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Tag: carnage

  • Another carnage

    Another carnage

    • The last spasm of bloodshed in Plateau State calls for eternal vigilance

    In the current ethno-religious crisis in Plateau State, around 52 people have reportedly been killed in some communities including Bokkos and Mangu, and the count seems to be continuing.

    The Plateau State Governor Caleb Muftwang said as follows in respect of the cause of the crisis in an interview on TVC News on April 9, 2025: “What is happening on the Plateau is undeserved. … Why has it been happening? … No one has come forward to tell us exactly why this is happening. But the patterns that have emerged have shown us that this actually is deliberate, it is orchestrated, it is well-planned, and we cannot fathom any reason other than displacement of the people from the land, so that they would vacate the land and leave all the assets that God has deposited there, the arability of the land, the mineral deposits in the land.”

    The Governor continued: “You would discover that there is a lot of illegal mining taking place in the hinterland, and sometimes you want to find out who are the people behind this illegal mining. And it’s difficult to know, because getting access to those places places even the lives of security personnel at risk.” Asked by the anchor whether the aggravation of the crisis was caused by “local perpetrators or local collaborators”, the governor replied: “Yeah, more of local collaborators. … You don’t need more than one or two people in the community to collaborate with those who are coming from outside the community to attack it. … What is apparent is that these attackers are not within that vicinity. They come in from somewhere and unleash their attack and then disappear. … Sometimes, it is worrisome that indigenes are cleaned out, but their neighbours … who aren’t of the same ethnic stock are left.”

    Irrespective of the patterns of and reasons for the crisis in the state, it is worrisome that it is proving intractable, as it has been occurring on a regular, almost predictable pattern for over thirty years now. An important document titled “Timeline of armed conflicts and government responses in Plateau State,” and authored by the Plateau Peace Building Agency which is under the Office of the Executive Governor, Plateau State, has an inventory of around 79 armed conflicts, from April 12, 1994 to November 28, 2021. Of the 79 incidents, 46 were recorded as having taken place in 2021.

    Of these, the 2004 crises stand out, because they were so serious that they attracted the declaration of a state of emergency in Plateau State on May 18. In his declaration of the state of emergency, the president at the time, President Olusegun Obasanjo, said: “As at today, there is nothing on ground and no evidence whatsoever to show that the State Governor has the interest, desire, commitment, credibility and capacity to promote reconciliation, rehabilitation, forgiveness, peace, harmony and stability.  If anything, some of his utterances, his lackadaisical attitude and seeming uneven-handedness over the salient and contending issues present him as not just part of the problem, but also as an instigator and a threat to peace … His personal conduct and unguarded utterances have inflamed passions.”

    Meanwhile, a series of armed conflicts have occurred in the state between 2021 and now, and thousands of people have been killed on both sides. Since the recurring ethnic-cum-religious crises in Plateau State have been having deleterious consequences for both of the contending groups, new templates must be developed and a new trajectory must be found to abate the systematic mutual destruction that the low-intensity warfare has engendered. In other words, Plateau State’s “unending circle of revenge” must be broken.

    Read Also: Middle-East war: A carnage piercing human conscience

    As Goldensstories put it, “The unending cycle of revenge finds its roots in a primal instinct to protect oneself and one’s kin. The pain inflicted by an initial wrong creates a desire for retribution, a sense that justice can only be served by returning harm in kind. Yet, this primal urge often disregards the broader consequences of revenge, leading to the perpetuation of violence and suffering.”

    In the light of the foregoing, in addition to the usual panels of investigation set up after ethno-religious and related crises, it would be invaluable for the Federal Government to set up a high-powered committee consisting of judicial officers,security personnel, representatives of bodies like the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), representatives of programmes in peace and conflict studies in our universities,traditional rulers, the media and other relevant groups. It would also be helpful to set up, at the federal level, a National Peace Agency akin to the Plateau Peace Building Agency.The proposed agency is expected to be more dispassionate in its interventions and be of great value in settling communal disputes in some of the other volatile parts of the Federation.

  • Halt the carnage on our roads now

    Again, one is pushed, yes pushed, to appeal to Nigerian governments and road users alike to halt the needless carnages on our roads, caused by bad (dangerous) roads and mad traffic manners. Each time lives are wasted on our roads, one’s heart sinks and a loud cry, with others, is made to prick the conscience of all parties that can stem, or at least reduce these carnages. On Tuesday, February 13, 23 students and two teachers of Government Junior Secondary School, Misau, Bauchi State died in a road accident along the Misau – Kano Road, when the Hummer bus conveying the students and their teachers on an excursion to a television station in Kano was involved in an head-on collision with an articulated vehicle (trailer).

    According to media reports, the students were members of their school’s Hausa Language Club. The cause of the fatal accident which occurred mid-morning was blamed on the driver of the articulated lorry who, while avoiding a damaged portion of the highway, collided his vehicle head-on, with the students’ bus.

    A few days before the Misau tragedy, exactly on Sunday, February 11, a retired army general and former Minister of Internal Affairs during the regime of former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, John Shagaya, died in a road accident which was blamed on a burst tyre, which caused the late General Shagaya’s jeep to somersault severally. He died on the spot.

    I recall now my warning in a 2015 article titled “Convoys, Carnages and Caution”.

    It goes: “In a widely-published statement on May 7, 2015 titled, “Obey traffic rules, Buhari tells escorts” Retired General Muhammadu Buhari, a former Head of State was quoted inter alia as saying through the Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Mallam Garba Shehu, that: “The President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday ordered all security personnel attached to him as well as his official escorts to obey traffic rules.”

