Benue security crisis should not be given any colouration —CP

The Benue State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni  speaks on herdsmen killings and the problems his men are facing in curbing the crisis with CHRIS AGBAMBU and JOHNSON BABAJIDE. Excerpts

CAN we say that normalcy is gradually returning to Benue State after the incessant attacks by suspected herdsmen?

We can say we are witnessing a gradual reduction in the number of cases of killings, just as we can also conveniently say that we have a drastic reduction in the cases of cattle rustling. There has been an improvement in security situation. Today, we have a gradual movement of the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the various camps back to their ancestral homes and also back to their work, which is farming. Of course it is not as if we are fully stabilised because about few days ago, we had an attack in one of the villages in Kwande Local Government Area. On the whole, we have this relative stability. Before now we would say the situation was unpredictable, but I can say that we have moved a little bit away from that with the overwhelming deployment of security personnel by IG to the state. Additional vehicles were also drawn from different areas to support our operation. The additional elements given to us since January has helped a lot and at the height if the crisis at Mbalom where the two priests were killed, Federal Government made intervened bY deploying special unit from the Police to the Military, Civil Defense and Department of State Security to the state under the code name of Operation Whirl Stroke. The collaboration has added to what we have on ground as strategic development to the villages which has made narrative to change.

You said earlier that the IDPs are already going back to their ancestral homes. What arrangements have been made to guarantee their safety?

The people are returning to their places because they are predominantly farmers,. The rain has started and the people are returning in their numbers with regards to security arrangement that is in place. Before now, most of the areas had been covered by the deployment of the police, we have police scattered in those places, am talking of the villages in the  local governments of the state. In Guma, we have policemen stationed at Daudu, Otese, Mkoho, Ugbam Udeh, Yelwata, Gobio. We have not removed them from there to give assurance that security is guaranteed but there is no full proof strategy to this.

Benue is a vast land with a scattered settlement.  But the way the settlement is arranged is not helpful. When you talk of security, because you have this vast land with a lot of forest and have an isolated living, where you have some 10 to 15  buildings with thatched houses in a place, and in between that place and another village is about 500 meters away, and in between are bushy, rough terrains difficult to access. That is how the state is delineated. Even in between of  settlement where there is farmland, you also have difficulty in navigating the terrain. That brings to focus what is always regarded as governed places within the international system. When you have such a governed place with limited tools, because no country has been able to 100 per cent cover their territory, that is why the DONALD Trump  talked of building a wall in a governed place. Even with their technology,  it is practically impossible to have security at every inch of the area, so you will need more than physical presence. Unfortunately for us here, we don’t have this because we need to monitor those forests. Deployment to most of Ede places is good when one can quickly send reinforcement when something is happening in point A and want to send something to point B and between point A and point B with the challenge if the terrain and the distance it may take you like up to two and three hours to navigate it, unless you are going to walk it and unfortunately for us in our system a lot of police asset have been deflated. In the past, police used to have mounted tree, camera sections but you don’t have things that are vital for policing this kind of places. What we do is to use members of the community to gather intelligence and information.

How are the other security agents cooperating with police?

It is fantastic we have been able to build that strong synergy with the Army, the Navy, Air  force, DSS, Civil Defense and the people. In addition to the manpower given to us by the IG, about a month  ago, there was this initiative by the Federal Government, the Operation Whirl Stroke, which has brought the forces together. This has been a successful operation.

How have you been able to mobilise your men to face security squarely?

Firstly, it is essential to put men into use in this kind of situation and give them sense of belonging, even when you have material resources deployed like vehicles and others and if you do not maintain the vehicle it will break down. While it is necessary to take care of the welfare of the personnel, security job, especially the police, is more about sacrifice. It is more of about having passion. Nothing can be enough as welfare for a policeman. Ditto for other security personnel. A policeman has to work every day, which makes our work  different from others. We fight a war, asymmetric warfare, the war from unknown enemy because you may be going in your uniform, while the criminal is hiding in a place. So, nothing can be enough for a policeman. We have to pay the supreme sacrifice of losing some of our men, because in the course of this operation, we have lost about 22 policemen.

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Since the crisis started, how many arrests have you made?

