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Tag: killings

  • Catholic Bishop demands apology from FG, Amaechi over killings

    Makurdi Diocese Catholic Bishop Most Reverend Wilfred Anagbe, has demanded an apology from the federal government, especially Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi for allegeldy attempting to change the narratives of the killing of two priests and 17 worshippers in Mbalom last April.

    Speaking yesterday at St. Ignatius Quasi Parish Ukpo, Mbalom during a homily to mark the rite of atonement and purification of the community from the spilled blood, Anagbe insisted the killing was carried out by herdsmen.

    Two catholic priests and 11 worshippers were killing by suspected Fulani herdsmen during mass in the parish.

    The killings attracted national and international condemnation.

    Anagbe maintained that survivors and witnesses were not in doubt the killers were herdsmen.

    The Bishop alleged the government was using Christians including the minister, APC national chairman as well as presidential spokesman to change the true narrative on the killings. He noted that it was childish and hypocritical for people to insinuate Benue people or Christians were killing themselves.

    He wondered if they were responsible for the killings in other states including Zamfara and Katsina.

    He said herdsmen sent Rev. Fr. Felix Tyolaha packing from Yogbo in Guma Local Government Area before and he had to plead with him to come to Mbalom and serve only to be killed.

    The Bishop stressed the changing narrative was an insult on the sensibilities of the Benue people and Tiv nation.

    He urged politicians not sell the Tiv people for what he described as leftovers.

    The Bishop offered special prayers at the spot where Father Tyolaha was killed before the celebration of mass.

  • PDP, APC clash over fresh violence, killings in Rivers

    The Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; the Rivers governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Tonye Cole; and an APC chieftain, Chukwudi Dimkpa; over Wednesday’s violence and killing of two PDP members in Ipo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers state.

    Rivers PDP, through its new Publicity Secretary, Darlington Orji, yesterday alleged that Amaechi, a former Governor of Rivers state; Cole, a billionaire businessman/co-founder of Sahara Group; and Dimkpa, who recently resigned in the Nyesom Wike’s administration as the Managing Director of Rivers State Signage and Advertising Agency (RISAA); sponsored a deadly cultist, Kenjika Jonathan, aka School Boy, to unleash mayhem on innocent and peace-loving PDP members at Ipo.

    PDP in Rivers also condemned the unprovoked violence during the voters’ sensitisation in Ipo, while alleging that the APC leaders were backed by two other chieftains of the party in the state: Chibuike Ikenga and Ezemonye Ezekiel Amadi, who is the APC’s candidate for Emohua/Ikwerre constituency in the House of Representatives for the 2019 elections.

    Rivers APC, through its Publicity Secretary, Chris Finebone, however, stated that members of the main opposition party knew nothing about the violence and killings, declaring that from credible information, the attackers were PDP’s thugs, militants and cultists who leaders of the party (PDP) used to kill and maim APC members during the 2015 elections and subsequent reruns in the state, but were abandoned.

    APC in Rivers said: “If they (PDP leaders in Rivers) truly had credible information about complicity of anyone, why didn’t they approach security agencies for arrests and investigation? The PDP members simply made up the story to divert attention from the real incident.

    “Our worry is that PDP members in Rivers State know that they brought the violence and killings on themselves. They only want to use the incident to lay a foundation for a fresh narrative that will kick-start fresh round of violence, as the 2019 elections approach. They thrive on violence.

    “Unfortunately, PDP leaders in Rivers State are fixated in their archaic and time-forgotten style of raising wild accusations and name-calling, instead of tackling serious issues with all the seriousness they deserve. Of course, they find it difficult to followup on unsubstantiated claims that do not go beyond the washy attention they often crave.

    “Assuming without conceding that they know anyone or persons working in cahoot with a criminal to attack them, should their first port of call be the media? Of course, the security agencies are there, but they will not go to them, because they know that diligent investigations will lead back to PDP. Someone should let PDP members know that Rivers people and Nigerians have since moved into modern times; the train has since left the station.