    “Buhari was quoted saying, obedience to law would be the guiding philosophy of his administration, adding that “without leadership by example, the ordinary citizens would become copycats of the lawlessness of their leaders.

    “The President-elect explained that the “arrogance of power, lawlessness and disregard for the rights and convenience of fellow citizens will have no place in his government.”

    “According to him, for leaders to inspire respect, they must obey the laws, adding that when leaders treat the country’s laws with contempt, they would be sending wrong messages to the citizens.

    “Gen. Buhari lamented a situation where fellow citizens” are punished at traffic points and public roads because of the arrogant lawlessness of the leaders.”

    “Gen. Buhari’s call is in tandem, with due respect, with my long standing campaigns against the abuse of siren and convoy protocol by many public and private users.

    “Each time Nigeria’s ‘big’ men and women violate society’s sensibilities with their misuse of siren and convoys, oftentimes, resulting in fatalities or serious injuries and damages, I am pricked to shout out caution to and prosecution of offenders.

    “Now that Nigerians and our friends all over the world look with eagerness to the much needed change(s) to uplift the rule of law, governance, public conduct, utterances, efficient management of public / private resources etc, the reported admonition of General Buhari on convoys is most welcome and a good pointer to what is forthcoming viz the Buhari / Osinbajo government.

    “As a take-away for Gen. Buhari’s protocol team and reminder to current and future users/ controllers of siren and convoys in the country. I reproduce below my article on convoys earlier published in some national newspapers (for ease of reference, The Guardian issue of 20th February, 1994).

    “I am constrained to recall my February 20, 1994 article titled, “Blowing Their Killer Sirens” due to the recurring fatal road accidents in the country, especially on the part of convoys of public officials.

    “The caution article published by some national weeklies was inspired then when a minster’s convoy hit four pupils, killing one in Lagos that February.

    “In the article under reference, I expressed my modest views on some causes of convoy (traffic) accidents and how to prevent them. The recall of my slightly edited 1994 article tiled, “Convoys, Carnages and Caution” has become very imperative in view of fatal cases recorded in the last quarter of the year just ended. Convoys of government officials or any class for the matter, are supposed to be ‘majestic’, gliding through traffic, with the flag(s) of the country fluttering, and not the ‘gbua-gbua’ that we now see.

    “As occupants of convoys are not rushing to war, passing motorists, pedestrians, and bystanders are supposed to pay respects, wave and admire their leaders, with the youth in the crowd being motivated to dream of stepping into their leaders’ shoes in future. Many of us had been privileged to watch convoys of our past leaders in the 1960s and 1970s and those of foreign leaders. In Britain, I recall that on the day the immediate past Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, in 2010, went to submit his request for the dissolution of his government to the Queen Elizabeth II of England, we saw two police outriders ahead of his ‘gliding’ two-car convoy on the Parliament-Buckingham Palace London Road. Maybe we too should bring back outriders to our convoys, as they were abolished in the 1990s.

    “Permit me to say, with utmost modesty, that I was a member of the siren-using convoys in old Oyo State for six years (1983-1989) where one civilian and three military governors restricted the use of the siren to the barest minimum and within the ambit of its original design.

    “In our days, governors instructed their protocol officers to visit and time uncharted routes in advance to enable us know the appropriate time of departures and speed limit for accurate arrivals at venues. Where it was impossible for an advance timing, for example, during inter-state travels, we departed early enough from base.

    “I am proud to say that this great sense of responsibility on the part of my former bosses accounted, in part, for our accident-free an unobtrusive journeys within and outside old Oyo State. Credit also goes to their ADCs and protocol officers who ensured that stable, enlightened, and responsible officers manned our pilot cars fitted with sirens. Once an officer / driver displayed vulgarity in the use of the siren, out he went!

    “But, what do you have today? Too many public and “un-public” (private) figures blaring away at the slightest need, even on expressways! Snarling officials and drivers, often with whips or sometimes guns in hand, laughing their heads off as they watch frightened motorists and pedestrians bolt out of traffic lanes as their siren-blaring convoys tear away, oftentimes with their “Ogas” empty cars in tow.

    “Compounding the already bad situation are the nouveau rich who, as part of their egocentricity, acquire siren-blaring cars driven by equally egoistic drivers, drilling their ways to such inconsequential engagements like night parties! These acts of “terrorism”, if one may say, are sometimes not wholly blamable on public figures permitted by law to use sirens as statistics show that indiscriminate/vulgar uses often occur when VIPs are not in convoys.

    “Their protocols/security officers cannot, however, escape blame. It is their duty to monitor and control convoy drivers. Once a driver exhibits vulgarity, talk less barbarism, he ought to be penalized and kept away from such sensitive beats…

    “To curb the siren menace, I advise that the police should wake up from their slumber and impound unauthorized vehicles fitted with sirens by some individuals who see them as status symbols. Drivers of ambulances and bullion vans should be properly trained on the use of sirens. In addition, regular medical and psychological tests should be carried out to ensure that sound minds sit behind the wheels of such vehicles.

    “Sirens are meant to herald arrivals, alert motorists and pedestrians, and forewarn traffic controllers, but not to harass, maim, and kill.

    “The best users of sirens on our roads today are drivers of the FRSC. Maybe they would do well to organize clinics for other siren users. It will not be out of place, however, to advise impolite and stubborn motorists and other road users to stop and let convoys pass. Quite often, the ‘I-don’t-care’ attitude of some motorists attract dire consequences.

    “In conclusion, the siren menace is part of our national decadence whereby unsuitable persons man sensitive positions at the peril of the experienced, capable, and endowed majority who, sadly, are apathetic.”

