At the time when the Nigerian Security ‘apparatchiks’ are still finding difficult to discern the source of sophisticated weapons in the hands of insurgents and militia groups in the country, six mine-resistant military vehicles have been intercepted by soldiers, Nigeria Customs Service and Department of State Services officials in Konkol, Maiha Local Government Area, Adamawa State.
Konkol is on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon.
While the Nigerian Customs have disclosed that the military equipment were being transported to Niger Republic, it remains unclear who the intended recipients are and the purposes the military equipment were meant to serve.
The Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles are light tactical vehicles designed specifically to withstand improvised explosive device (IED) attacks and ambushes.
They were prominently used by the U.S Army between 2007 and 2012 in Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
It was reported that the highly sophisticated equipment being conveyed were without appropriate documentation, including their ownership, source and destination.
Nigeria, for over a decade had been in war with the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents and it begets the question of how the sophisticated equipment found their ways into the country most especially the troubled North-East State.
Were the vehicles meant to be delivered to the terror group in the North-East?
In 2017, the Customs seized a container laden with 440 arms and ammunition of various sizes and designs, while the drivers were arrested; leaders of the gun-running syndicates were never arrested.
The seizure of the mine-resistance vehicles has again raised questions about the challenges of safeguarding Nigeria’s borders.
Analysts have opined that the consistent “failure of the Nigerian government to work but modalities for securing the border had not only led to illegal importations of firearms, it has also added to the growing illegal migration into and even out of the country.
It is also believed to be a major cause of insecurity issues such as farmers-herders conflict and Boko Haram insurgency bedeviling the country.
While the Army, saddled with the burden of defending the territorial integrity of the country has not responded to the seizure of the equipment, many are saying that the implication of not bringing to book the culprits of the illegal deals may further compound the woes of the present administration’s drive to halt the spate of insecurity in the country.