The Nation Newspaper

Tag: bloodletting

  • Bloodletting

    •The Plateau killings raise the question: When will they stop?        

    The question of the clash of Fulani herdsmen and locals has again captured the national imagination against the background of the recent orgy of slaughter in Plateau State. It was not enough, if an acceptable ritual, that the president of the country and the vice president visited Jos, the state capital, to show empathy and take official cognisance of the acts of barbarism.

    They said some right things for the most part, with President Muhammadu Buhari on the defensive, saying that he has been tough on the wave of killings in that region of the country. Depending on what reports anyone believes, the killings in Plateau State exceeded 100 persons, with some numbers topping 200. It is not the talk, but the peace we want.

    When the president comes with his deputy, it means that the matter is not a case of ritual murders but a national crisis. The Plateau State case is especially galling because the state has enjoyed relative calm in the past year, with occasional breakdowns that easily were checked into normalcy.

    The state governor, Simon Lalong, has often touted his peace-keeping model that was copied in other states. He set a template that brought the Fulanis and other ethnic groups, especially the Berom people together, to ensure that any grievances are settled. But it apparently suffered a setback after some tension that involved cattle rustling.

    Some reports indicate that tensions had arisen, and the Fulani were not happy that some elements in the communities were carting away their animals. They therefore decided to foment a wave of reprisal attacks that led to the many casualties.

    It is on record that whatever happened, no recourse or priority was given to the rule of law or the law enforcement agencies. This is the story of the clashes. A group of people take to impunity. In the final analysis, they seem to be getting away with murder. Reason? We have not seen the law catch up with the miscreants. Murder seems to have no consequences.

    Hence the visits of President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo only beats the official response to the bloodletting in neighbouring Benue State earlier in the year, because the top two citizens of the country promptly visited in this case as against the former scene of massacre.

    The president’s assertion that the killings were actuated by politicians is not more than a copout, and the president’s inability to confront the killers head-on. Again, if they were politicians, it means the president was speaking from a position of knowledge. We want the politicians flushed out of their hiding places and brought to face the law of the land.

    The cattle herdsmen’s umbrella body, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, condemned the killings but from their statements they were aware of the tensions that preceded the mayhem. So how come they are saying different things from the president?

    We need more candour than we are getting in the country on the rash of murders. Without accepting the facts, we shall never have answers to the problems. The president has also tried to show that he will change his security apparatus. We expect him to act with despatch because they have woefully failed.

    His security and intelligence infrastructure have failed to prevent the killings, and as a nation, we are tired of bloodshed turning into a barbaric routine. While not condoning theft, it sickens when stealing cattle is equated with the value of human lives. It is poor morality when government officials, even as high as the defence minister has shown, brutish logic by justifying a lifestyle that modernity has turned back on. It is time to stop the killings.

  • The politics of bloodletting

    Our once cooled volcanic plateau is at it again. Like Europe’s Mount Etna, just when we thought it had long lost its volatile vigor, it has become active once again -spurting red hot molten magma of ethno-religious hate. The killing fields of Jos, like the Hebraic Golgotha, are a-flood again with the skulls and blood of innocents. And we the people are are no less at it again, also: we are as usual consumed in the usual blame game across tribe and tongue, and between geography and religion. We bicker about who the aggressors are and who are the real victims. When our own aggress we insist that they are only exercising their right to reprise against past aggression, but when others claim to do the same, we rise in condemnation of the right to reprisal even in the face of unremitting aggression. And now it appears we have lost count of who the first aggressors were in time, or who were the last to execute a reprisal on the plateau. In the instant case, the Fulanis allegedly on a reprisal mission –from the grudge of previous aggression- killed the innocent. And almost immediately too, youth on the other side, seized the highways, also on a reprisal mission, killed innocent travellers.