    I pray that this humble contribution will help in fine-tuning our road manners and reduce senseless carnages on our roads.

     

    • Oloye Alabi is Agba Akin Olubadan of Ibadanland
  • Camouflage of carnage

    Camouflage of carnage

    We saw truth and reconciliation in Rwanda, after daggers flew and a bleeding. In South Africa, it served as a rebuke of a monument to prejudice, the worst since Jim Crow in the United States and the era of slavery and slave trade.

    Truth happened to fling the door open for reconciliation. In Nigeria, we have never reconciled because we have never come to terms with the truth. We are cousins in perpetual contention, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth, apology to Apostle Paul.

    Anytime a controversy engulfs our country, the first casualty is truth. When truth is buried, solution stands afar off, watching us in the impotence of disbelief. The herdsmen are one such tinderbox, and it is biting the nation’s fabric while we bicker.

    The reason is easy. While it is spinning mourning clothes in many homes, it is bringing bread to the table of others. Some feast but others see them as beasts. The feud festers. No one wants to take responsibility for the bloodshed.

    The herdsmen have become a source of great confusion. Some say the herdsmen are doing the killings. Some say it is not the herdsmen doing the killings but the Bororo Fulani, who are now jobless. Some say the same Fulani who have fled drought and famine from Mali and Niger and Chad have lost cattle and livelihood. So they roam our lands to steal cattle and herd them to Lagos, sell them and buy arms.

    The question is, why do they buy arms? Why are they angry? What did the locals do to them that they have worked up such wrath in their breasts? Why are they so blood happy, so appetized for other’s flesh and innocence?

    Some others say the herdsmen are angry because locals steal their cattle? But it has been proved more often that the cattle rustlers are more Fulani than locals. If that is the truth, why did 73 caskets of Tivs and Idomas cascade into the earth the other day?

    Is there some sort of misunderstanding between the killers and the victims? When the president, in his invidious naivety, ask the Tiv elders to embrace their neighbours, was it because he was out of tandem with the reports of his security officers in the DSS? If so, why has he not called for a comprehensive report?

    Even the DSS did not help the confusion when it asserted that it was the terror exports of the Islamic State working their furnace of faith in our communities. The Inspector General of Police, authoring an imbecile and wild tale of fiction, said it was mere communal misunderstanding?

    The minister of defence came out fuming the other day, and reeled off what many saw as an act of fanatical umbrage. Speaking without wisdom or knowledge and certainly without respect for his position, he sanctified the killings. He spoke with the hysteria of a hyena who eyed raw meat and blood dripping, and drooled for the prize. It still astounds me that such a human could say such barbarous inanity and be retained in office. He may be echoing the serene and vengeful piety of his fellow travellers. Otherwise, he ought to be arrested and questioned if he was in on the slaughter. After all, a Benue State DPO was arrested when seven Fulani were killed in cold blood.  If Mansur Dan-Ali says modernity has blocked the grazing routes, and so we expect the herdsmen to rebel in rage and rapine, so what does he know? Yet this is the minister of defence, acting with a footloose tongue and bloodthirsty register as though his job is not defence but offence against the people.

    If the people doing the killings are actually the foreigners, why did we hear the Emir of Kano and the Miyetti Allah explode in the defence of the herdsmen? Why did the mourners of Benue not receive the sort of condolence and sympathy they deserve, except meaningless routines of “sorry” that few accepted as genuine?

    If we send soldiers to keep the peace, it will work. But what we shall see is not peace but pacification. That was the favourite word of the British when they mowed down local resistance to their colonial rule. They imposed silence, but peace never thrived until they left.

    It is interesting that some of the Middle Belt leaders do not blame the “normal” Fulani herdsmen for the slaughter about the country. In my interview with the President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Bala Takaya, a few points came out. He does not blame the herdsmen for the assaults but two culprits. One, what I will call the “shadow herdsmen.” This refers to the nomads from outside the country who steal cows and herd them as camouflage for carnage. In the interview that will air on TVC next Saturday morning, he contends that they pretend to be herders while they bear both arms and cows.

    Two, he blames the security forces in the country. He says they know the truth and wonders why the president continues to preserve them in their offices. What he has said contradicts what the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has filled the air with. Ortom is wagging the dog’s tail. He has been an abysmal failure as governor, owing about a year in salaries and presiding over Makurdi that still looks only a little better than a village in the 1980’s. The herdsmen crisis is an opportunity to ride to a second term. It is a boon for him from the enemy.

    All these stories tell us that the public has no clear truth to consume on the crisis. Hence we may not reconcile. We can never love each other so long as we doubt each other. Shakespeare wrote in his famous play Hamlet: “Doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.”

    We are not in a place of truth as yet. So, we cannot love, and without it reconciliation will elude us. So what is the truth? Is it Bororo in nomadic bloodthirst? Is it the real herdsmen but a few bad eggs? Is it some powerful forces up north in animal rage in defence of their cows? Is it ISL? The truth does not have to be simple, but we should know the facts. As Oscar Wilde noted: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” We have closet truths. The south truth, the north truth, the Christian truth, the Islamic truth, the middle belt truth, the DSS truth, etc. The deaf walls reign. We are hiding in camouflages.

    We have read reports of not a few herdsmen arrests. Why not prosecute them in public, get their confessions, trace their roots and lineages? I believe the security forces and their leaders owe us this much for the peace and concord of this nation. If they don’t, then Buhari should follow Takaya’s suggestion and fire them. The nation of over 100 million people is bigger than a menagerie of men inspired by a fringe ideology.