    “Our concern is that, as it is typical with PDP, this is a clear foundation that they are laying to commence the next orgy of killings, maiming and violence that characterise their politics, as 2019 elections approach.”

    Rivers APC also called on security agencies to arrest PDP members and officials of the state government who mentioned names of persons, to assist them in the thorough investigation of the violence.

    The main opposition party in Rivers noted that it believed the diligent investigation would expose what the PDP members in Rivers were doing to themselves, asking them to stop calling APC members names in vain, just to cover up their evil deeds.

    Rivers PDP, however, said: “Scores (of PDP members) were also injured in the unwarranted attacks, while many vehicles were damaged in the rain of bullets by the assassins, hired by the Rivers APC agents of violence.

    “The premeditated attack on the PDP’s voter sensitisation at Ipo was a plot by the Transportation Minister and other APC leaders to assassinate the Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Council, Hon. Samuel Nwanosike (a former Rivers Publicity Secretary of PDP). Credible intelligence on the plot by the APC members was passed to the security agencies (unnamed) by the authorities of Ikwerre Local Government Council.

    “While condoling with the family members of Uche Nnana and the woman murdered by the plot of Amaechi, Cole, Dimkpa and others, members of PDP in Rivers State will not be cowed by the mindless use of violence by the APC and its agents.

    “APC remains rejected across Rivers State, because it is a party that promotes deaths, underdevelopment and bitterness. The re-election of Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, is a fait accompli. A thousand Amaechis, Coles and Dimkpas sponsoring criminal gangs will not change it.”

    PDP in Rivers also called on the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to as a matter of urgency, arrest the “indicted” APC chieftains for prosecution, in the interest  of peace and justice, alleging that their direct links with the “failed” APC-led Federal Government was not a licence to kill and unleash violence on unarmed PDP members.

  • President ‘distressed, depressed by killings’

    President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday he is distressed and depressed by the ethno-religious killings in the country. He urged Nigerians to learn to live together in peace and harmony.

    The President spoke while receiving officials leaders of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), led by Rev Dr Dachollom Datiri, at the State House, Abuja.

    Buhari urged religious, community and traditional leaders to do more in promoting peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.

    He said: “As an organised institution (COCIN), I have no reason to doubt your report on the atrocities being committed in your communities, including the killing of Idris Alkali, a retired Maj.-Gen., the dumping of his car into a pond and the body of the deceased thrown into a disused well.

    “The communities (in Plateau) have lived long enough to know that there is nothing they can do without each other than to live together in harmony.

    “As leaders, we must persuade the upcoming generation, using every channel, particularly the educational institutions to live together with our neighbours.’’

    Buhari, who underscored the important role religious leaders play in engendering peace, lauded the exemplary role of the Imam in Plateau State who risked his life to save hundreds of Christian families fleeing attacks in June.

    “It is not all Muslims that are against Christians and neither are all Christians against Muslims.

    “The leadership in the respective religions have to work harder to make sure they convince the coming generation that they have to live together in the same country,’’ he said.

    Buhari assured the Christian delegation that he would continue to exert pressure on the police to protect lives and property.

    “In our security arrangement, the police is in the frontline in making sure that communities, irrespective of ethnic or religious bias, live together in peace,’’ he said.

    He added that Nigeria could not afford to take its unity for granted and allow a return to the unfortunate perils of a civil war.

    Rev. Datiri, condemning Gen. Alkali’s killing, chronicled recent attacks against Christian communities in Plateau and neighbouring states, resulting in the displacement of thousands.

    The cleric urged the Federal Government to ensure the safe return and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their communities, in addition to the rebuilding of places of worship destroyed.

    The COCIN president called on the Federal Government to ensure the release of Leah Sharibu and other abductees of Boko Haram terrorists.