Just yesterday, we had press briefing  where we highlighted those thing we have been doing for the  past one month, we were able to give the submission of the arrest since the crisis started this year, I came in January, as of  June 6th , with regards to anti open grazing law, we have arrested total number of 188 and with the support of the state ministry of Justice, the suspects have been arraigned in court, cases  are at different stages hearing, there was one that was convicted to a jail term of one year with an option of fine. Also in the course of the exercise, we have also make use of alternate  dispute resolution where the state ministry of agriculture dialogues with some of the pastoralists to get that amicable settlement were reached to pay for damages, both ways even where the youths here are found so is the combination of alternate dispute resolution and getting justice but aside the 188 being prosecuted for violating the law,  there is another set of 61 that are undergoing prosecution with regards to culpable homicide and mischief by fire because one aspect is flouting the anti open grazing law but where death were recovered  in the villages that were sacked  and people were killed in this case, 61 persons are been prosecuted including the three suspects at Mbalom where the catholic priests were killed  in addition to that as well as at the time the first mass burial were carried out in the state there is also a set of 158 persons were arraigned in court for the civil disturbance that took place that time. Out of the 61 persons facing trial involved both faces because we have where some herdsmen were killed by some bandits so is both herdsmane and natives that are been prosecuted.

There are conflicting reports on the attacks on Catholic Church at Mbalom where two priests were killed and their parishioners, some said the attackers were not herdsmen as earlier reported in the media who were the killers?

Well, a lot has been said about that incident and the fact must remain, we must learn to say the truth, live the truth, what we always emphasize is that the security challenge in Benue state should not be given any coloration at all. Crime is crime, criminal is criminal, criminality is criminality, where you give coloration to crime, you will not be able to solve the problem and we always emphasize that this challenge in Benue state should not be given coloration be it ethnic or religion or politically, unfortunately for us, we see situation where out of sentiment, people try to color ate, people have said is a continuation of Jihad war, it is unthinkable to say that the Jihad was is continue, herdsmen or militant do carry out some of these hostilities in Benue state, in Oyo state, we have cases in Oyo, Ekiti, so we will we say  that Jihad is been taken to Oyo, Osun, Ekiti even up to Delta or Benue states. So that is why our elites and leaders need to be very careful as to how they describe the happenings  and before I go to the interpretation been given to Mbalom crisis, this is not the first time in this state or part of the north central have been having farmers/herdsmen clashes, you (referring to GM) have been covering police beat long time ago, some of the previous Inspector Generals of Police, have set up initiative team when the former IG Abubakar, the DI.g operation then, Mr Zuokumor led that initiative that is to say that this has been perennial thing, is being a yearly thing, is been more about climate change, about the use of limited resources during dry season, so herdsmen/farmers crisis has been something that has been taken place. Before I got to this place as commissioner of police, while working in headquarters I had been doing paper work on the crisis with regards to herdsmen/farmers crises. What has changed is the coloration been given to it, secondly, the magnitude of what we are having as climate change now, which is a global thing, thirdly, you also have global proliferation of prohibited small and deadly  arms which has not been control as such because of our porous border is also that in this country, institutional memory is lacked,MIT is always in between Novemner/December to April/May or so that you have this crisis that is why initiative now are been focused on what can be done to put permanent solution to the crisis so that we will not have a recurrence, because within the period of my career in the police I think for the past 10-15 years we have been following what is happening, so just like the governor of this state has said that this was not caused by the present president not even him as the governor is something that has been happening but what should be done differently is for us not to fold our arms and be shouting hallelujah that we have completely solve the problem but to look inward as to what are we going to do to permanently find solution to the crisis during dry season.