     

  • Carnage on Oyo/Ogbomoso road

    SIR: The road mishap which occurred near Ijawaya village, along Oyo – Ogbomoso road on Wednesday, January 24, which involved an articulated vehicle and a bus conveying school teachers among others to Ogbomoso from Oyo has added to the number of the carnages on that road caused by insensitivity of our leaders. In the mishap, five promising lives were lost, including three school principals, a school account clerk and the driver of the ill fated bus. The above exclude those who were injured and are being treated at Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.

    The failure of successive governments after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who started the Ibadan-Ilorin expressway to complete the road shows the wickedness of our leaders and their disdain for the people they govern. Non-completion of the road is also an indictment of the political office holders particularly at the national level from Oyo Central and Oyo North Central districts. Our esteemed royal fathers are too silent on the bad condition of the road; had they used their influence with the authorities, the construction work on the road would have been completed. We should recollect that the road was flagged off in 2001. The Ilorin-Ogbomoso axis as well as Ibadan-Oyo has been commissioned since 2008. Is it not therefore absurd that Oyo-Ogbomoso cannot be fixed 10 years after the other axis have been put to use?

    We hear that money has been budgeted for the road and our representatives at the National Assembly have been beating their chest for the feat. But up till now, the construction company has not returned to site which was abandoned because of failure to pay the contractors by the government. President Buhari’s administration has onerous task at hand in completing this road to stop carnage on this very important road linking the north to the south of the country.

     

    • Adewuyi Adegbite,

    ayekooto05@gmail.com

  • Udom: Help stop Ukanafun carnage

    SIR: Pictures of insecurity in Ukanafun Local Government Area, about 30 minutes’ drive to Aba, are grim.

    From January 2, when a tussle over village headship at a village called Okoyo led to death of the village council chairman and a youth leader, crimes claiming mostly lives of humans have become daily doings and deadly looming at the doorsteps of those still lucky to be counted among the living. At the weekend of Easter, no fewer than four persons, including Ime Atakpa, the Secretary of Ukanafun Local Government Council, were gruesomely killed. On a Sunday before the Easter, the proprietor of Sure Foundation Polytechnic, Idongesit Udom, was abducted by gunmen, while leaving his house for a church opposite his house. As at the time of filing this piece, the sexagenarian Goliath-framed engineer and retired manager with Exxon Mobil is still in the captivity of men of the underworld with no access to the outside world other than his abductors-guided telephone conversation for the purpose of securing ransom as a condition for his freedom.

    The carnage in Ukanafun is a reality equivalent of Hollywood horror. So far, no fewer than 20 lives have been lost in the area since that first Monday of 2017. When it is not youth restiveness, it is cult clashes or armed robbery or politically motivated assassination. The locale and nativity of the perpetrators may not be readily ascertained but when crimes have been severally carried out successfully in a certain place and nothing is done or seen to be done to prevent reoccurrences, the place becomes greener pasture for criminals everywhere, a fertile and friendly land to nourish seedlings of crimes and even amateurs in the business of crime consider it a field to perfect professionalism in the nebulous businesses of gunning down lives.

    If nothing is speedily done to put paid to pangs of jigsaw-puzzle currently plaguing the people of Ukanafun, then no one needs the power of clairvoyance to predict that the 2019 general election would be a poll where winners and losers would emerge in pool of blood.

    When Okon Uwah, a former deputy speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly was clubbed to death in broad daylight on March 18, 2015 in the same Ukanafun while embarking on house-to-house campaign for the last general election, it took Chief Don Etiebet’s alarming condemnation and the then well-lubricated APC publicity machinery for the rest of the Nigerian society to respond with expected stimuli to the death. In an ideal sophisticated society, forces propelling orderliness and normalcy does not start and end with governmental institutions. It involves the civil populace.

    It took the death of Atakpa for Governor Udom Emmanuel, who visited the deceased family compound, where the grassroots politician was gunned down in the early hours of that Easter Sunday, for the public to notice the government’s sensitivity. The governor’s on-the-spot step to see things for himself was a right-footed effort and commendable only to the extent of portraying the governor as a leader that has exceptional care for those that worked for his victory at elections. Atakpa is gone but justice on account of his loss should not be lost.

    If those saddled with the task of securing lives and properties in Akwa Ibom have risen immediately to the challenge of insecurity in Ukanafun at the dawn of those devilish acts, it is most likely that crimes in the area would have died as they arrived. Let Udom, the governor mount a search and personally lead the team for safe rescue of Udom, the proprietor of Sure Foundation Polytechnic. Let the governor change frequent songs of sorrow in Ukanafun to songs of joy.

     

    • Nsikak Ekanem,

    Uyo, Akwa Ibom.

  • ‘This kind of carnage musn’t continue’

    ‘This kind of carnage musn’t continue’

    EBONYI State Governor David Umahi has invoked the famous three-word phrase, enough is enough – as he visited communities allegedly attacked by assailants from  neighbouring Cross River State.

    On January 13, the people of Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki Local Government Area in Ebonyi State were reportedly attacked by persons from a number of communities in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State.

    The Ebonyi community said they lost a number of persons in the attack and that property worth millions of naira was destroyed.

    Governor Umahi bemoaned the attack, hailing the Ebonyi community for not retaliating, saying vengeance belongs to God. Umahi seemed to agree with the attacked community that their assailants were from Cross River State.

    The Nation could not, however, ascertain the veracity of the claims, especially the identity of the attackers or the reason for attack, since our reporter could not speak with anyone from the Cross River end of the boundary. It is expected that a comprehensive and independent probe of the incident will lay all the facts bare.

    The governor, during an assessment visit to the community, lamented the violence.

    He said similar attacks were launched in the past in Izzi Local Government Area and Ikwo Local Government border communities.

