Headlines
Insecurity: Military Plans Operation Show Your ID Cards on the Spot
The Nigerian military has planned a nationwide operation to demand identity cards from citizens across the country.
‘Operation Positive Identification’ would see soldiers accosting citizens on the streets or highways and asking them to produce means of identification on the spot. Soldiers had been taking similar measures to separate citizens from terrorists in the Boko Haram-ravaged northeastern part of Nigeria. The military claimed last month that citizens in the North-east had been cooperating with troops to make the exercise successful by carrying with them valid identity documents.
But the military announced on September 25 that the exercise will be extended nationwide to “checkmate bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ethnic militia, cattle rustlers as well as other sundry crimes across the various regions of Nigeria.”
The announcement came simultaneously with the awareness about the 2019 edition of the military ‘s anti-crime operations such as ‘Ayem Akpatuma’ in the North-central; ‘Egwu Eke’ in the South-east and ‘Crocodile Smile’ in the South-south and South-west.
Although ‘Operation Positive Identification’ was initially billed to commence alongside the anti-crime patrols on October 7, it was held for additional preparation. Military sources told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday that the exercise will now commence early next November.
Citizens have been warned to carry a valid means of identification, especially voter’s card, national identity card, driver’s licence, international passport, whenever they are going out to avoid being seen as criminally-minded by soldiers.
Already, some firms have started issuing advisory to their staff members ahead of the planned military operation.
Controversial move
“It is unconstitutional to ask citizens to carry ID cards or be treated as suspects,” Kennedy Angbo, a human rights activist in Abuja, told PREMIUM TIMES on Sunday. “If law enforcement agencies have a reason to suspect a citizen, they should go after that citizen and not subject the whole country to fear.”
“More than half of Nigerians do not have identity cards, so what do you expect them to carry around,’’ the activist said.
Nigeria has long faced challenges in compiling a unified database of its citizens. In 2007, a commission was created to register and issue ID cards to all citizens above 16. But over a decade later, only a few million people have enrolled and even fewer number of people had been issued the plastic identity cards.
Millions of citizens do not have voting credentials, driver’s licence or international passport. Millions are unemployed and do not have work-issued ID cards.
“This seems to me like an attempt to victimise, intimidate and extort Nigerians,” another rights activist, Moses Yabrade, said from Warri. “Nigeria is a democracy and we should not be waking up to the fear of a military siege on our collective psyche.”
Mr Angbo said the military, security and law enforcement agencies should all work together to evolve a modern policing technique rather than sticking to crude and dictatorial tactics.
“They should evolve a twentieth-century strategy for securing the nation rather than threatening citizens to carry ID cards or face harsh consequences,” he said.
Nigerian Army spokesperson, Sagir Musa, and Defence Headquarters spokesperson, Onyema Nwachukwu, declined PREMIUM TIMES’ calls and text messages seeking comments about the planned exercise on Sunday.
But in the September 25 announcement he signed, Mr Musa, urged citizens “not to panic on seeing an increased presence of military personnel.”
He said the military would continue to secure the country, protect lives and properties of all Nigerians through multiple exercises, including the ‘Operation Positive Identification.’
Premium Times
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
