considerable number of years. Can you share your experiences?
I’ve been involved in security matters for decades. Because of my commitment to security, I was honoured with a meritorious award in Lagos. Some people think that security is all about money. No! This is not true. When I retired from the Army, I attended schools of security, and after that, I’ve been collaborating with the Army, the police and other security agencies on security matters.
Returning to Asaba, the Delta State Capital, I was made Chairman, Asaba Community Policing. At that time, there was serious challenge of killings, robbery and kidnappings in the town, but by the grace of God, I and my team were able to put all of the social evil in check. With my experience, I make bold to say, security operatives are no magicians; without information, they cannot succeed. So, I was mindful of the need to get the necessary security information for me and my team to carry out our operations and we succeeded.
Information gathering is key to security matters, so we did not hesitate to engage the services of genuine informants. Most of the vital security information we got were from places where they sold hard drugs, and to that extent, we succeeded in making Asaba a safe place to live in.
But let me quickly say that, if you are dealing with a criminal, you must be very careful, because he can turn against you anytime. To him, money is paramount, so he goes for he who can provide him with the money he needs.
Bandits/herdsmen attacks and kidnappings have become almost a daily occurrence in Nigeria. What’s your view about this?
That is true. The issue of bandits/herdsmen and kidnapping in Nigeria is a very disturbing one. But let me quickly say this. The Federal Government is not doing much to put this ‘madness’ in check. No responsible government would tolerate this level of crime against it’s citizens. Yes, it is crime against it’s citizens, and I stand to be corrected on this.
However, let me say here that we don’t have bandits in Delta State. What we have is herdsmen menace and kidnappings. These herdsmen destroy our farms with their cows, rape our women and female children and even kidnap or kill. I find this very disturbing and challenging because, the activities of these herdsman in our forests have negatively affected food security and safety of our people in the state, particularly farmers, majority of who have abandoned their farms for fear of either being killed, raped or kidnapped.
There have been reported case of rising number of strange persons, mostly youths from the Northern part of the country, transported in Trailers at night to Asaba (Niger Bridge axis). What do you make of this influx?
Yes, I’ve received the report of persons, mostly youths from the North, transported to Asaba. But let me put the fact straight. In as much as there may be those with criminal tendencies among them, not all of them are criminals. Some are hunters, while some come in here to do legitimate jobs. That is why you find them doing block moulding job, some repair Shoes, some are engaged in farming, security and other small-small jobs for their daily living.
But unfortunately, as some of these genuine persons are transported down here, the criminal minded one’s also come along with them; and those are the ones who constitute security threat here. They burgle homes, kidnap people, engage in petty stealing and all of that. I speak Hausa and Fulani languages fluently, and that is why I’m familiar with their mode of operation.
Some of these youths come in here and go about doing their legitimate jobs. They are very poor and don’t even know their parents. So, they put them in the care of Malams (Arabic Teachers). In the process of training them, these young persons are brainwashed or indoctrinated to believe that, “anything English is”Haram” (meaning forbidden).” So they come here to work, but see us as enemies. This is their mindset and orientation.
Some are bad, some are good. They always stay together in a colony; they don’t mix up. During Salah, they return home to celebrate. Many of them have no home and no address; they are Almajiri’s who have one Malam controlling them like animals. The Almajiri’s are no herdsmen or criminals.
When the Trailer takes off with cows, enroute the South or Asaba or Onitsha, the Almajiri’s, who stand along the road jump into the Trailers and pay a token to the driver. It is the criminals among them that engage in crime. They steal your belongings and sell to designated Alhaji’s on payment of small amount of money.
The Alhaji’s are usually stationed along Ibusa Road or Express way. They buy stolen goods from the Almajiri’s in exchange for peanuts, and sell them to traders at exhaubitant amount in the North. The Almajiri’s are like slaves while the Alhaji’s exploit them.
For those who engage in criminal activities, what do you think is the best way to tackle them?
When the Almajiri’s come here, they are usually under the control of an Alhaji. The government should get the Alhaji to get them identified and registered, get proper identity cards for them and the Alhaji should be held liable for any offence committed by any Alimajiri under his care. That way, their criminal activities would be curtailed.
Before it was relocated, the popular Abraka Market in Asaba was notorious for crime and criminal activities. We have the information on good authority that you played a major role in arresting the issue in the market. What approach did you use to achieve this?
That place was not officially or originally a market. The area was owned by one man called “Abraka”, who owned a petrol filling station there and one Oduah and Mordi. Back then, when the Hausa people were threatened and allegedly killed in the East, they fled to Delta State for safety, and the State Government, in it’s kindness and spirit of good neighborliness gave those of them who were mostly traders the location as a temporary abode to do their business. As Special Adviser to the then Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Security Matters, I personally stopped their attackers from coming to attack them.
But over time, the people began to build shades and make-shift structures, and a market sprang up. A small Hausa/Fulani community also began to spring up. We later got the information that the herdsmen causing trouble in Asaba and it’s environs have turned the market to their home/hideout.
Added to this, criminals of all shades converted the market to their hideout, as they regularly visited and camped with prostitutes who also had their make-shift home for their prostitution work. The market at a time became a notorious take-off point for criminals to commit crime. Even the police could not go there to make any arrest.
These criminal elements there were into hard drugs sales and consumption and they were brutal and dangerous. It became a hideout for herdsmen, kidnappers and robbers, and the state government could not take it anymore, and an operation to evict them from the area was planned and carried out.
As Senior Special Assistant to then Gov Ifeanyi Okowa, I mobilised a team to investigate what was happening in the market. What we discovered was beyond our expectations. It was a den of robbers and criminals of all shaders.
