Mike Ejiofor, a former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), has stated that the insurgent group Lakurawa, which has been causing turmoil in Nigeria’s North-Western region, is not a new threat.
Last week, the Defence Headquarters identified Lakurawa as a new terrorist group active in Sokoto and Kebbi states.
Major General Edward Buba, the Director of Defence Media Operations, acknowledged that the group is worsening insecurity in the region, though the Nigerian Armed Forces are working to contain them.
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However, Ejiofor, speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, emphasized that Lakurawa has existed for some time and its members are not Nigerian, with origins traced to Niger Republic and Mali.
“I was taken aback when I heard that Lakurawa was a new terrorist group. The truth is they aren’t new,” Ejiofor said on the programme.
The former DSS director went further to give a brief history of the origin of the insurgents.
“The group was initially formed by Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, the former Nigerien military Head of State, as a vigilante group that was working with them, but after his death, the Nigerien government neglected them, and they now scattered,” Ejiofor said.
“One of the district heads in Sokoto State invited them to help them with good intentions, not knowing they had their own agenda.”
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He stated that in 2018, the Sokoto State government grew concerned when the group began revealing its true intentions and took steps to expel them from the country through negotiations.
The faction of the group from Mali left after the talks, but the faction from Niger remained and continued their operations, according to Ejiofor.
When asked about the government’s response to eliminate the terrorists, Ejiofor suggested that since the Lakurawa group is not as entrenched or widespread as Boko Haram, the government has a unique opportunity to eradicate them.
Ejiofor’s view is echoed by other experts.
Security analyst Bulama Bukarti and Tukur Muhammad-Baba, Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), both appeared on Monday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today and confirmed that the Lakurawa group has been active for some time.
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