    He warned that the state government and the people of the state will not fold their arms and watch the people being slaughtered by their neighbours.

    He said, “This is man’s inhumanity to man, It is disheartening that this kind of thing will be happening in our society, it’s so shocking.

    “These same people pass through our land to conduct their business, we have been very nice to them and I will not blame our people for not retaliating, vengeance belongs to God but I am so sad that people will move from one house to the other to commit this kind of carnage.

    “It is not an attempt by one community, it is something that was calculated and planned by a committee of communities to unleash this evil on our people. The root cause of the crisis is very funny, we have security agencies in our state who know very well we don’t bury people with human heads and our people have offered [the] olive branch and said let us discuss this but when people are jobless have nothing doing than to drink ogogoro (local gin), they can always ignite this kind of crisis, they could commit that evil by themselves to have an excuse to do what they have done”.

    “This is capable of breeding civil war between the two states, so let me warn that enough is enough. We have this same carnage in Izzi axis, we have this same evil at Item-Amegu axis,  but today as Ebonyi people we are saying enough is enough. Izzi is a very large clan, very large, an Izzi man is capable of defending himself, Ebonyi people are capable of defending themselves, so this message must get to our neighbours, under my watch no Ebonyi man will be slaughtered again, we will not allow that to happen”.

    He commended the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo for his timely intervention in the crisis.

    “I spoke to the acting president a few days back and I commend him for his commitment and support by sending men of the military and other security agencies to the area to restore peace”.

    The Chairman of Abakaliki Local Government Area, Peter Nwaogbaga said the crisis began after the people of Obubra accused the people of Azuofia Edda of beheading  a commercial motorcyclist from Obubra.

    He said the man was accosted on January 10 near the Obubra village by unknown gunmen suspected to be cultists who killed him while the woman she was carrying was not harmed.

    The chairman said, “Information got to me on 11th January and I initiated peace talks. We had agreed to meet on 14th in Abakaliki after initial talks with leaders of both sides on 13th but they struck at 4am. The invasion led to killing of people, burning of houses and destruction of properties running into millions of naira.

    The marauders, he lamented, beheaded three men while three others were kidnapped while another man was shot to death.

    “It is sceptre of the greatest inhumanity of man to his fellow man. The displaced persons are currently taking refuge at Nwida Primary school”.

    “The state Commissioner of Police, Titus Lamorde  on behalf of heads of security agencies in the state assured that security agencies will stay in the community to ensure that the crisis does not reignite”.

    The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons distributed relief materials at the ceremony.

    Handing over the materials to the IDPs, National Commissioner of the agency, Sadiya Umaru Farouk represented by Maria Ngaji said federal government is fully committed to finding a lasting solution to the plight of internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

    This attack was said to have started by 4am with sporadic shootings.

    These aggressors allegedly travelled over 10km to reach the villages of Azuofia-Edda community. Villagers fleeing their homes reported that amongst the attackers were hired fighters and warriors, native doctors brandishing charms of all kinds and youths of various age groups carrying sophisticated weapons – including machine guns and Kalashnikovs, machetes, axes, motorized saws and petrol etc., with the sole aim of wiping out the villages in Azuofia-Edda community.

    A security source who spoke anonymously to our correspondent said that it was a well-planned, coordinated and premeditated attack.

    The people of Ovurokponu village in Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River state had on January 10, 2017 accused the people of Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki in Ebonyi state of beheading a commercial motorcyclist, one Isagha, from their village.

    The said young man had gone to Nwida market in Edda community of Abakaliki where he picked up a female passenger. They reportedly travelled about 30km, passing through villages, farmlands, rice swamps and forest areas around Ophenna area.

    The passenger, it was learnt, narrated that while they were riding, they noticed that they were being followed from the market by another motorcycle carrying two men but they didn’t know that they were being trailed until they stopped at a junction in Ophenna village where the other motorcycle sped past them and waited in the front – they sensed danger yet failed to report their suspicion to anyone in Ophenna village. They zoomed off and passed the assailants on the way and they kept trailing them, passing through the centre of Ophenna village, their lands and farms. It was while they got to the outskirts of the young man’s village of Ovurokponu, kilometres away, that they were double-crossed.

    The woman reported that the assailants asked her to run away. She hid in the bush and watched them shoot the young man. They asked her again to run when they noticed she was watching before beheading the young man.

    It was said that the Azuofia-Edda community, upon being informed by the Ovurokponu village of the circumstances of the death their kinsman, made peace overtures, assuring the Cross River community that Ebonyi people were not involved in the killing.

    They invited their elites in Abaklaiki town who immediately reached out to the elites of the Obubra people in Calabar town including one Ernest Irek, former member of the House of Representative and the Paramount Ruler of Obubra Local Government Area HRH Chief Clement Obogha and others, and tried everything possible to get them to understand that the act was not carried out by anyone from the Abakaliki side but they insisted on avenging their son and warned that they were coming for war.

    After several efforts by the elites from Abakaliki, on Thursday the 12th of January, the Obubra people assured their counterparts from the Abakaliki side that there would be no crises and agreed to a meeting in Abakaliki town to settle the problem but unbeknown to the people of Abakaliki it was a plot to set them off their guard and attack on Friday morning – the Friday this supposed peace talk was to hold.