    This piece is not for the faintheartedly hypocritical. It is for those who have the courage to deal with the truth. Often we agonize over the gravity of the reprisals by victims of cattle rustling but we generally trivialize the magnitude of the aggression by cattle rustlers. And yes it is true that not even a million cattle are worth the life of a single human; but is the avarice of any one community worth a single Fulani man’s cattle? Or if the lust for the free cattle of the Fulani man is enough justification to kill and rustle, why should the defence of his single cattle not be sufficient casus belli to justify the herdsman’s attack? Why should it be good for the geese on the one hand and not be good for the gander on the other? Sometimes you cannot help having the impression that we always get our divisive groove only when disasters like this on the plateau happen. We have since shamelessly allowed our humanity to be violently snatched by the exigencies of partisan politics. Politicians all over the world politik with track record, antecedent performance or at least excellent credentials (of character or of learning) as proof of ability to deliver. But here we appeal to the base sentiments of ethnicity, religion and geography. And now the only thing that seems to keep especially partisan opposition politicians going is the hope always, that soon some calamity will befall the nation so that they can have ‘useful’ materials for campaign.

    And you wonder who actually bays for the blood of the innocent: is it the war-mongering sworders themselves who, for their legitimate or illegitimate causes, have lost all sense of humanity and therefore have no scruples aggressing or reprising against the innocent; or is it our hypocritical selves who bay more for the blood of innocents? Yes, we the self appointed moral soldiers of a pretentiously godly nation who have no compunction always supporting those who play politics with the lives of the innocent? So much that we applauded a ‘bereaved’ Governor Wike of PDP, who was so filled with the ‘selfless’ milk of human empathy, he abandoned his unsung body bags, felled by the jackknives of confirmed cultists, to come to Benue in profuse crocodile tears to bury APC’s Governor Ortom’s dead only because they were allegedly felled by the swords of the more eminently culpable Fulani herdsmen. Not to forget the fact that Wike went to Benue with a token of N200 million, a princely sum that must have set bereaved Riverians so green with envy they may have wished that their dead ones were actually felled by the swords of the inveterately-hated Fulanis and not by the petty jackknives of their fetish cultist brethrens. This is how much we have degenerated. Politicizing matters of life and death. So that even Ortom who would scream blue murder against his people, facts would eventually reveal he had sneakily armed private militias and covertly engaged the services of Boko Haramists allegedly to kill his own in the guise of herdsmen atrocities. Nothing more poignantly illustrates Ortom’s culpability than if you imagine it was a Kaduna’s El-Rufai who dared to have a secret private militia or who secretly hired the services of Boko Haram.

    And now it appears that all murders nowadays, no matter how inexcusably perpetrated or no matter where and when or against who committed or by who committed or no matter even how gruesomely executed, are pardonable except those committed or allegedly committed by the ‘cursed’ hands of the Fulani herdsman –even when he is acting in self-defence or from provable provocation. Everyone is entitled to self defence; everyone is entitled to be excused from acts resulting from provocation.  Everyone is even entitled to premeditated reprisals –against those who aggress them- but not the Fulani herdsman. Only the Fulani herdsman is not entitled to any remedy whatsoever even when a million cattle of his are rustled by communities he knows and can identify, or by persons that he knows and sees daily go by; or even when he can point at locations where his rustled cattle are holed up. The Fulani herdsman is to just say nothing and do nothing but wait to be killed or have his cattle rustled.

    Hell, the Fulani herdsman is entitled to no remedy whatsoever even when a whole community of his kindred is conspiratorially wiped out either from fresh aggression  or from so-called reprisals resulting usually from previous reprisal which he may have undertook to redress established historic wrongs dating back to previous aggressions and or counter reprisals. This is how delicate sometimes these issues we so much trivialize can get. Not that anyone has the right to take the law into their hands. But truth is every wrong done to the Fulani herdsman, or any community of ethnic minority for that matter, which either conspiratorially or negligently goes unreported by the media, is a veritable vengeance bank that we the media help to keep and from which it is inevitable that the survivors will most likely draw, sooner or later. This is a fact we have to deal with rationally rather than emotionally. This is a fact we’ll continue to ignore at our own peril.

