- •204 people killed as unknown assassins lay siege to 8 LGAs
Once regarded as the ‘home of peace and tourism,’ Plateau State in Nigeria’s Northcentral has degenerated into a killing field of sorts. Security of lives and property is no longer guaranteed, as blood-cuddling tales of killings of innocent and hapless residents by suspected bandits and ethnic militia abound. The situation has kept the state government and security agencies on their toes in a bid to fish out the perpetrators. KOLADE ADEYEMI reports
The unscheduled visit of the Plateau State Governor, Barr Caleb Mutfwang, to the Chief of Defense Staff, Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa, and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, this week, in Abuja, showed that all is not well in the state.
The visit also confirmed fears that the state governor may be hamstrung in finding a solution to the wanton killings he inherited when he took over governance on May 29.
Plateau State, once regarded as the ‘home of peace and tourism,’ in the North Central geopolitical zone of Nigeria, has been the theatre of wanton killings, presumably by bandits and ethnic militia. As of July 7, 2023, no fewer than 204 persons were said to have been killed by gunmen.
Barely a week after that, the casualty figure rose to 346. And at the last count, over 20,000 survivors are said to have been displaced and taking refuge in camps across the state. The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, too has grown to 14 at the time of compiling this report.
A human rights organisation known as Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, which dished out the figures, said they were recorded within the last three months of mayhem (April-July) across the eight Local Government Areas in Plateau State.
The Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation, Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, who gave the figures, said that in the killings which took place from April 17- July 10, 2023, there were about 18,751 IDPs in 14 camps in Plateau State.
Giving a breakdown of the casualty figures, Para-Mallam, a peace advocate, said 17 people were killed in Bokkos; Mangu, 234; Barkin Ladi, 39; Riyom, 36; Jos North, 5; Jos North 9; Mikang, 5; and Bassa 1.
He also said 14 IDP camps are hosted by the Church of Christ in the Nation’s Local Church Councils, adding that a breakdown of the IDPs shows 2,081 widows and 6,066 orphans between ages 0-5 years.
The activist added that old people account for 1,057 people, while teenagers and adult orphans are 828. He said a total of 6,603 households are currently affected by these deadly attacks.
This has been the scenario in Plateau State that compelled Governor Mutfwang to run for the Chief of Defense Staff and Chief of Army Staff in Abuja. The same humanitarian problem also took the governor to the
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, as well as the Office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Records available to The Nation show that the prevailing killings in
Mangu local government, for instance, began in April 2023, shortly after the governorship election. The killings persisted up till May 29, 2023, when the Governor Mutfwang government was inaugurated. And the killings have continued unabated.
There has been no official report on the remote causes of the bloodshed from any of the security agencies. Security agencies, however, claimed they are still investigating the remote causes of the killings. But the absence of intelligence information from security agencies has given room for speculations by residents on the remote or immediate causes of the killings.
While some argued that the killings were politically motivated, others said they were religious; some also pointed to socio-economic factors.
For instance, the State Chairman of Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders.” Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Nuru Abdullahi, told The Nation that “from my research, the whole problem started from a case of two fighting.”
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Narrating further, Abdullahi said: “A Fulani man and a Mwaghavul man fought themselves in a village called Maitumbi. The two men injured each other during the fight. After a few days, the two people resumed the fighting, this time around, there were interventions from other people, and the fighting escalated to ethnic rivalry because somebody died in the fracas.”
However, the National President of the Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA), Joseph Gwankat alleged that the killings were traceable to Fulani expansionists’ agenda. “The Fulani has been hiring external forces to kill our people to terminate our people to turn our communities into their grazing field,” he said.
While claims and counter-claims by these socio-cultural organisations continue, people are dying, properties are being destroyed and vulnerable children and women are suffering in IDP camps. The Director of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Comrade Steve Aluko, said: “There is no civil liberty in Plateau State anymore due to the activities of gunmen across the local governments.”