    Rev. Datiri also requested the President to use his good offices to persuade some northern states to allocate land titles to churches, in addition to directing the Ministry of Education to allow the teaching of Christian Religious knowledge in schools in the region.

    Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong vowed that any traditional or religious leader found protecting criminals would face the law.

    “I joined the delegation because they are all Christian leaders from my state. It was in the interest of the state because all of us are searching for peace. I have been searching for peace in Plateau state so any move for peace in Plateau and Nigeria, I will put myself at the front burner, that is why you saw me today.”

    On what he was doing to ensure security and peace in Plateau State, he said, “We have done a lot including the rehabilitation of the IDPs. We set up a committee and they are submitting their report today.

    “I had assured everybody after that crisis that we are going to rehabilitate the place. We have applied to Mr. President and he has approved for us additional force, Special Mobile Squad and I got the approval of Mr. President last week.

    “So, we are waiting to get the report and then we will start moving people to their ancestral home. The people of Plateau are making their complaints, everybody has a right to make complaints but as far as the government is concerned in Plateau, we have done a lot; we have gone far with some of the issues that were raised.

    “The only one that put us back was the killing of the General. And I have also charged community leaders just like Mr. President said, I said if you want to ensure peace in your place, community leaders must also come out and expose criminals in their domain.

    “But when they commit crime and community leaders or religious leaders fight to protect them that is why we have problems. If they had exposed the killers of Alkali earlier everything would have been solved. But there you have community and religious leaders who claimed to be religious, who claimed to be religious leaders hiding criminals.

    “They might not like me but that is what I am doing, I have said that yes you want government to work but if I catch you or get any criminal activities in your domain, we will hold the community leader, religious responsible. We cannot claim to live in a community and we don’t know the criminals and who are good people.

    “So, we are doing our best. Even when they were doing investigation people were shouting but I insisted that this investigation must be done to the later, they must investigate and find out those who killed the general and other people that were slaughtered on that road.

     

  • Killings: IGP deploys forces as Kaduna declares curfew

    Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris has deployed the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 7 to lead a special investigation team to Kaduna State, following the killing of 55 persons in Kasuwar Magani.

    The special team comprises four units of Police Mobile Force (PMF), specially trained riot policemen, the Counter-Terrorism Unit, conventional policemen, the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), the Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU), the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB), a detachment of EOD and Police K9.

    Members of the team will work with the Kaduna State Police Command to ensure that peace is restored and sustained in the area and its environs.

    A statement yesterday in Abuja, the nation’s capital, by the Force spokesman Jimoh Moshood, an Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (Ag. DCP), reads: “Concerned with the unfortunate attack and killings of 55 innocent people, mayhem and the resultant disturbance of public peace that occurred in Kasuwar Magani, Kajuru, Kaduna State on October 18, which also resulted in destruction of property valued at millions of naira and the need to end this crisis, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris has deployed the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Zone 7 headquarters in charge of Kaduna, Niger states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to lead the Police Special Intervention Force.

    “The operations will cover the entire Kasuwar Magani and environs and other flash spots in Kaduna State.

    “The Police Special Intervention Forces will be working in synergy with the Kaduna State Police Command to ensure that peace and normalcy are restored and sustained in Kasuwar Magani and its environs.

    “To achieve success in the operations, the Force will be proactive and strict in the enforcement of its mandates, police standard operations procedures and rules of engagement.

    “The Force will ensure the full enforcement of the curfew imposed on Kasuwar Magani and environs by the Kaduna State government.”

    The police also said their team will carry out 24-hour surveillance and patrol, stop-and-search; continuous raids of identified criminal hideouts and black spots with a view to arresting trouble makers, their sponsors and nip in the bud any further attempt to cause violence and other criminality in the area.

    The deployment, the police said, will cover communities, towns, villages, vulnerable points, government and private infrastructure and facilities in Kasuwar Magani, Kajuru Local Government Area and its environs.