    The whole world knew about and still remembers the gullies of blood let by the Fulanis on reprisals at the ill-fated plains of Dogo Na Hawwa in Jos only because the media was at hand to help Governor Jang parade the bloodied bodies of the hapless innocent victims; but virtually no one knew about, let alone remember the gory, unprovoked incident previously at Kuru Karama where wells and pit latrines were stuffed with the butchered bodies of Hausa-Fulanis. This is the crux of the matter. We must be balanced and objective in our reporting. We must return to responsible, non partisan journalism. But  government is even more eminently culpable in this. It must rise to be seen visibly as the avenging, even if unforgiving angel for all or it risks encouraging resort to self-help or vengeance-seeking. Said the English philosopher, lawyer and statesman Frances Bacon, “Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out”. People will not take the law into their hands if law enforcement and the justice system do not give them reason to take laws into their hands.

     

     

     

  • Rivers’ poll of bloodletting

    Rivers’ poll of bloodletting

    Last Saturday’s legislative rerun in Rivers State did not disappoint those who predicted that it would be a repeat of the violence  that characterised last year’s general elections and the March 19 rerun. The rerun was bloody across the three senatorial districts. Port Harcourt Bureau Chief BISI OLANIYI, who monitored the polls, gives an account of what transpired during the exercise.

    IN spite of the deployment of drone surveillance cameras in most parts of the 23 local government areas of Rivers State during the recent legislative rerun, thugs and militants still had a field day. The election was characterised by apathy as people were scared of moving to their polling units to vote.
    At stake were the three senatorial seats, eight (out of the 13) House of Representatives seats and nine (out of the 32) seats of the House of Assembly.
    The drama, accusations and counter-accusation that dominated the campaign continued on election day. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accreditation and voting were supposed to commence at 8am. But, people were not eager to come out and vote. By 9:38 am, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Felix Obuah, alleged that many members of his party in Tai-Ogoni and Gokana-Ogoni local governments had been arrested and killed by soldiers.
    Obuah said: “The PDP in Rivers State condemns Nigerian Army’s arrest and killing of members of the PDP in Tai and Gokana local government areas (LGA). The soldiers arrested over 200 PDP members in Tai LGA, 12 innocent PDP members were shot and one member of the party was killed in Tai LGA. Barako community in Gokana Local Government was also invaded by soldiers and scores of PDP members were arrested.”
    The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the newly-created Six Division of the Nigerian Army in Port Harcourt, Maj.-Gen. Kasimu Abdulkarim, described the alarm raised by the PDP chairman as false.
    Abdulkarim admonished all right-thinking Rivers people and other stakeholders to ignore the lies of Obuah and other leaders of the PDP. He said: “It is not true. Let them not create conflict within a conflict. Nobody should raise any alarm. I have just returned to the office in Port Harcourt, from monitoring the elections, which have been peaceful and the voters are orderly.
    “I was with the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police (Operations), Habila Joshak, when the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, called him to know the security situation on the ground. The DIG told the IGP that everywhere was very calm and that the election was progressing peacefully. I do not know why they will cry wolf, where there is none.”
    The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Aniedi Ikoiwak, had earlier indicated that bulk of the voting was going to take place in seven local councils, including Andoni, Akuku-Toru, Bonny, Etche, Ikwerre, Khana and Gokana, while the rerun would hold in 1,840 polling units in the 23 LGAs.
    INEC was compelled to postpone the elections in Abonnema-Kalabari, the headquarters of Akuku-Toru LGA and some parts of the council, to the following day, December 11.
    Governor Nyesom Wike also alleged that two agents of the PDP were shot dead in Bodo-Ogoni in Gokana LGA by security agents. Bodo-Ogoni is the hometown of the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Chief Kenneth Kobani. The shooting took place as accreditation and voting were about to commence, at St. Pius’ College within the ancient town, which has an abandoned road and bridge to Bonny Island. The gunshots made the electorate and officials of INEC to scamper to safety.
    The governor said the Nigerian Army and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police were responsible for the Bodo-Ogoni killing and the hijacking of electoral materials and that the intention was to deliver candidates of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
    Wike said the APC-led government at the centre was doing everything possible to use federal might against Rivers people. He said the entire election materials for Khana LGA were hijacked by soldiers and SARS personnel. He added that in Gokana soldier’s hijacked electoral materials for Wards 2 and 3 in Bodo, where the military men killed the two PDP agents, allegedly in the process of fleeing with the materials.
    Governor Wike also alleged that SARS operatives hijacked electoral materials in four out of the 19 wards in Etche LGA. He alleged that the unfortunate onslaught by the military and SARS personnel started in the night of December 9, when the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, backed by a battalion of soldiers and over 20 SARS personnel, allegedly attempted to hijack electoral materials from INEC headquarters, but were resisted by youths.
