The failure by the government to adequately protect passengers until Monday’s train attack by bandits is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reports that despite several signs that the Abuja-Kaduna railway was susceptible to bandits attack and amid massive resources in loans and funds voted to revamp rail transportation across the country, the Federal Government failed to adequately protect passengers until Monday’s attack.
That incident led to the death of at least eight persons, with many injured or abducted, after several security breaches around the Kaduna axis.
Apart from last October’s incident, when terrorists blew up the rail track with explosives, other recent incidents along the corridor were warnings that it was only a matter of time before passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna route were attacked again, but the government failed to do the needful to provide protection for communities.
After the attack last October, government promised to improve security along the route. But five months after, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, blamed failure to provide the necessary security system on non/slow approvals given to procure the surveillance equipment and sensors for the effective monitoring of the rail tracks.
As more people avoided the Abuja-Kaduna expressway, which has been a haven for kidnappers, and opted to travel by air or on the train to and from Abuja, it became clear that the bandits, who are being starved of potential abductees will try to attack travellers using airport and train commuters, but no significant security measure was known to have been taken to ensure the safety of these travellers.
This is even more startling considering the heavy concentration of military installations in Kaduna State. According to SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical research consulting firm, there are at least 15 military installations around Kaduna.
The newspaper says that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, declared that the poor economic situation in Nigeria was frustrating young entrepreneurs.
He said the development had made his friend and legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), to weep at a time, knowing what petty traders go through in the country.
The ex-leader made the declaration at the Youth Development Centre of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) Credit Scheme event in Abeokuta.
Obasanjo, during the programme, presented cheques worth over N1 million to beneficiaries of the centre to start up businesses.
While sharing his experiences with some petty traders and youths, the Owu chief stated that many people with good ideas lack capital to birth their intentions.
The ex-president lamented that many Nigerians are disturbed by failed businesses, adding that several had shared their experiences with him.
Earlier, the Director of Youth Development, OOPL, Ibukun Olagbemiro, said the project was to provide credit facilities to young business owners with the support of Obasanjo.
The Nation reports that the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc, Dr. Herbert Wigwe, says the bank aims to become one of the Top 5 in Africa by 2027.
Wigwe told reporters in Lagos yesterday that Access Bank, which had risen to the top position in Nigeria, planned to become one of the most respected on the continent.
He said: “We’re like number 12 on the continent today, and we hope to be close to number five by 2027,” adding that the bank has never failed to meet its aspirations in terms of growth in its 20-year history.
He assured that the bank’s projection for 2027 would be pursued aggressively and be met, as it regionalises its presence on the continent with offices in Ghana, Nairobi, Botswana, South Africa and Nigeria.
He noted that after 20 years, the lender was moving to another level, to a much more diversified institution as a Holding Company, with the bank as one of its subsidiaries in line with the changing times in which it aims to be Africa’s inspiration to the world.
He said: “We are deeply convinced that their skills will no doubt continue to add significant value to our bank’s quest to become Africa’s Gateway to the world.”‘
Wigwe, who is transiting to the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Access Holdings Plc, said: “Banking is changing at a faster pace than we can imagine,” especially as technology is changing all things.
The Punch says that four Nigerian deposit money banks lost a total of N1.77bn to fraudulent activities involving the banks’ employees and consumers in 2021.
This was contained in the 2021 financial statements of the banks.
The banks are Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, First Monument City Bank, and Wema Bank.
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, a company saddled with the responsibility of providing infrastructure for interbank transactions in the country, said Nigeria’s adoption of several electronic channels continued to rise as N271.95tn worth of transactions were recorded on its platform in 2021 compared to N158.21trn that changed hands on the platform in 2020.
Transactions via mobile channels increased significantly by 164.4 per cent in 2021 to N8.06trn as against N3.05trn recorded in 2020.
In a blog post recently published on its website, the company said that Nigeria has some of the most advanced payment electronic payment capabilities in the world.
The NIBBS, however, warned that “the increase in transaction processing, speed and available channels comes with an unavoidable side effect– more vectors for fraudulent activities.”
NIBSS had earlier said that fraud-related transactions cost Nigerian banks an average loss of N14bn yearly.
According to their financial statements, WEMA and GTB incurred the biggest losses as a result of fraud within the period under review, as they lost N670.73 and N511.9m respectively.
The newspaper says that the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Wednesday, said he was frustrated and helpless and that the military knew the location of the bandits wreaking havoc in the state, but was refusing to bomb their hideouts.
This is just as The PUNCH learnt that five months after a Federal High Court designated bandits as terrorists, the Nigerian military had yet to deploy the Super Tucano aircraft in the North-West.
Recall that the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had on November 25, 2021 obtained a judgment designating all gunmen in the North-West as terrorists. This was said to be a condition by the United States government for the deployment of the aircraft outside of the North-East.
However, top sources confirmed to The PUNCH that the Super Tucano had not yet been deployed in the North-West.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday when the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, visited the state to assess the situation following a terrorist attack on a Abuja-Kaduna train that left at least eight persons dead, El-Rufai said the terrorists’ hideouts should be bombed.
He said the location of the terrorists was public knowledge and even the Department of State Services usually monitors their telephone lines.
The governor stated, “We have enough intelligence for us to take action. The Air Force undertakes enough ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance); and the DSS has informants all over the place.
“We know what they (terrorists) are planning. We get the reports. The problem is for the agencies to take action. Don’t wait until they attack before you respond. The Army should go after their enclaves to wipe them out. Let the Air Force bomb them.”
GIK/APA