How President Jonathan’s Airport shuttles weaken Abuja security, endanger residents

On Saturday, March 21, President Goodluck
Jonathan and his campaign team flew out of
Abuja in two aircrafts for another round of
vote solicitation in Kano and neighbouring
Katsina ahead of the March 28 national
elections.
Four hours before the President left his
home at the Presidential villa that Saturday,
over 200 police officers and about a hundred
soldiers were withdrawn from their beats
around the nation’s capital and made to line
the about 40 kilometres route to the Nnamdi
Azikiwe International Airport, some standing
with their rifles on their shoulders, some
sitting on pavements, stones and bare
ground and others snoring away in patrol
cars.
The police wouldn’t say how many officers
are deployed daily to patrol and secure
Abuja, but residents believe the nation’s
capital is under-policed, with some saying
they have never seen a police officer patrol
their areas.
Yet, that Saturday, hundreds of officers, who
could have patrolled streets to check crimes
were mandated to line Mr. Jonathan’s route
for hours, a practice security experts believe
routinely compromises the capital’s security
and exposes residents to robbery,
abductions, rape, assaults and other criminal
acts.
A team of PREMIUM TIMES reporters, who
monitored the president’s airport shuttle
that Saturday, found that nearly all the patrol
vehicles attached to the city’s police
divisions and major intersections in the
capital were withdrawn and used in
transporting officers to locations along the
major expressway from the State House to
the presidential wing of the airport.
The team counted at least 40 police patrol
vehicles parked along the expressway from
the Bolingo Hotel junction up to the
Presidential wing entrance of the Airport.
Each vehicle had at least five well armed
police officers.
That was aside the numerous other police
officers stationed along the route, without
vehicles by their side.
The team’s conservative estimate suggested
that at least 200 police officers were
withdrawn from the city centre to guard the
expressway that day.
Presidency insiders say that practice is
routine, and that there is no plan to review
it.
Apart from the policemen, the reporters also
saw troops from the Guard Brigade in some
strategic locations along the route, especially
by the several suburb localities.
“We saw at least one armoured personnel
carrier with some soldiers near the
intersection leading to Kuje Area Council
before the Airport gate,” one reporter said.
Analysts believe it costs Nigeria several
millions  of naira whenever the President
shuttles to airports.
The numerous vehicles lining the
expressway and the ones on the president’s
convoy would have to be fueled, while the
police officers on guard duty along the route
are paid allowances,” a security official
familiar with the working of the presidential
villa told PREMIUM TIMES. “Presidential
movements are expensive and that is one
thing Nigerians must learn to live with.”
A resident of one pf the estates along the
Abuja Airport expressway, Emmanuel Ogala,
said the security official deployed to guard
the president’s routes at times molest
innocent civilians.
“The roads are closed for like 30 minutes
before the President passes, God help you if
you have an emergency and the president is
traveling,” he said.
Between the President’s travels and
compromised security
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos
recently blamed the president when armed
robbers attacked residents of Lekki Peninsula
on March 12, killing six.
Mr. Fashola said police officers who would
have helped in repelling the bank robbery
were deployed to protect Mr. Jonathan when
he visited the state that day, an argument the
presidency described as unintelligent and
irresponsible.
“Perhaps what would be would have been,
but it’s sad to see all our security personnel,
all our security vehicles deployed to protect
one man,” said Mr. Fashola, who spoke at an
event, An Evening with Buhari and Osinbajo,
in Lagos.
“All the vehicles we bought for the police
were stationed to receive the President in
Lagos. Those policemen have children and
tonight their mothers will have to explain to
them why daddy is not coming home.”
The presidency however described Mr.
Fashola’s statement as “grossly and utterly
irresponsible.”
“We expect that a man of his status, who is
the Governor of a state should speak more
responsibly,” the presidency said in the
statement.
“It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever that
the entire police formation in a state would
be deployed to protect the president of
Nigeria.
“The visit of the President (to) any part of
the country does not necessitate the
depletion of the police force active in that
particular state or its environment.