    The Rivers governor noted that in Opobo-Nkoro LGA, where the governorship candidate of the APC during the 2015 election, Dr. Dakuku Peterside hails from, soldiers allegedly hijacked electoral materials and took them to the home of a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the APC, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja.
    Wike said: “I anticipated it. I tried to let the world know that these are the plans of the security agencies. In my entire political career, I have never experienced this kind of invasion by security agencies. What causes violence is when you give certain persons undue advantage.
    “Be assured that we are resisting it. It may take our lives, but we will resist it to the last. That is what is expected, when you are fighting for freedom. You must make sacrifices. It is unfortunate that we are congratulating the opposition for winning in Ghana, but here the military men are directly involved in rigging and hijacking of electoral materials.
    “They say they want to give Rivers State Governor problems, but you are not giving Rivers State Governor problems, you are giving Nigeria problems.”
    Governor Wike also stated that he had informed an unnamed National Commissioner of INEC and the REC, Aniedi Ikoiwak, of the problems in Khana and Gokana LGAs, with an assurance that action would be taken.
    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of Rivers Command, Nnamdi Omoni, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), however, declared that the Rivers police command was not aware of what the governor claimed to have happened during the rerun.
    Peterside, who is also the Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), declared that no amount of propaganda and lies could save Wike and his PDP from being rejected by Rivers people.
    The APC chieftain, after visiting his Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency, where he said voting went on smoothly, lauded INEC and its officials for the impressive performance, in spite of the challenging situations.
    He accused Rivers governor of embarking on all manner of propaganda and blackmail against the leaders of the APC, security agencies and INEC, in an attempt to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the public.
    Peterside, a former member of the House of Representatives, expressed displeasure on the manner known sympathisers of PDP and serving Rivers government officials were spreading falsehood and publishing fake results both in the traditional and social media.
    He said: “Rivers people are tired of Wike and his PDP propaganda, which defy any form of civility and sense of decorum. The governor has made all manner of cries and wailing, in an attempt to be seen as the victim and attract sympathy, even as he is busy hatching evil plans by the day.
    The transportation minister, a chieftain of the APC, could not vote during the rerun at his Ubima hometown in Ikwerre LGA of the state, because the result sheet was missing, while gunmen also carted away most of the electoral materials in the town, shortly after another indigene, Sir Celestine Omehia, a former Rivers governor, but of the PDP, voted.
    The GOC, while replying Wike, Obuah and other leaders of the PDP, disclosed that during Saturday’s rerun, two policemen: Alkali Mohammed, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of Mobile Police Unit 48, was beheaded along with his orderly by hoodlums.
    He also revealed that the policemen’s patrol vehicle with weapons were taken away by the criminals, while three of the policemen escaped, but five of them (policemen) were still “missing in action” in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA of Rivers, where the state’s chairman of the PDP hails from.
    Abdulkarim declared that the allegations made by some respected politicians regarding deep involvement of soldiers during the elections were false and aimed at tarnishing the positive image of the Nigerian army.
    He stressed that the weighty nature of the allegations against the Nigerian army could cause members of the public to view soldiers negatively, hence the need to adequately inform the general public on the true perspective, insisting that members of the public should consider the allegations as mere farce to garner sympathy.
    The GOC maintained that the 6 Division of the Nigerian army remained apolitical in the conduct of the elections, while its soldiers provided perimeter defence to ward off hoodlums and miscreants.
    He said: “The most brutal incident occurred at Ujju community, near Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGA, where police patrol team was ambushed. In the ambush, 10 policemen scampered into the bush. The Mobile Police organised a rescue mission. Regrettably, the team discovered that DSP Alkali Mohammed of Mobile Police Unit 48 was beheaded along with his orderly. The patrol vehicle was taken away with weapons, three policemen escaped, while five were missing in action.
    “This is the same area where soldiers of 34 Brigade were ambushed on November 20, 2016, where a soldier was killed. Also, on November 21, 2016, four personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were killed and their weapons carted away.
    “These attacks are reasonable evidence of violations of breach of law and order which portrays the area as a flashpoint. Despite these barbarisms, soldiers acted with civility and professionally, guaranteeing peaceful elections.
    “Nigerian Army, as a respected institution with constitutional responsibility to safeguard lives and property, could not watch miscreants and hoodlums abducting, maiming and killing innocent citizens, especially in senseless attacks on uniform personnel.”