    The police urged traditional rulers, religious leaders, public office holders, politicians, opinion leaders, and other members of the community to support the team.

    The Kaduna State government yesterday declared a 24-hour curfew on Kaduna and its environs to forestall a breakdown of law and order.

    A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said: “A 24-hour curfew has been imposed on Kaduna town and its environs. It is with immediate effect.”

  • Killings: Air Force deploys air assets to Plateau

    THE Nigerian Air Force yesterday said it had deployed air assets to Jos, Plateau State in support of ground troops currently battling to restore peace to the troubled areas.

    A statement from the spokesman of the Air Force, Air commodore Ibikunle Daramola, noted the deployment would include the use of intelligence platforms

    It said: “The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has deployed an EC-135 helicopter and an Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft along with an additional detachment of NAF Regiment personnel to Plateau State in support of efforts aimed at quelling the crisis that recently erupted in the State and restoring normalcy.

    “The deployment of the ISR aircraft is expected to enhance intelligence gathering while the helicopter would conduct air support missions in close coordination with surface forces of Operation SAFE HAVEN.

    “Meanwhile, NAF L-39 fighter aircraft, operating from Kano, have commenced armed reconnaissance missions over known flash points within the State.

    “Other NAF air assets are also available at other nearby airfields to provide additional support to hasten the process of restoring normalcy in the State.”

     

  • Killings: Police raid brothels, dark spots in Ekiti

    The Ekiti State Police Command has begun a massive crackdown on hotels, pubs, brothels, relaxation centres and black spots to curb killings across the state.

    Police Commissioner Bello Ahmed gave the order following the spate of killings by a suspected killer gang.

    The latest security cordon was thrown round the state following the killing of two persons in the last one week.

    They include the commissioner on the board of the Federal Character of Commission, Mr. Bunmi Ojo.

    On Tuesday, armed policemen began a clampdown on black spots where scores of suspects were arrested and detained at police stations in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

    The swoop on suspected criminal hideouts continued yesterday with a police source saying many suspected cultists had been arrested.

    Police spokesman Caleb Ikechukwu, a Superintendent of Police (SP), said the raid would continue until the state is rid of killings and other forms of violence.

    He said: “We have been raiding even before the July 14 election, but we intensified efforts for mass raid when the killings were becoming incessant.

    “We need to curb such unwholesome situation and this will continue until normalcy returns.

    “We are quite aware of the fact that when raids are conducted, some innocent people will be arrested and that was why our men normally screened the victims to know their identities.

    “But many of those arrested were suspected cultists and our people should not exhibit fear.”

    Also, a prominent transporter, Mr. Samuel Agbede, has denied complicity in Tuesday’s violent clash among members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Ado-Ekiti.

    Agbede told reporters that he had resigned his position as RTEAN Chairman since July 20.

    The former union leader wondered why his name was mentioned in the media as a union boss.

    He said a caretaker committee, led by Mr. Olalekan Amusan from RTEAN headquarters in Abuja, had been in charge of the union since he left office.

    Agbede said members attempting to forcefully take over leadership of the union should be arrested, instead of linking him to the crisis.

    He claimed nobody was killed during the violent clash between members of the union on Tuesday.

    RTEAN members staged a violent protest, following the arrest of one of their leaders and former State Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Olanbiwonnu, by the police.

    Agbede said he stepped down as RTEAN chairman due to what he called the desperation of Olanbiwonnu’s loyalists to forcibly take over the leadership of the union.

    He added: “I was shocked and embarrassed to learn that my name was mentioned in the leadership tussle in RTEAN. If I was interested in the position, would I have resigned as the state chairman? I value my name and integrity. That was why I took that step.

    “What led to the crisis was the arrest of Mr. Olanbiwonnu by the police, following attacks by his group on three members of the caretaker committee suspected to belong to another camp.