With regard  the incident in Mbalom, early in the morning if that day about 7am, we got a distress call, the officers in the command and myself immediately moved to that area for on the spot  assessment which was almost immediately the incident happened and we had interaction with eyewitnesses because we were not at the scene of the incident when it took place, so we relied on the eyewitness account. One of the thing to made us to know in the course of our initial inquiry which some of the people in this place confirmed is that since 2014 no one has reared livestock towards that area, talk less of herdsmen troubling the area and my deployment to this place is January 18 and in between that up until when that incident occurred that community had remained one of the peaceful no single incident of threat if attack by herdsmen had been recorded from that area. But that notwithstanding, talking to the eyewitness there, we were told that they were preparing for early morning mass by 6.00 am, it was the woman that was taken care of the church that told us she said while she was preparing for early morning mass, she saw some people out from the bush, and with some of them covering their faces from her narrative it was obvious that the main target was the funeral service it was like these murderous gang was looking for that kind of crowd and the funereal service was almost at its peak like about two hindered meters away from the church but meanwhile preparation was been made for the morning mass so these murderous hand emerged shot sporadically that caused  the unfortunate incident, sadly the priest that was going to take the mass was killed in the process with the catechist and chairmen, advisory body of the church, these attackers moved to where the funeral was taken place as they go they started shooting sporadically where people were killed, killing at all, is unacceptable, ungodly because in the course of doing that some people were killed in the church, which is not acceptable is sacrilege but a whole of story has been given about this incident but that was what happened while also trying to get more information a lot of things came up and we look at it, in investigation by police we don’t just look at one side, this could be herdsmen and it could also a criminal gang somehow motivated by someone but the whole thing that police is pursuing, but people have the right to its interpretation as a police, as of course, we will not want to give any coloration to that incident, that incident was not an attack on the church and was not attacked on the Christianity as a religion and it wasn’t attacked on Christians, it was a heinous crime, a murderous crime and of course we are focusing attention on that and investigation is still on gong as I told you three persons were arraigned in court last week in connection with the attack based on the strength of evidence we have, it is still an ongoing thing, the use of  technology is been employed to get more information and more facts about the case and we believe that we will be still get to the root of it, justice will be given and of course with the intervention that government is making well be able to stop this. But it must be emphasized that no nation wins a war of security challenges like this when you color ate crime, criminality or criminals in ethnic way or religion or whatever. we are facing serious problem it is when we identify that this is a serious security challenge not a fight between ethnic group or the order, I think that is why the governor of this state has continued to emphasize that Benue is not at war with any particular tribe, neither is any particular tribe at war with Benue state.

Aside of the herdsmen crisis, the issue of Terwas Akwasa popularly known as Gana and his gang seems to have made the Sankara axis a crisis ridden area, why has he not been apprehended all this while?

One thing you should know is the process that has been on for the past two years and just came n just five months but one thing is that both the state and federal governments have taken this issue as a serious challenge, just as I have always been saying, the security challenges that we have in this state have different dimension, apart from the herdsmen thing, we also have preponderance of communal clashes in the state plus what is happening in Sankera axis where a monster in the state has turned to something else, he has been declared wanted and price tag has been placed on him but from what we have doing, there is also element of conspiracy of silence so that is why we are working with people and that is why the community policing, intelligence led policing will come in to play, because, when you have conspiracy of silence, your chance of success is very slim, but there is this popular saying, that every day is for the thief but one day is for the owner. I want to stop there because when you are doing that kind of  operation you are probably let out your strategy to your enemy that may jeopardize what we are doing but I can assure you that the federal and state governments with overwhelming deployment to the state the security forces will surely overcome this.

Having served as CP in Lagos and also in foreign assignment, how will you compare the situation in the country, viz a viz Benue and those areas?

Let me start this way, policing a cosmopolitan state has a little bit of difference than when you police a non cosmopolitan area researchers have said that when you are in cosmopolitan state, is a place where everyone is on his own, there is a lot if things you can do that people will not read meaning into it and when you take Lagos, the kind of arrangement and the support, that is Lagos state a trust fund which is unique and you have the wherewithal to carry out your operation even with the waterways and everything you could see the enormous work though, Lagos in terms of size is the smallest state in the federation but when you talk of the population and the expand of waterways and others is a huge challenge but with that unique arrangement that has been put in place to support security operation in which you have those tools in which to work. In Lagos state I have 107 police divisions that is 107 DPOs and 13 Area commands and with the population of about 33,000 policemen but that wherewithal that we have made us to overcome our challenges, within the period of about two years I was in Lagos we were lucky that the government strongly backed our operation with tools we were lucky that we had robust inter agency synergy, we were lucky that we had the good people of Lagos supporting our operation so much so that to the glory of God, I have always flaunted it that as at the time we were leaving Lagos, for the period of two years after we had done with one of the notorious criminals, Lagos has no record of a single bank robbery in any of the commercial centers and with  the challenges we had with kidnapping as well , we can also say that as of the time I was leaving Lagos we were done with the kingpins of kidnapping with the militant that dominated the  water so by  September that I was leaving I can say proudly to the glory of God and sincere appreciation to the governor of Lagos state and the guidance  that we got from the IG that no militant was standing on the water  and the good people of Lagos helped us.

