When the Department of Security Services DSS recently announced its investigations claiming that members affiliated with Indigenous Peoples of Biafra IPOB, abducted, murdered and buried five Fulani men in a shallow grave in Abia State, many discerning Nigerians must for good reasons, have been frightened. The shock is not only borne out of the dastardly nature of the alleged criminality but the frightening prospects of the incident ruffling the fragile peace that currently pervades the nation’s landscape.
DSS spokesman, Tony Opuiyo, said the five men who resided in the Isuikwuato LGA of Abia State were discovered in the Umuanyi forest where they were suspected to have been killed and buried, amidst 50 other shallow graves of unidentified persons. He further alleged that the IPOB was gradually showing its real colours.
But the IPOB vehemently denied the allegation by the DSS describing it as “fabricated lies”. The group said it was unfortunate to link a non-violent body with the alleged abduction murder and burying of five Fulani men. IPOB further alleged that the accusation was meant to instigate northerners whom they do not have any problem with against them so that there will be reprisal killing of their people in the north for no justifiable reason.
Since then, the matter has remained at the realm of claims and counter claims as no further evidence has been adduced by the DSS to show how it arrived at the conclusion that IPOB was responsible for that murderous act.
But a new dimension came into the controversy last week when the governors of Abia and Imo states- Okezie Ikpeazu and Rochas Okorocha addressed the press. In that media briefing after a joint security council meeting of the two states, the governors while condemning the killing of the five Fulani men in a border forest of the two states, said it was an act of kidnapping by criminals which has been rife in the states.
More specifically, Okorocha said the killing was an act of kidnapping and had nothing to do with ethnicity. The governor said “information reaching us reveal that it is not just five Fulani men as there were two corpses believed to be Igbo from the area, so it is not just a direct attack on any ethnic group”. The governors also disclosed the arrest of the culprits who have been giving useful information with a promise that they will be made to face the full weight of the law.
With the intervention of the two governors, it is now obvious who between the DSS and the IPOB, is telling the truth in respect of the motive behind the killing of the Fulani men. It would also seem that speculations on who is responsible for the killings have been laid to rest especially given the arrest of the suspected masterminds of the devious act.
The intervention of the two governors, as commendable and timely as it was, has brought to the fore the conduct of the DSS in the matter. Here is a responsible security organ of the government that went to town to announce that members affiliated with IPOB abducted , murdered and buried five Fulani men in a shallow grave. And given the high regard the public has for that security arm of the government, many must have believed that the DSS must have had their facts right since they claimed the disclosure was a product of their investigations.
But we have now been made to know after a joint security council meeting of the two states that the five men as reprehensible as their killings were, fell victim to the rampant kidnapping in the two states. What is more, two other bodies believed to be Igbo from the area were among the victims of the murderous activities of the kidnappers.
How the DSS came to the conclusion that the five Fulani men were killed by the IPOB remains largely curious. Why it also chose to ignore the fact that there were two other bodies suspected to be Igbo victims of the murder at that site littered with 50 other shallow graves puts serious doubt on the purpose the information dished out by DSS was meant to serve.
And given the sensitivity of such information and its frightening prospects to further compound the fragile security situation in the country, it remains a puzzle why the DSS rushed to town with information now faulted by the joint security council meeting of the two states. It is noteworthy that such joint meetings have among others in attendance, the state directors of the DSS.
My reading of this development is that having participated in the joint security council meeting of the two states where it was agreed that the five Fulani men were victims of kidnapping, the DSS apparently admitted that the information it fed its national headquarters on who killed the Fulani men was incorrect. That was why the two governors had to announce to the public that the killings had nothing to do with ethnicity, which link the IPOB angle inevitably conveyed.
By that also, the governors have diffused the tension and prospects of reprisal killings that may have followed that disclosure. It is nothing new that reprisal killings have before now been rampant from the part of the country where the five men come from. In the past, we have seen how even a cartoon that appeared outside this country resulted in reprisal killings in north from people who considered that cartoon offensive to their religion.
Why the DSS could not factor such incendiary prospects while taking a decision to go public with an allegation that has now been proven wrong is a sad commentary on the proficiency and competence of those who handled that piece of information. Even at that, if the DSS had in verity stumbled at information linking the IPOB with that killing, what ought to have been its appropriate response to it? To go public with it or spread its dragnet to apprehend the culprits and make them face the full weight of the law?
For this writer, the rational option for that security agency would have been to liaise with other security organs of the government to apprehend the masterminds of that devious act. Since it was able to finger the body allegedly connected with the incident, we presume the agency had a fair idea of those who took part in the killing. The right approach would have been to arrest and prosecute them rather than going public with unconfirmed information that could further create serious security challenges.
We have now been told by the governors that the masterminds have been arrested and are giving useful information to the security agencies. That is the right path the DSS should have taken rather than dishing out tendentious information that would later be faulted.
As much as one resists the lure of imputing motives into that hasty announcement by the DSS, it is utterly disappointing that that agency could not anticipate the mortal harm the development is to the lives of those on whose behalf the IPOB claims to be crusading. Even if that piece of information was to be correct, the public had no need for it because it could result in reprisals killings. When that happens, would that agency not have failed in its statutory duties?
We demand a thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to the filing of aspects of that report that has now turned out false. Those found culpable for acts of omission of commission should be punished. That is the right way to correct the festering impression by the IPOB that linking it to the killings was primed to precipitate reprisal killings of their people in the north.
Above all, Ikpeazu and Okorocha deserve commendation for their bold and timely intervention that has saved the nation another cycle of violence arising from the poor handling of the matter by the DSS.
