Tinted Glasses, Tinted Justice: When Bandits Rule and the Police Chase Permits
By Baban Khalifa wrote from Minna.
If there was ever a manual on how to misplace priorities as a government, Nigeria would be the chief author, Niger State the best classroom, and the Nigerian Police Force the undisputed gold medalist.
On September 29, 2025, bandits abducted Barrister Ahmed Mohammed Borgu, Commissioner for Legal at NSIEC, and his driver, Usman Buhari, along Ibbi–Zuguruma road. In the same breath, over 50 other citizens were swept away into the forests. Two days later, on October 1, another lawyer, Isyaku Muhammad Danjuma of Sudan Chambers, Kontagora, was kidnapped in Ibeto, alongside more than 25 other innocent Nigerians. For three consecutive days, the Ibeto–Magama axis was an open theatre of horror, bandits operating steadily and without hindrance—as if they were running shifts in a well-organized company.
And where were our gallant security agencies during this three-day festival of abduction? Busy! Oh yes, very busy. Not with rescuing kidnapped citizens. Not with flushing out the criminals tormenting communities. Not even with preventing the next attack. No. They were out in Minna, on October 2, staging their grand show—arresting motorists with tinted glass permits. Yes, you read that right.
While citizens are being herded like cattle into captivity, the police, with sirens blazing and checkpoints mounted, are proudly enforcing tinted glass permits. The same tinted permits whose validity is being challenged in court by the Nigerian Bar Association, with processes duly served on the police. But why bother about court processes, constitutional rights, or common sense, when there are tinted windows to inspect?
This is not just misplacement of priorities—it is abdication of responsibility dressed in uniform. The Nigerian Police have effectively told us that tinted glass is a greater threat to national security than bandits who stroll in and out of communities, plundering, burning, killing, and abducting. Perhaps the bandits should take notes: instead of rifles and motorcycles, maybe they only need tinted Hilux vans to finally earn the full attention of our law enforcement.
The irony is nauseating. In Shiroro, Tegina, Kontagora, Magama, Borgu, and Ibeto, banditry has become the new government. Villagers are now governed not by the Constitution but by AK-47s and ransom negotiations. Yet the official custodians of law and order are flexing muscles over tinted glass. Truly, when tragedy becomes comedy, sarcasm writes itself.
We must say it bluntly: the Government of Niger State and the Federal security apparatus have failed in their primary duty of protecting lives and property. Failure is not even strong enough a word—it is dereliction, abandonment, betrayal. Citizens now navigate between prayer houses and kidnappers’ camps while the police chase shadows of car windows.
The Government must be reminded: leadership is not about loud condemnations after every abduction, nor about crocodile tears in press releases. And the Police must be challenged: if you can mount roadblocks to terrorize law-abiding motorists, you can mount an operation to confront bandits. Or is the forest terrain too complex compared to the Minna–Suleja highway?
Nigerians are not blind. We see the pattern. When it is the safety of citizens, there is lethargy, silence, and excuses. But when it comes to squeezing motorists for permits, suddenly, the full machinery of enforcement roars into life. It is clear where the priorities lie—not with the people, but with the pockets.
Until Government and security agencies abandon this shameful theatre of negligence, the citizens remain abandoned. And so, with biting sarcasm, let it be said: Niger State is safe… safe for bandits, kidnappers, and criminals.
And tinted glass? Oh yes, that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real enemy of the Nigerian state.