According to him, there are gun-wielding men in the bushes and forests, and the government appeared handicapped on how to rid the bushes and forest of these gunmen called bandits or whatever name they are called.
“Secondly, ethnic militancy is growing in every community across the country. That also is because the government has failed in its primary responsibility to protect citizens, hence ethnic militia are building up everywhere to defend themselves. This is dangerous and we must end it now.
“The Federal Government is the only one with the necessary equipment to end the activities of bandits in this country. It is only the Federal Government that has the instruments of justice to deal with criminals behind the killings across the country and enforce equity and fairness.
“It is only the Federal Government that has the power and resources to return people to their ancestral lands after their displacement by the gunmen. Enough of government creating camps for displaced citizens everywhere.”
Comrade Aluko said it was sad that since 2001, a lot of families have been displaced from their ancestral lands and the government has done nothing to return them, and one expects a peaceful society. “The same
Federal Government has identified these killers as foreign aggressors or foreign mercenaries yet did not know how to deal with them,” he stated.
The CLO Director said if the aggressors become the victims, these killings will stop automatically. “But it all appears that the Federal Government has been romancing the foreign aggressors,” he regretted.
A scholar of peace and conflict, Dr Chris Kwaja, corroborated Aluko’s remarks. He told The Nation that “the killing persists in Plateau because of the ineffective justice system of the Nigerian society. In situations where criminals involved in killings are never arrested and are not punished, you are indirectly empowering them.
“Victims of conflicts are never given justice, and this gives room for self-help in the form of retaliation. So, criminals are emboldened knowing that they can perpetrate crime and go scot-free. In such a society like ours, criminality will continue unabated.
“So, the killings in Plateau and anywhere in Nigeria are acts of criminality and the criminals already know our justice system is porous or too weak to scare them. So, they are emboldened to operate as they like.”
Dr Kwaja, however, said the Plateau State Governors cannot be blamed for the continued killings because, under a federal system currently in operation, governors have no power over government security agencies like police and the military.
“You must have heard that Governor Mutfwang of Plateau State and that of Zamfara State have to run to the defence headquarters in Abuja looking for help. If these governors had their police, they would not have to go cap-in-hand to seek help from Abuja,” Dr Kwaja said.
For Para-mallam, the current harvest of deaths in the Mangu Local Government Area must be treated with the utmost urgency it deserves. He said the Federal Government’s inaction in taming the killings suggested looking the other way while the current inhumanity continued.
“Take it or leave it, a foundation for full-blown nationwide terrorism is being laid,” he warned, noting that no country allows acts of terror on its citizens.
“Whatever the motivation behind these attacks on the Plateau, the fact remains that people are being killed in their hundreds. The burden of these killings should not rest only on the shoulders of the new Governor of Plateau State, Muftwang.
“It should not also rest only on the shoulders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The burden should rest on the shoulders of all Nigerians,” Para-mallam said.
According to him, stakeholders in Plateau State like Miyetti Allah, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), JNI and traditional rulers should strive more in searching for peace and conflict resolution.
“There is wisdom in collective action devoid of finger-pointing or political calculations. The lives of all the indigenes and residents of Mangu LGA matter,” he emphasised.
For now, the only hope for an end to the killings was the assurance given to the people of the state from the defence headquarters in Abuja.
The Army Chief, Maj Gen Lagbaja, in his remarks during the visit of the governor, assured that more attention would be given to Plateau to arrest the violent attacks in the troubled areas.
Gen. Lagbaja reportedly said: “The conflict in Plateau had been reduced to Barkin-Ladi, Riyom and Bassa Local Governments, with Mangu on the spot at the moment. We shall deploy the non-kinetic approach by convening stakeholders meeting to address the deteriorating security situation in the state.”
Already, a stakeholders’ conference is being planned by the state government, based on the instruction of the defence headquarters. And it is hoped that a peace agreement will be signed by MACBAN and MDA.