    A statement by Youth Leaders of the community signed by Chinedu Nwasum and Obinna Nwasum said: “Let it be noted that the only route accessible to the over seven villages of Obubra that came on the attack passes through Azuofia-Edda community. That if the Abakaliki people had planned on attacking them as they allege, they would have done so while they passed through their road every day to access the Nwida market, the Abakaliki rice mill and the markets in Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha and indeed the rest of the country. That the electricity being enjoyed in these Obubra villages was installed by the Abakaliki Local Government Council and the roads being used by these aggressive villages in Obubra were built by the Abakaliki local Government Council”

    “When the attack happened, the people of Azuofia-Edda in Abakaliki were taken unawares because while the aggressors prepared for the attack and informed the Abakaliki people that they were going to avenge their son, the Abakaliki people never believed them – for they had lived in peace, inter-married, farmed together and attended each other’s festivals since 1984 that these Obubra villages last attacked the Abakaliki people”

    “It is also important to note that the young man had passed through many villages around Azuofia-Edda community of Abakaliki while returning from the Nwida market, passing through their farmlands, forest areas and rice swamps – areas that could be said to be easy spots for a killer to carry out his attack, yet he wasn’t harmed until he was around the outskirts of his own village, still they accuse the Abakaliki people of carrying out the killing – is it not obvious that if the Abakaliki people had carried out the killing with the intention of using the boy’s head for any nefarious end whatsoever, common sense would posit that the assailants would have also killed the woman with him so as not to have any eyewitness and that their bodies would have been cartered away so that they would never be found since the incident happened around a forest area.  Therefore the nature of the killing suggests that it was the handiwork of cultists prominent around the Obubra area”.

    “It could be recalled that in June 2015, one woman was beheaded in Ofomana village of Obubra and they alleged that she was killed by an Ikwo man of Abakaliki, but further investigation by security operatives showed that it was an Iyala man from Ogoja, Cross River State – a hired assassin who had since been arrested and is currently at the Zone 6 of the Nigerian Police Force in Calabar.

    The Nation could not confirm the allegation that the killers of the motorcyclist were cultists, possibly from the Cross River end. For if it was the job of cultists, why could they spare the female passenger who would possibly tell what happened?

    Only an unbiased investigation will unravel the circumstances surrounding the crisis.

    But the message of the Ebonyi State governor is worth taking to heart. Enough should be enough, and neighbours who have been living peacefully for years should continue to do so, and settle whatever problems amicably.

  • Again, a needless carnage

    •Deaths on Nigerian highways result from bad roads as they do from shocking human error

    Two auto crashes, on two consecutive days, claiming multiple casualties, again underscore the sorry state of Nigerian roads; and even the sorrier minds of those that use them.  If we can radically improve on both, we probably would have a hang on the madness on our roads; and greatly stanch the bloodshed from the needless killings.

    On February 7, at Km 19 on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway near Ibadan, a DAF Trailer White, with registration number XS 626 LSD, collided with another articulated truck, as a result of over-speeding: 17 lay dead; another 74, injured. Inside the two vehicles were some 96 people: 95 male and one female.

    Ninety-six passengers in two vehicles? Were they road trains? The bulk of the victims were commuting in the trailer — a trailer meant to carry goods and cargo; and over a long distance too.

    That, of course, is a very common sight, particularly of migrant workers from the North, seeking economic nourishment in Lagos and other coastal southern cities and towns. They simply, it appears, cannot just afford more secure forms of road transportation.

    It is not uncommon too, for the trailer drivers conveying them to push their trucks to the very limit, with many doing as high as 90km an hour. Such insane driving could have accounted for the crash of that tragic Sunday morning.

    The following Monday, February 9, an 18-seater passenger bus, carrying some students of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and some staff back to Ibadan, from a christening ceremony in Oyo, ended in a horrendous crash. The devil, this time, was less the bad road but more of over-speeding. Six students of the polytechnic’s Department of Quantity Surveying died; 12 others were wounded. Since the bus was an 18-seater, none in the bus escaped unscathed.

    A burst tyre, according to newspaper reports, caused the accident, at Motunde, near Moniya, on the glittering Ibadan-Oyo Road. As a result, the bus hit a road median and somersaulted. Though preventable, burst tyres could be common causes of crashes. But it is doubtful if it could have produced such goriness, had the vehicle been cruising at a moderate speed, at which the driver could still have controlled it.

    There in then, lies the paradox. This was a smooth road. Yet, over-speeding still led to a fatal crash. On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, mercifully now under reconstruction, the main problems are bad patches. Those, complemented with bad driving habits, make that road a notorious showcase of past carcases of mangled vehicles. But even those would appear to have little or no impact on new drivers despatching their passengers to early grave.

    By all means, the Buhari Presidency should squarely face the 200 federal roads, in the six geo-political zones, valued at N2 trillion, it is pledging to complete in this fiscal year. Providing safer roads is, at least, solving one part of the problem.

    But it should also work hard on its rail programme. With fast, safe and affordable rail, there would be succour for migrant workers, moving from one part of the country to another for economic salvation. It is absolutely unacceptable to see citizens, too poor to afford decent transportation, hitch-hike or even patronise Shylock trailer drivers, who pick no bones about logging them with cargo and even cattle, over a long stretch. If that were a thing of the past, the February 7 accident that consumed 17 souls would at least have been averted.

    However, beyond upgraded road and rail infrastructure is the infrastructure of the mind.  The accident on the Oyo-Ibadan road could perhaps have been averted, had the driver not over-sped.

    Therefore, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) should not relent on its road safety sensitisation programmes. This carnage would not stop until Nigerian road users embrace saner road habits.

  • Reducing carnage on roads

    Reducing carnage on roads

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has acquired breathalysers to, among others, check drunk-driving, reports ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE

    THIS year, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) is taking the slogan ‘Do not drink and drive’ beyond ‘Ember months.

    Last Tuesday, the corps showed the public it had the capacity to detect and punish drunk drivers, whose activities might constitute danger to themselves and threaten the safety of road users.