I immediately called a meeting of all the Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Calabar and other tribes reciding or trading in the market. There, I gave ultimatum to their leaders to fish out the criminals among them, but they refused to obey the ultimatum, probably for fear of being killed.
We called for a similar meeting three other times, yet the people did not agree to fish out the criminals living among them. This prompted us to recommend to the state government to demolish the shanties or market-shift structures in the market. Government gave us the permission and we brought the shanties down, supervised by security agents.
During the operations, some of the criminals in the market took off and we recovered guns, drugs and many dangerous items. But we left some of the structures where the genuine traders in the market did their legitimate business, and there was temporary security.
Months after that operation, we were surprised that the criminals regrouped and came back to continue their crime and illegal business. That made the state government to order full-scale operation to demolish all the illegal structures there, and we did the demolition. The place is now peaceful and the genuine traders were relocated to Oko Market. The state government acquired the place and relocated the traders there.
Not too long after, it was rumored that former Gov Okowa and Ada Anioma had sold the land where the market was located. That is a big lie from the pit of hell.
Let me make it clear and probably put the facts straight. Former Gov Ifeanyi Okowa and Ada Anioma did not at any time sell any land there. As a matter of fact, the Okowa administration paid adequate compensation to all those who had genuine land in the located.
As Senior Special Assistant to former Gov Ifeanyi Okowa on Security Matters, information in the public domain says you contributed to strategic information gathering and assisted security agencies in tackling crime and criminal elements in the State, particularly in Asaba, the State capital. What formula or strategy did you adopt in doing this?
The formula for a successful security operation is not for public consumption. And this is for obvious security reasons. However, I want to repeat it here. For any successful security operation, information gathering and management is important, and to a very large extent, this helped the security operations I initiated while I was Senior Special Assistant to Dr. Okowa on Security Matters.
During the Okowa regime, I recall that he got the right people to handle security matters, and that gave him an edge. Security needs persons who are experienced in security matters, hardworking and knowledgeable. It is not job for the boys or for political patronage, and that, I think Dr Okowa was mindful of.
What’s your take on the current security situation in Asaba, the State Capital, particularly at night?
Asaba, the Delta State Capital is relatively peaceful; we thank God, the present and past governments for all they are doing, and they had done to keep the State safe and peaceful.
What looks like security challenge now in the State is from the neighboring states. People from there come to Asaba to commit crime, take all manner of drugs and leave for their states. Because of the relative peace in Asaba, many of them have made it a place for relaxation, but in doing that, they engage in one form of crime or the other and disappear.
In my day’s as Senior Special Assistant to ex-Governor Okowa, I advised that, if you repeatedly find a strange person that you suspect is not engaged in any meaningful thing in your neighborhood, report such to the Police. By the time the police interrogates him, he would have the consciousness that the Security Agencies are watching him, and before you know it, he relocates from such a place if he has any criminal intention. This was particular to those areas where illicit drugs were sold. Criminals are mostly found in such places.
Let me say this, because of the problem of insecurity in some of our neighboring states, and the relative peace in Asaba, many people from crime-prone States have relocated to Asaba and that has led to a boost in night and social life in the city.
But let me warn, if you are driving in the night in Asaba, and somebody hits your car with his car from behind, put your car in gear two and take off. Drive into the nearest police station for your safety.
We also had the information that you and your team carried out a special operation at the Niger Bridge Head in Asaba and Oko village. What was the purpose of the operation, and how did you go about it?
Yes, we got security report that the rate of crime was on the rise at the Niger Bridge Head axis of Asaba, and we had to swing into section. We discovered that when kidnappers kidnap their victims from the East, they take them through the Niger Bridge Head to an Island in Oko village. In fact, the Niger Bridge Head and Oko Island became a den of thieves and kidnappers, operating with flying boats that were strategically located. With the help of security operates, we succeeded in demobilizing the structures of the criminals at the Niger Bridge Head, thereafter we moved to Oko, where I gave the Fulani’s aiding criminal elements to kidnap people 48 hours to leave the Community.
Thereafter, I met with the Police B,C, Divisions in Asaba and the Police Headquarters. They provided me with trustworthy police men. Together with vigilante’s from the different communities in Oko, we moved to Oko.
On getting there, I asked some of the security men to station themselves at the bank of the river while my team and a few other officers reached out to the Fulani’s and their leaders at their camp; with an instruction that after a while, should they discover that we were not coming back, they should advance and attack. The operation was aimed at freeing Oko of criminal elements.
The Fulani’s in Oko operate like soldiers. I told them, look at the highland, you have soldiers, policemen and vigilante officers. Relocate now, or they’ll attack you. They obeyed, and that was how we removed all herdsmen from Oko.
After the, “Operation Free Oko of Criminal Elements”, I invited all the Fulani leaders in Delta State to my office, had a closed-door meeting with them, where they signed an undertaking to report any bad or criminal Fulani to his office. Also, we agreed that, any Fulani whose cow destroys a farm land or kills a farmer should be made to pay for the damage. Also, any native who kills a Fulani man’s cow, or destroy anything that belongs to him should be made to pay for the damage. So, it was a successful deal.
And what was your relationship with Traditional Rulers in the State in the course of carrying out your security duties?
I had a cordial relationship with Traditional Rulers in the State. As a matter of fact, my work made me to know almost all the Traditional Rulers in the State. I also discovered that some Traditional Rulers collaborate with some cattle rearers, and even provide land for their cows to graze for a fee.
I recall that I met with Traditional Rulers in Abraka, Kwale, Illah and many other communities, where I discovered that Fulani herdsmen have leaders in their camps.
