LAST week, suspected Fulani herdsmen embarked on genocide in Ebonyi State, killing 50 people in Ebonyi State. The grisly and dastardly incident in communities sharing borders with Benue State caused massive outrage. In their own land, members of the Odoka Ishieke, Obakota Ishieke and Ndiobàsi Ishieke communities died like flies in a carnage orchestrated by state-privileged outlaws. There were reasons to believe that many more corpses still lay in the bushes, from where policemen and health workers ferried them to town. According to media reports, the victims included nursing mothers and babies. The state governor, Mr. Dave Umahi, could not help remarking that the massacre was as gory as it was bestial. Not even the little ones were spared the horrific experience of rape before they were murdered.
Sadly, the rampaging herdsmen repeated their atrocity in Igangan community in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State in the early hours of Sunday, June 6, when they attacked residents, killing many people and burning down houses, shops, a petrol station, and the palace of the traditional ruler of the community. The attackers, who reportedly rode into town in vehicles and motorcycles, were heavily armed with sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles, machine guns, axes and machetes. A resident of Igangan, Musa Lawal, said: “The attack was apparently premeditated. Almost all residents of Igangan sought refuge in the bush. We called security agencies but they didn’t respond to our distress calls. Only our local hunters, who were employed as members of the Amotekun security corps, confronted the Fulani herdsmen. They killed more than 30 people here. Some of the attackers who were wounded were taken away by their people. They razed more than 100 shops, a filling station and a gas refill station.”
For months, Igangan residents have battled herdsmen’s attacks on farmers, involving kidnapping and rape. Iskilu Wakili, an alleged warlord accused of masterminding many cases of kidnapping and killing in Igangan and Ibarapa axis of the state, was captured by members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) in Igangan and handed over to the police. But the police also clamped the OPC men in jail. To say the very least, the killing of hapless Nigerians is becoming too frequent. It is horrendous and mind-boggling. Pray, just how could human life be worth so little? How could human life be lost cheaply? The Buhari administration, which has dismissed the clamour for state police with magisterial cant, has found no answer to the trail of bloodshed left by the terrorists, whose ethnic profile apparently has conferred on them immunity.
In the face of the ceaseless acts of genocide by the herdsmen, the heads of the country’s security apparatus have caved in, mouthing mere platitudes. For instance, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Baba Ahmed, has been opposing the clamour for state police, claiming that politicians would abuse it, as if politicians have not been abusing his Nigeria Police Force (NPF). In the wake of the revelation last week by the Oyo State chairman of Amotekun, Brigadier-General Ajibola Togun (retd), that some foreign Fulani invaders were hiding in forest reserves in the South-West, preparatory to launching a full-scale assault on the zone, Ahmed claimed that the force was taking the intelligence seriously. But his command did not arrest the massacre in Igangan, and has no history of stopping the herdsmen in their tracks. On his part, the newly appointed Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Farouk Yahaya, declared in bewildered exasperation that the Nigerian Army alone could not tackle the security problems of the country. Pray, whoever said the Nigerian Army alone could address the security challenges?
The other two arms of the military, the police, the Department of State Services (DSS), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other paramilitary agencies are all supposed to work hand in glove and ensure that Nigerians sleep with two eyes closed, but there is no evidence to suggest that they have been up to par. For instance, if the DSS has any intelligence about the herdsmen who kill with such ferocious impunity, we have not seen that intelligence being put to fruitful use. Indeed, rather than confronting outlaws, errant members of the uniformed profession have been turning their arms on innocent citizens. For instance, a Germany-based Nigerian, Oguchi Unachukwu, was murdered in cold blood by a Nigeria Air Force NAF man as he made his way into the Sam Mbakwe International Airport in Imo State last week. Unachukwu, cut down at the airport’s toll gate, was reportedly heading for Lagos, from where he would then connect an international flight to Germany. The list of citizens killed by errant uniformed men is literally endless.
When negotiations are conducted with bandits and ransoms paid, the security agencies should ordinarily have intelligence about the negotiations. But what do they do with the intelligence? The ceaseless killings across the country reflect the poor value that the government attaches to human lives. It cannot continue watching in docile stupefaction as terror groups unleash pain on hapless citizens.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Battle For First Bank: The Untold Story
Last week was one of twists and turns for First Bank of Nigeria Limited, the nation’s oldest banking institution. It was a week that saw the bank’s MD sacked and reinstated, as major shareholders struggled for control of the financial powerhouse. SULAIMON OLANREWAJU reports…
#EndSARS Panel: Drama As Witness Presents Video Evidence Of Slain Lekki Protesters
A witness of the Lekki tollgate shooting incident, Miss Sarah Ibrahim has presented video evidence of people injured and killed at the scene to the Lagos State Judicial Panel. Tribune Online reports that…
and then