Arms smugglers have killed a Nigerian Customs errand boy around Babana, a Niger State village along the border with Benin Republic.
After gunning down the boy, the arms smugglers drove into the Kainji National Park, raising suspicion they were on a mission to supply weapons to Ansaru terrorists operating between North-central Nigeria and northern Benin.
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Popularly known as “camp boys”, customs errand boys are unofficially engaged by officers at border areas and ports, a practice that the Customs Service deemed as a threat to national security.
The attack
Sources in the area told PREMIUM TIMES that the incident happened around 8 p.m. on Saturday, 18 October.
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“It happened around Kuble village after Luma around the Babana border with Benin,” a local security guard said.
The guard said the smugglers were bringing in arms through the Rofia river when the “camp boy” stopped them.
“They immediately opened fire on him and he died at the spot,” he said. “They then went into the National Park through Audu Fari road.”
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Another source, a former staff member of the Kainji National Park who has been monitoring cross border activities in the area, said the weapons might be coming either from Benin Republic or other North-western Nigerian states via the River Niger flowing through Kebbi and Niger states.
He lamented that the “absence of naval base” around the River Niger helps armed groups to traffick arms unchecked.
During a visit to the area this year, this reporter witnessed how goods-laden vehicles were loaded onto a local ferry and shipped to the Kebbi shoreline where there was no coastal security.
“Last week Wednesday, security operatives in Benin Republic intercepted a truck and recovered about 200 AK-47 rifles hidden under sacks of onion,” the former park official revealed. “The truck was heading to Nigeria.”
Mohammed Nuhu, the spokesperson for Kainji National Park, said he has not been briefed about the incident.
He promised to get back after consulting with his principal officers.
Transborder terrorism, counterterrorism
Locally known as Mamuda terrorists, the Ansaru cell hibernating in Kainji forest also shares operational geography and logistical coordination with Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM). Both groups are al-Qaeda affiliates.
While JNIM has gained notoriety for ravaging communities and destabilising local economies in the Sahel, Ansaru has been undermined by the arrests of their leaders by security forces as seen here and here.
Ansaru’s operation was further limited by confrontations with armed groups such as that of notorious Dogo Gide and the Malam Sadiku Boko Haram faction operating between Kaduna and Niger states.
Both JNIM and Ansaru are operating the al-Qaeda playbook in Nigeria and Benin, prompting a transborder counterterrorism operations in both states.
Local vigilantes from border communities around Kalele district of Benin Republic and Kaiama LGA of Kwara State have been fighting alongside military operatives from both countries.
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