    Randomly, drivers were stopped by FRSC officers and tested with breathalysers, which test the breath for alcohol, drugs and other hard substances.

    Drivers were directed to blow air  into a disposable tube attached to the device and after a while, a reading of the breath was taken for alcohol and other driving impairing substances.

    For the corps, driving is a serious business and anyone who wants to engage in it, must be sober and “of the right frame of mind.”

    While no one takes an offence to  drinking, a driver who intends to drive, must stay away from alcohol and substances, such as kolanut, nescafe or nicotine as or risks arrest if he’s caught to be driving under their influence by the breathalyzer.

     

    New tools, old challenge

    Donating the breathalysers to the lead FRSC,  Managing Director/CEO, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Peter Ndegwa, said the company was pioneering responsible drinking, especially during the festive period to drive home the value of “responsible alcohol consumption”.

    He told consumers and motorists that drinking and driving do not mix.

    Two years ago, the Nigeria Breweries (NB) Plc, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

    Its Managing Director/CEO Nicolaas Vervelde, who was represented by Edem Vindah,  said the beer giant would have the responsible drinking campaign in four cities as part of its commitment to ensure that more Nigerians are safe.

    Test-running the tools at the Ojota end of the old Toll Gate on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway last week, FRSC Zonal Commander Charles Nse-Obong Akpabio said the breathalyser comes with modern features that could capture the vehicle particulars, number plate and driver’s licence details, and print the details of the infraction of any culprit.

    Akpabio, who represented the Corps Marshal/Chief Executive Officer Boboye Oyeyemi, said the exercise, which would be limited to Lagos for now, would run for three months, as part of a pilot research  being carried out by the agency to generate appropriate data on drunk driving.

    Akpabio reiterated the commitment of FRSC to arrest and prosecute any driver found driving on the highway under the influence of alcohol or other hard drugs.

    The device, according to him, would help the  FRSC detect drunk drivers as well as those operating under the influence of hard substances during the festive period and beyond.

    It would also help the agency build a reliable data base of drunk drivers across the country, especially Lagos. He said through it, the Corps hopes to establish that drunk driving, apart from over-speeding, is a major cause of accidents on the roads. He said over 75 per cent of road traffic crashes was caused by alcohol against the national road regulations – FRSC Establishment Act and National Highway Acts.

    He said: “We wanted to generate data to back up our claims on drunk driving as the lead cause of accidents on our roads. What we have for now is adequate only for Lagos and we hope that by the time we would be concluding this research in March, we would be able to duplicate this across the country.”

    Akpabio said the device would enable the Corps to reduce if not totally eradicate drunk driving, adding that the device is one of the adopted equipment and technique, jointly agreed to, and signed by the Corps and other stakeholders to sanitise the nation’s roads and prevent crashes that occurre as a result of drunk driving.

    He urged drivers to abstain from driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, saying anyone caught would be prosecuted and his vehicle impounded.

    A truck driver with Total Gas, Mr Oyedokun Bakare, thanked the FRSC for the initiative. He said the breathalyser will help reduce the level of alcohol and other related hard substances abuse.

    An officer at the Lagos Sector Command, who does not want to be mentioned said the research being conducted with the breathalysers had started and would continue till March. He added that some of the result of the earlier exercise were already being collated by the command and would end up generating a reliable data for the FRSC and others who may need it.

    He said the device would be randomly deployed on critical routes within the command, such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Lagos-Ikorodu road, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Mile 2-Badagry and the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway among others.

    “During these tests, more of which would be carried out especially during the festive season, we would randomly stop and test any driver, be he commercial or private car owner. We could stop a Danfo driver, a mini bus driver or luxury bus or truck or trailer driver for the test, or we might stop a private car driver to test his alcohol level. The idea is to ensure that we all stay alive and be responsible users of the road and not out to punish anyone,” he said.

     

    Other strategies

    For the FRSC, the increase in human activity especially during the festive season, dictates that drivers and other road users use the road more responsibly. However, because of the rush that goes with the season,  many drivers, driven  by the urge to make profit often flout traffic regulations, leading to accidents which lead to disabilities or loss of lives.

    Regarding the road as the people’s commonwealth, FRSC is out to enforce the regulations and ensure that all users conform to the rules and regulations guiding safe use of the roads at all times in order to reduce carnage.

    On assumption of office last year, Oyeyemi has increased the fight against road crashes and deaths as part of his commitment to rewrite the United Nations (UN) ugly road rating which puts Nigeria’s roads as the third most dangerous in the world.

    The FRSC began a series of capacity building trainings for various stakeholders with the intention of building a new crop of road ambassadors who would voluntarily comply with all road regulations.

    Oyeyemi began to push for the adoption of new strategies and through strategic partnership with the Organised Private Sector (OPS), the FRSC is acquiring new tools to respond to and combat the menace of road accidents.

    Apart from donations coming from Guinness Nigeria Plc, the UN and other multi-national agencies have been leading the pack in the training and retraining of FRSC personnel in the use of modern tools to reduce incidents of road carnage.

    Between June and December, the FRSC had taken the campaign for safer roads to the door steps of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), National Association of Transport Owners (NATO), the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) unit of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) and the independent trucks and fleet operators.

    Defending its singling out commercial vehicles as the first to be tackled, Oyeyemi  said with a mini-commercial bus carrying a minimum of 10 passengers, and a maxi buses carrying between 24 and 47 passengers, more casualties are often recorded daily through commercial vehicles than their private counterparts.