  • Uche warns against violence, bloodletting

    Politicians that plan to create crisis and shed blood should have a rethink, Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence Dr Samuel Uche, has said.    He spoke last Wednesday during a special interdenominational prayer for peace and safety at the Hoarse Memorial Cathedral in Lagos.

    Warning Nigerians, especially politicians against acts capable of truncating peace, Uche said those who have perfected plans to foment troubles will meet their waterloo.  According to him: “We should all embrace peace because we can only contest elections when there is still Nigeria.  “If we allow Nigeria to go up in flames, we are all done for. So, we must keep the peace and maintain violence-free atmosphere.”

    He stated that those unrepentant about bloodletting will face the wrath of God, who will not watch and see the nation go up in flames.  “We pray everyone keeps the peace but if they insist they won’t, may the God of Old Testament deal with them because this is His nation,” Uche added.

    He said Christians have been mobilising and praying for peace, urging all Nigerians to follow suit.

  • IBB: bloodletting must stop

    IBB: bloodletting must stop

    Former Military President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida yesterday said the prevalent bloodletting by Boko Haram must stop.

    Gen. Babangida, who made his position known in a statement which he personally signed, said the wanton killings and needless bloodletting had been retarding our growth.

    The statement said: “The latest attack in Kaduna on Wednesday by yet unknown persons has once again thrown up new dimensions in the political life of our dear country. This and several other attacks have tended to portray our dear country as a terrorist nation that is grasping with insecurity. To state the least, this bloodletting must stop. This bloodletting has to stop.

    “I have sat back in my quiet retirement home in Minna to ponder over what could be the motivation for these several attacks, but I am yet to find any explanation why Nigerians would be killing fellow Nigerians.

    “For those of us who fought the civil war, our painful sense of nostalgia still remains deep, as much as our patriotic attitude towards this great country, Nigeria.

    “These wanton killings and needless bloodletting have continued to retard our growth and democratic journey, forcing the system to improvise all manner of mechanisms to arrest this descent to anarchy.

    “It is callous and inhuman for anyone to goad this country on the path of perfidy, a path that is laid with landmines and bombs. This is totally unacceptable.”

    Gen. Babangida pleaded with Nigerians to rise above partisanship in addressing the insecurity facing the nation.

    The statement added: “Even as I sympathise with my colleague, former President, General Muhammadu Buhari, for escaping the bomber’s scalpel, I also wish to condole with the families of those who lost their lives in this attack.

    “It is frightening and calls for condemnation by all well meaning people of Nigeria. We all must rise above partisanship in our condemnation of this state of insecurity, as we all must be united in our clear-cut resolve to finding solutions to this hydra-headed situation we find ourselves.

