The Plateau bloodbath

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FACED with the palpable threat of extermination, Plateau State elders appealed to the United Nations (UN) for protection. They had become completely exasperated with the inaction of the Nigerian government as nomadic herdsmen, a terror outfit that keeps Nigeria’s name on the Global Terrorism Index, literally made the state a human abattoir. In their orgy of death and destruction, the invaders have made no secret of their intention to wipe out the indigenous Plateau populations and annex their land, and recent reports from the state even quoted the killers as boasting that they would completely obliterate Christmas celebrations in the state and that the people, the majority of whom subscribe to the Christian faith, would have no hands with which to eat Christmas meat. It was therefore not a surprise that on Sunday, December 24, gunmen stormed Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat, and Butura Kampani villages in the Barkin Ladi, Mangu and Bokkos areas of the state, burning houses and slaughtering residents. There was nothing strange about it: bloodshed in Plateau and Benue is routine.

Of course, there was the usual outrage over the bloodbath which left over 10,000 people displaced in Bokkos town alone, with the victims seeking refuge in churches, mosques, schools, and private residences. Although the Chairman of the Community Peace Observers in the Bokkos Local Government Area, Kefas Mallai, initially said that over 150 were killed by the gunmen, the casualty figures have since increased to 195. A whopping 148 persons were killed in Bokkos, 19 in Mangu and 27 in Barkin Ladi, with 1,290 houses burnt down in Bokkos council alone. Reacting to the incident, President Bola Tinubu condemned the heinous crime and directed security agencies to scout for and apprehend the culprits. Describing the incident as a “primitive and heinous” attack, Tinubu said: “These envoys of death, pain and sorrow will not escape justice.” He also “deployed a high-power delegation of well-armed operational forces” to the troubled areas to prevent further attacks.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said it was “deeply distressing to witness the continuous deterioration of security in the conflict-affected areas of the North, which has led to countless lives being lost and a pervasive sense of fear and instability amongst the communities.” It expressed concern over the inability of the military to prevent the Christmas carnage in which no fewer than 64 communities in the state were displaced by terrorists. The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) lamented that that human lives did not seem to mean anything anymore in the country, saying the attacks aimed to set the state on political and religious turmoil. But to underline the futility of verbal reactions to their acts of genocide, the attackers launched attacks on a community of Budel in the Tangur area of the state. Indeed, only on Sunday this week, a father and his son were cut down in cold blood in Shere district of Jos East Local Government Area of the state.

The Plateau bloodbath incident is indeed horrific and heartbreaking. It points to a criminal abdication of governmental responsibility. It is hard to believe that such gruesome killings took place even with the massive security in place by the military and police authorities. This, definitely, speaks of collapse of security and intelligence and state collusion because, let’s face it, arms and bullets are not sold in the common markets, yet these killers, who in fact operate in military fatigues at times, have literally unrestrained access to them while their victims, who are often admonished to accommodate their country, are left with no protection whatsoever. The senator representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi, in fact held the Red Chamber spellbound when he told his colleagues how almost 200 people were massacred by the terrorists in Plateau State. According to him, the bandits deposited their arms at different points within the communities ahead of the attacks. He added: “The attack was by a catchment of bandits, over 400 of them moving at one go. I was at JUTH (Jos University Teaching Hospital) and you could see a three-month-old with a gunshot wound. Three months! Some were beheaded. This is unprecedented.”

Generations of people have perished in Plateau State and thousands, if not millions, maimed for life, without any recompense for the perpetrators. In this current case, the perpetrators sacked two communities and burnt over 200 houses, then burnt more houses in subsequent attacks. They operated for two days without challenge and the implication, quite simply, is that there is no government in place. Surely, the fact that the killings keep recurring is distressing and this definitely calls for national mourning and soberness. It is distressing that all the Federal Government could deliver after the horrendous killings of nearly 200 people by marauders was the usual farce of condemning the abominable and gruesome slaughter and making ineffectual promises to prevent a recurrence of the crime and to go after the perpetrators. Yet we know that if the government had ever delivered on such promises in the past, the perpetrators would have thought twice before embarking on their killing sprees, knowing that they would be apprehended and punished.

The truth is that the government has shown spectacular incapacity to provide adequate security for citizens. It has failed to shield them from wanton slaughter, which is really very unfortunate. It is difficult to conceive of government without the provision and maintenance of law and order and where insecurity becomes the defining characteristic of life, it is a signal of the collapse of governance. This is the current situation as the Nigerian government continues to advertise to the whole world that it is not in control of its assumed territory and that outlaws can make the place ungovernable at will. As it is, making ineffectual statements will not restore the standing of government or give an indication that it is ready to become a functional structure administering control over the country. The government must realise that if marauders continue slaughtering the people with impunity, citizens will resign themselves to fate at some point and therefore take charge of their own security. That would be a recipe for anarchy, disastrous for all in the end.

It is therefore better for the government to stem the continuing slide into permanent insecurity, showing that it can indeed govern the Nigerian territory. It should hunt down the perpetrators of the latest infamy and use their arrest and prosecution as a real signal that it would not allow such wanton killings in the land anymore.

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