The Ebonyi killings

HELL was literally let loose this week as suspected Fulani herdsmen invaded the Obeagu community in the Ishielu Local government Area of Ebonyi State and killed 16 persons. The killers, who reportedly rode in five unmarked Hilux vans,  also set about 10 motorcycles and vehicles ablaze. Here is the chilling account of a survivor: “We passed Egedegede  Junction and between the village and the junction, we sighted about seven men in black clothes; three were going inside the bush while four were by the roadsides. On getting to that point, they stopped us and took us inside the bush.  Inside the bush was about 10 to 15 others. Immediately, they started beating us blue and black. While they were beating two of us who were women, they stabbed the driver with a dagger and slaughtered him in our presence. After killing him, they started marching on our bodies. So, every motorcycle that came, they would stop it, kill every male and burn the motorcycle. All those who carried out the attack were Fulani. They told us that they were Fulani militias. They  also told us that we should go and tell Nnamdi Kanu that they can enter any community in Igboland and carry out an  attack, and nothing would happen.”

Speaking on the carnage, the chairman of Ishielu Local Government Area, Henry Eze, described the incident as gruesome and called on the security agencies to fish out the killers. Confirming the incident, the Ebonyi State Police Public Relations Officer, Loveth Odah, said that the state  Commissioner of Police had delegated a team of policemen for an on-the-spot assessment because of the peace talks going on in the town. On his part, Governor David Umahi confirmed that over 15 persons were killed by the herdsmen. Noting that they perpetrated the mayhem with AK-47  rifles, Umahi urged security agencies to fish out the killers. Subsequently, he imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew to avert
further killings in the affected areas.

On its part, the South-East caucus of the Senate called on the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and other heads of security agencies to track down the killers. In a statement issued in Abuja by the Chairman, South-East  Senate Caucus and former Deputy President of the Senate,  Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the caucus said: “This act is most unfeeling and gruesome, and we condemn it in totality. But more importantly, this must not go unpunished like others before it. It is imperative to warn that the Nigerian state is fast delegitimizing itself by its failure to discharge the  primary purpose of government, which is security and welfare of the people, as clearly prescribed in Section 14 of the  1999 Constitution.” It added that the widespread killings and all manner of violent crimes across the country had continued to worsen because the perpetrators were never arrested or brought to book.

To say the very least, the Ebonyi massacre reinforces the increasingly popular perception that the country is gradually turning into a failed state. It is beyond tragic that nomadic killers have been given the leverage to threaten the peace,  unity and security of the country on a daily basis. The perception is rife that the atrocities perpetrated by these outlaws feed off the sub-text of their ethnic affiliation, but the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is ever content with offering platitudes while they continue their maniacal and genocidal onslaughts. More worrisome is the fact that by their conduct, highly placed officials of the administration and a select group of state governors believe that the herders are justified in their actions. To these persons, it does not matter that the country’s fragile unity is threatened on a daily basis and the groundwork laid for the intractable crisis in the future: what matters is the presumed ethnic superiority of the herders. The country is supposed to have intelligence agencies, a police force, a navy, an air force and an army, as well as a coterie of paramilitary agencies saddled with the protection of Nigerians from harm, but the herders have hardly ever been stopped in their tracks. They kill for sport and make farming attractive only to citizens in search of certain death. Farmlands have become active sites of (gang) rape, murder and mutilation as the herders exult in the sheer ability to shed human blood and luxuriate in chaos. They know that they will not be punished for their crimes. They know that the police would inevitably side with them if at all they get apprehended and handed over to them.

The situation has gone out of hand and nobody is addressing the issue; not even the newly appointed service chiefs that ought to take ending the herders’ onslaught on Nigerians, banditry, kidnapping and other security threats afflicting the country as a cardinal objective. As the security situation worsens by the day, the government appears helpless. It legitimizes crime by negotiating with bandits and other outlaws all the time. It negotiates from a position of weakness and leaves the citizenry at the mercy of the outlaws. The Buhari administration continues to resist the proposed establishment of state police formations to rein in the security afflictions that have made life unbearable for the vast majority of the populace even though it has no answers to the challenges that spring up by the minute.

We are appalled by the grievous security situation in the country and the utter failure of the Buhari administration to protect Nigerians from merchants of death and destruction. As things stand, Nigerians will have to take their destiny in their own hands. This is not a listening government. We are not confident that the authors of the Ebonyi massacre will get their just deserts. We hope to be proved wrong.

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