    He said with the official flag-off of this year’s Ember Months campaign with the theme: “Operation Sanity: Drive Safely into 2016,” the FRSC is poised to achieve a reduction in the accident baseline for last year. He said the commitment of the agency to ensure an accident free Yuletide celebration is unfailing adding that it would pursue this with the cooperation and support of all drivers and other stakeholders.

     

    Conclusion

    A safety expert and Executive Director of Safety Without Borders (SWB), Mr Patrick Adenusi, said the major headache of road users is the level of indiscipline.

    Adenusi, who identified lane violation, drunkenness, driving against traffic,  as some of the challenges working against safe roads, especially in urban centres, said a safer road would be achieved if the FRSC could tame the attitudes of drivers on the road.

    He praised the agency and all its partners for coming up with the new tool, adding that if this can be introduced, and penalties which include seizure of vehicles strictly enforced, it could go a long way in bringing sanity to the roads.

    Oyeyemi said time has come for the agency to come out hard on all those who deliberately break traffic laws. He said all unit commanders across the country have been mandated to ensure that the message is passed on to all raod users.

    In Lagos, as well as other sector commands and zonal commands, officers of FRSC has stepped up campaigns to ensure that road users make good use of the roads.

    He said the campaign entails drivers having a change of attitude through obedience to road traffic rules and share the road with other road users safely and defensively.

    He also challenged the drivers to take more than a passing interest in their health and guide against any hazards that might aggravate health issues such as poor eyesight, high blood pressure, diabetes, all of which he said are often associated with fatal road crashes.

    He charged drivers to be  defensive drivers and use the road more responsibly to ensure the safety of all road users.

  • Oyo tackles road carnage

    Oyo tackles road carnage

    Oyo state government has taken steps to reduce carnage on the roads.

    The ambulance service introduced by the Governor Abiola Ajimobi administration through its Ministry of Health is saving many lives in the state.

    Perhaps, the greatest thing about the service is that it is not restricted to towns and cities. Rural dwellers are also benefiting from it.

    When the scheme was flagged off in January with 20 ambulances, many people did not think that it could provide the succour needed at this time when road carnage is taking away many road users through untimely death. Several Nigerians are also maimed on daily basis, either on highways or on intra-city roads, where commercial motorcycles-triggered accidents are on the increase.

    The governor, through the Ministry of Health, had introduced the free ambulance project with a combination of bus ambulances for the city and highways and tricycle ambulances for remote communities and hard-to-reach parts of towns and villages.

    Since the ministry started work late February, not a few lives have been saved on the highways and intra-city roads in Ibadan, the state capital, where it is being currently operated.

    The ministry started off with four bus ambulances strategically located under purpose-built sheds at Iwo Road interchange, toll gates along the Ibadan-Lagos expressway, Ojoo and Eleyele areas of the city.

    The rationale behind the location, according to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, was to attend to emergencies on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Ibadan-Ife expressway, Ibadan-Ojoo expressway as well as the Eleyele-Ologuneru areas. The emergencies include road accidents and childbirth difficulties.

    Gbadegesin further explained that a major innovation in the free ambulance service is the introduction of a control room and the use of a dedicated mobile telephone line that distressed people can call to access the service.

    Unlike most other ambulances which only convey patients to the hospital, each Oyo State Free Ambulance boasts a complete team of medical workers headed by a doctor. They comprise four nurses with bias for emergency response. They are also supported by trained YES-O cadets.

    Each ambulance is fully equipped to serve as a treatment room. “They are not just to convey corpses or casualties to hospital. The patients receive treatment and are taken to the nearest hospital for continuation of treatment where necessary. Each ambulance has a telephone, drugs and medical equipment. There is a driver, a stretcher and a midwife, who most times, handles childbirth in the ambulance if the need arises. So deliveries can be safely taken in the ambulances.” Gbadegesin said.

    Also highlighting the importance of the tricycles ambulances, the commissioner said: “The tricycle is a WHO approved approach to take care of emergencies in rural areas. It is aimed at making healthcare accessible and affordable to rural dwellers. It was found that most rural dwellers do not access healthcare because they don’t find it accessible and affordable especially at nights.”

    Gbadegesin also disclosed that patients enjoy free treatment for the first 48 hours of emergency, hence they are taken to only nearest government hospitals.

    The ambulances currently work from 8 am to 6 pm with plans to extend working hours after more medical workers are employed and teething problems fully overcome. “We want to progress steadily. That is why we do not want to go all out at the initial stage. This is a project we really want to sustain. So it needs to be carefully managed. But we will soon extend the time of our services until we operate round the clock.” The commissioner said.

    So far, the Control Room, located at the Ministry of Health, receives an average of 10 distress calls per day. They immediately connect the nearest ambulance to the place of emergency for quick response.

    No fewer than 30 major cases have been handled with the highest number coming from accidents on Lagos-Ibadan expressway and Ibadan-Ife expressway.

    The programme has a working relationship with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) whose officers are involved in attending to road accidents. Whenever the FRSC men receive a call, they inform the ambulance which follows them to the scene of accidents.

    The commissioner further revealed that the ministry was working with the University College Hospital (UCH) to train members of the ambulance team on trauma management.

    The next set of ambulances is to be distributed to local governments to enable them ownership of them for the purpose of maintenance and effective operation.

    Aside road accidents, the ambulances have been called upon severally by residents for different types of health issues wherever they arise. For instance, one of the ambulances was called upon to attend to a child convulsing at a motor park in Eleyele area recently. The commissioner added that such issues come up regularly to which the ambulance team respond quickly.

    The toll-free mobile phone which the public reaches the ambulance or the Control Room is 08139858585.

    With the new innovation, the Governor Abiola Ajimobi administration is once again, taking the state onto a higher pedestal.