    “We must see this state of insecurity as a Nigerian problem and not one that is pigeon-holed in any particular region, religion or tribe. Nigerians, by virtue of their nationality, should be free to live anywhere in the country without molestation, harassment and intimidation.

    “Let me also condole with Mr. President on this unfortunate incident and the recurring decimal of insecurity and crime against humanity that is fast polluting public morality. We all must join hands with Mr. President at this critical time of our national history and democratic journey to proffer solutions to this anti-development scenario that is fast enveloping us.

    “The President and our governors need our prayers at various stages of their leadership to arrest this ugly trend.”

    Gen. Babangida said the nation must continue to move on, in spite of the setbacks of the past few years.

    He said: “Nigeria of our dream is one that provides opportunity for all, irrespective of our cultural and political differences; a nation that comprises several nation-states with abundant resources and opportunities for our flourishing population.

    “We must, therefore, be resolute in our collective reasoning and determination to trudge on despite these obvious setbacks in order to safely paddle the ship of state to a safe harbor.

  • Boko Haram: Unending bloodletting

    What an age of unremitting blood fest: from Kano to Borno to Sokoto, there is no letting up as the Boko Haram insurgents remorselessly re-enact themselves with a confetti of body bags and broken limbs. No week seems to pass now without a report of a bloody attack in one part of the North. Last Sunday, the sect struck at a mosque in Konduga, outskirts of Maiduguri, capital of Borno State. The worshippers had come under a massive gun assault in the midst of prayers with no fewer than 40 people killed and several injured. The attackers were said to have been decked in army fatigues.

    Boko Haram also scored a big hit in Kano, July 29 when it let off multiply explosions killing about 45 persons. On Saturday, July 27, about 22 were killed in Dawashi and Mainok in Borno State. Though the activities of the sect came to limelight in 2009, it has been engaged in near full scale war with the Nigerian military with the imposition of state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa on May 14. There was massive deployment of troops to these Northeast states and environs which led to initial successes upon the routing of the insurgents. But it may have turned out that what was won was a pyrrhic victory. The insurgents have continued to prove invincible by regrouping and striking through guerrilla methods.

    Fighting a phantom, moving enemy must be trying for even the best army in the world; and grappling with an environment of possible sabotage, blacklegs and fifth columnists would be daunting to say the least. Then again, fighting rebels without any concrete cause beyond the espousal of hate, bigotry and half-baked religious mantras is outright daunting. So throwing more soldiers at them as we seem to have done so far will only prolong and muddy the war. The war must be prosecuted more at the realm of mind games and gadgets; we seek advantages through telecommunications, surveillance and air power. We must be able to profile them, pre-empt them, second-guess them and rout them. We must develop highly rapid response capabilities. But most importantly, the military top hierarchy cannot afford to take nary a nap, as the ‘boys’ would seize any opportunity to pull surprises.

    Now that it has become obvious that the terrorists are largely cross border elements who are enjoying enormous foreign support, every Nigerian must stand up to support the effort to chase them back where they cam from. Sunday’s attack on worshippers in a Mosque in Konduga must be the first direct, premeditated assault on Muslims. It only proves that the group is desperate and seeks to make some quick and notable gains, it wants to maintain a semblance of invincibility. As it stands most of the North of Nigeria has been devastated by the activities of this violent Islamists. Apart from bombings and gunfights, there are also armed robberies, kidnappings and the destruction of the school system among other government infrastructure.

    For the North of Nigeria which was lagging behind the rest of the country, the Boko Haram carnage will take decades and huge funding to put to order. While we chase the destroyers over the hills and across the waters, are we ready to join other members of the world community to begin to do things the proper way? Are we ready to begin to attend to the conditions precedent to these crises? Like curbing corruption, implementing our budgets faithfully so that its impact will be felt down to the lowest individual in the society? If we do not enact a radical change in the manner we run our country, we will always be dogged by challenges such as Boko Haram, kidnappings and all such vices. We may never be able to stop this cycle of bloodletting.