Secure Abuja-Kaduna Expressway again

Penultimate Sunday, criminal elements operating along the Abuja Kaduna Expressway struck again without any let or hindrance. At the end of their deadly operation, a professor, a policeman, an army officer and his daughter were among those killed, while several others sustained serious gunshot wounds.
A few others were kidnapped by the armed gang and ferried into the bush for ransom negotiations.
The killing of the slain professor and former commissioner for education in Katsina state, Halima Idris, which was witnessed by her spouse, is a sad reminder of the murder of Prof.
Ahmad Mustapha Falaki, the director of the Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, at Fala village in Kibiya Local Government Area of Kano state, on February 14, 2015, though in a different circumstance.
Unlike Prof. Halima Idris who was mowed down by bandits, Prof.
Falaki was believed to have been murdered by overzealous policemen.
The late don, his younger brother Abbas and his driver were returning to Kano from a village in Bauchi state, which the professor visited in order to say hello to old acquaintances, when they had a stopover in Fala village.
According to Abbas, they stopped over in order to have lunch and change a bad tyre on Falaki’s official Hilux SUV.
They were doing both when a gang of armed men believed to be Boko Haram members that had attacked the police station in the neighbouring Kibiya town suddenly came along on several motorcycles.
The two men riding the lead motorcycle stopped, and at gunpoint, seized Falaki’s SUV and zoomed off, followed by the other heavily armed men who were riding in twos and threes.
Falaki, together with his driver and sibling, explained what happened to the villagers, who offered to help them find alternative means of transportation.
As several phone calls were made to nearby villages and to Falaki’s wife and friends, some policemen arrived at the scene from Kibiya.
The policemen, who were allegedly invited on phone by the village head of Fala, interviewed the three travellers, who identified themselves with their official cards.
The police, Abbas said, disbelieved them, and one of them declared offhandedly, “These are Boko Haram members.” Suddenly, somebody hit Falaki from the back of his head and he fell down and died on the spot.
But Abbas and the driver escaped into a nearby bush.
Abbas later said he clearly heard the policemen celebrating and congratulating themselves on “killing a Boko Haram member” and arresting two other members of the terrorist sect.
It was only after police investigators arrived from Kano that it was finally discovered that a tragic mistake had been made.
Till date, none of the perpetrators of the heinous crime has been identified let alone punished.
In the case of Prof.
Halima Idris and the other hapless commuters, they were said to have been waylaid by armed kidnappers numbering 10 near Gidan Busa village, situated between Jere and Kateri along the expressway at about 6.45 pm.
According to an eyewitness account, the operation lasted for about an hour.
Security agents were said to have refused to intervene in the operation, claiming they were waiting for reinforcement.
The reinforcement never came until the bandits ended their operation and vanished into thin air.
Incidents of armed robbery and kidnapping have become phenomenal across the country in recent years.
But the situation along the AbujaKaduna Expressway has not only assumed a frightening dimension but also defied solutions to the extent that law enforcement agencies including the military seem to have accepted it as fait accompli.
Or how else does one explain the rampant incidents of armed banditry and kidnapping that have defined one of the busiest highways in that part of the country? Hardly does any pass by without cases of robbery and kidnapping recorded, some with fatal consequences.
Several measures taken in the recent past to contain the menace on the notorious road such as checkpoints, stop-and-search and patrols have not yielded positive results.
We, however, recall the steps taken early last year by the federal government to secure the road when the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, was shut down to enable repair works to be carried out on its runway.
For a couple of months that the repairs lasted and air traffic had to be diverted to the Kaduna International Airport, no single incidents of robbery and kidnapping were reported.
Adequate security was also provided for the high and low level passengers, including foreigners, commuting between the two cities, some using the railway services.
The federal government has a responsibility of securing the lives and properties of its citizens, regardless of their status.
Nigerians should feel safe to move from one place to another without having their hearts in their mouths.
The general insecurity currently pervading the country is perceived as failure of leadership.
Whatever it would take, the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, and any such highways elsewhere in the country, should not be left to crim