Coming to Benue state, Benue is most indigenous with vast expanse of land, the mindset of the people here is different from the mindset of people of Lagos, you have community that somehow, ethnic affiliation stronger than the consciousness to assist in addressing security challenges and that is where the element of conspiracy of silence comes in so policing a place like this needs a lot of patience and maturity because there are things you may do in a place like this that may be counted as an insult to the community so you have to take the professionalism in policing in such that you should understand your priority, you should be able to connect with the community that is where the element of community partnership, community policing will come to play more in a place like this because without the  community because people are more rooted in the community that ethnic affiliation is strong, there are some places here that homicide case happened, they see it as a taboo to go to the police and report and you have to work it through with them and it has reflected in the policemen that work in the state as well, may be in the spirit of community policing where close to 90 percent of the people that work in the state are indigenes, where most of them probably sought transfer to the state with a view to come and complete their service since they are getting close to retirement when you have such a thing you have to work with them sometimes, the leadership, the body language  of the leadership also dictates, that is why if you look around, starting from the environment you have to let them know that your allegiance as police and uniform man  is mainly and primarily to the constitution if the country. Your loyalty is to the constitution of this country, having understood that you make the staff you have to reflect in that.

We are coming up and we have been able to do capacity building a bit of bringing them up, some of the people have been here for like 20, 25 years and some have not gone out before and when you don’t have that shared experience it will be a bit difficult, but we are working with them to make sure that we change the mindset that globally, the dynamism of crime requires that you must also move ahead of it that is what we are trying to do. When you look at policing globally, people may not like it, I said it in Lagos, I will still repeat it, in context and given all the available parameter with which to carry out police with, the Nigeria police, whether anybody likes it or not remain among the best in this world. There are reasons for saying that, Nigeria is somehow most difficult country to carry out policing work, the ease of enforcement in Nigeria should be the lowest, may be because of the mindset of the people or not, yes, all over every man has the tendency of committing crime but if you don’t have people that are obedient to the law to is difficult because it easier to say that don’t mind the police, they are the ones not enforcing the law. If you don’t have the people that have the mindset to obey laws it is difficult to enforce, we have cited cases when we go outside the shore of the country we comfort with certain things that people will say that is because the police there is good, whereas is not like that, it is the society, if you change the police one million times and you don’t change the mind set if the people it is nothing, it has to be simultaneous that as you are changing and reforming the police the people are also changing their mindset, the value system has to change. It is only in this country that nobody dies, every one that is deceased is killed by someone, it is this country that when you have an intersection with traffic light, police traffic or road Marshall controlling traffic that an able bodied man will stop you, or traffic light stop you but you move when not and when they want to contravene you, you start hearing, don’t you know me, I will call your IG for you now and if the poor constable is so unfortunate that that person has to be in government before you know it they will say you should detain the constable, when you have such a thing and also have others which I had earlier mentioned, low personnel, though we thank God that government is recruiting now, secondly, where are the tools to perform the work, what make an American police or UK police to look heavy, it is all the tools in the body but here you don’t have such things to perform, so also we talked of application of technology to perform, thank God we are a little bit higher now but there are still more to do.

What is your advice to the people of Benue state to be able to overcome the challenges?

The security challenge is not of Benue state alone, not even about Nigeria alone, all over the world there are security challenge, moving away from this, protection of lives and property is not the  business of police and security agencies alone, everyone is involved and once you recognized that this people wearing uniform are just agents in uniform and the members of the society should also know that they are agents out of uniform, people are the CCTV all over, you know even when you plant CCTV all over and the people are not working with the security, they can manipulate that CCTV not to work but when the people mirror themselves as part of the security system everything will be okay it is when you have security that social and economic activities can strive.

Also the irresponsible ways of using the social media where people cry foul when there is nothing, somebody will put on social media now and say my sister just returned to Makurdi and say that Makurdi to Abuja is not saved, that is bogus, if you say the road is not saved you don’t even put the particular place along the road so how do you want security people to address it , these are bogus information that we talk about. Let us use the social media responsibly, meaningfully not to continue hearten threat in the society, all of us as common saying that the people are the police and the police are the people, with the advent of modern way of policing we have a way of policing our society, we need to work hand in hand with security agencies and once we do that, we find out that the protection of lives and property will be easy to carry out. I must tell you that within the period that we have been here the people have been good, cooperating with us, we continue to appeal to them to continue to show us the understanding, they should continue to see us an integral part of themselves.