    “It was those who were attacked that reported to the police, leading to Olanbiwonnu’s arrest. It was this arrest that made his supporters to destabilise the town. So, I have no hands in it.”

  • Bayelsa demands justice for victims of killings

    The Bayelsa State Government on Wednesday called on the Federal Government to ensure justice for victims of killings across the country especially those who lost their lives and properties in armed herdsmen’ attacks.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said justice would ensure national integration, peace and curb other challenges facing the country.

    ‎Iworiso-Markson spoke in Yenagoa while delivering a keynote address at the 8th Executive Committee of the Supreme Council for Non-Indigenes (SCN) in the state and the investiture of the organisation’s patrons.

    He commended the leadership of SCN for its efforts in contributing to the social discourse to bring about development and peace.

    He said: “Justice is key to achieving, assuring and perpetuating peace in the country. When we seek peace and exclude justice from the picture we are just paying lip service to achieving peace.

    “To put it graphically, each time justice is missing in the foundation of our search for peace, it will be as if we place the cart before the horse. Certainly, we wont be able to achieve any serious movement towards our objective.

    “What is missing in the country today is justice. One precursor that will bring justice and ultimately guarantee peace is restructuring. The time has come to restructure the country in line with advance federation of the world.

    “I do not want to propose anything different from what our leaders in the South-South and our governors, especially my boss, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson have proposed.

    Read Also: Oando, JV partners inaugurate water scheme in Bayelsa community

    “Suffice to say that President Muhamadu Buhari must quickly set machinery in motion to ensure that the issue of restructuring is addressed once and for all.

    “Incidentally, his party, the APC has also agreed that restructuring will be doing justice to every sector and region of our country. For the avoidance of doubt, the restructuring that the South-South envisaged will include fiscal federalism.

    “The issue of peace in the crisis-ridden North Central Nigeria where suspected Fulani Herdsmen have been accused of complicity in mass murder and expansionist tendencies, and myriad of other challenges facing the country could be resolved faster if everybody is served justice. Justice, to me, is one drug that cures all”.

    The commissioner said that Bayelsa State enjoyed sustained peace in the last six years because of the commitment of the government to ensure peace and social justice to all, regardless of creeds and tongues.

    ‎He said Dickson was conscious that lack of accountability, transparency and commitment to social welfare of the citizenry were also variants of injustice.

    He thanked the non-indigenes for their roles in boosting local economy ‎and living in peace with indigenes assuring them of a safer and more conducive environment for their businesses.

    ‎In his lecture titled, Peace-Building and National Integration in a Pluralistic Nigeria: the role of non-indigenes, The Guest Speaker, Raimi Lasisi said the threat to social integration came from persons, who provided incentives for violence, conflict and war in many parts of the country.

    He said: “Needless to say that when violent conflicts persist, the drums of disintegration become easily echoed in any society and this is particularly true of pluralistic or multiethnic countries like Nigeria.

    “Globally, there are several indicators that threaten peace and integration of nations. These indices all revolve around the balance of power issue which determines the level with which a nation lords over another especially for political, economic and social (ethnic and religious) reasons.

    “However, amongst the most pressing of these indicators that threaten peace building and social integration; negative ethnicity as well as religious extremism are the most vicious”.

    In their separate remarks, the Chairman of the occasion and Special Adviser to the Governor on non-Indigenes, Alex Dumbo and the President, SCN, Alhaji Ade Bakare thanked the government for giving them a sense of belonging in the state.

    They said about nine non-indigenes in the state were serving as political appointees of the government, describing it as a clear indication of their acceptability by the government.

  • Killings greatest threat to our existence, says Dickson

    Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson has described the spate of violence and senseless killings, particularly in the North as the biggest threat to the nation’s corporate existence since the civil war.

    He faulted the nation’s lopsided federal structure, over centralisation and politicisation of law and order as threats to contemporary governance.

    Dickson spoke at the weekend in Abuja while delivering a lecture titled: ‘Cultural Values, National security and challenges of contemporary governance: Perspective from Bayelsa State Experience, organised by Institute of Security Studies (ISS).

    In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Deacon Francis Ottah Attah, the governor condemned the recent killings and warned there would be no Nigeria if President Buhari fails to build a non-partisan consensus to avert the nationwide senseless killings.

    He lamented politicians were using the security structures of the country to torment innocent citizens for their selfish ends, causing national insecurity and instability.

    The governor maintained that the wind of insecurity blowing across the nation and particularly the killings of innocent in the North were fuelled by the imbalance in the security structure and the politicisation of security by the ruling party.

    According to him: “It is very clear that Nigeria’s lopsided federal system and over centralisation of security powers and the politicisation of  security by several agencies  are a major clause of instability and poses a threat to national stability.

    “I was talking about the politics of insecurity and the insecurity of politics occasioned by the abuse of Nigeria’s federal system and the ease at which those who control powers at the federal level undermine law and order in parts of our country and make it difficult for our citizens to feel safe and to feel protected under the law.

    “When you correct this abuse of federal system, the governor of Benue and Taraba will be in the position to mobilise the security resources of their States.”

    He called on stakeholders irrespective of their political parties to unite to proffer a solution to the lingering insecurity in the country.

    Dickson said: “Who are the farmers having clashes with herdsmen in Sokoto, Zamfara and other places?

    “We must call a spade a spade for the good of our country. We are dealing with a calculated attack on our country. We are dealing with machinery of violence against innocent Nigerians.

    “Yes we have historical incidence of herdsmen and farmers clash but what is going on is far more than that.

    “All Nigerians and people of good will should show patriotism and let us interrogate this issue properly.”

     

  • Killings: Obasanjo attacks Buhari again

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday attacked President Muhmmadu Buhari again over the spate of killings in the country.

    He spoke in an address read on his behalf by former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola at the National Summit on Insecurity and killings in Nigeria, organised by the Northern Elders Forum, Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Pan Niger Delta Forum in Abuja.

    Without offering solutions to the killings, Obasanjo said the government had been “giving one unrighteous and unacceptable justification after the other.”

    Speakers at the summit include Prof. Ango Abdullahi, Ohanaeze President John Nwodo, PANDEF leader Chief Edwin Clark, Afenifere leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo, former Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba, former Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko and a host of others.

    Obasanjo said: “The obvious indication is that the government is seemingly confused and has got to the end of its tether and the nation is being left divisively and perilously to drift.

    “Earlier last week, I noted in a speech some undesirable elements being allowed and being introduced to our democracy by this Administration. If these are not stopped, they could be the death knell of our democracy.”

    he added: “People are not ready to give up in despair and leave their fate and their present and future in the hands of inept leadership for their lives to be ruined. I see common concern across the nation irrespective of tribe, religion, language and social standing that the situation should be retrieved and the nation should be saved,” he stated.

    Clark attacked governors who he accused of hijacking power to themselves.

    He said Nigerians are living in poverty, corruption and inequality, adding that governors who hitherto had no class had created one for themselves.

    He said: “Even military governors were more liberal than the governors you have today who only think about themselves and not the people. If we keep silent, a revolution is coming, if we fail to take quality decisions, our children will not forgive us. I don’t care who becomes the president as long as he is competent.”

    Former Chief of Staff to the Senate President Mr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, called for the retooling of the nation’s security infrastructure which he said must be completely rebuilt on a new philosophy, structure and commitment to security as the prime function of the state.

    Mimiko called for urgent action against the killings, warning that the situation might get out of hand, noting that some victims believed they were been attacked on the grounds of their ethnicity, religion and class.

    Former IG Abba blamed reckless speeches by politicians for the killings.

    He disagreed with the opinion that state police could address the bloodshed, noting that only Lagos State could afford to fund its police force.

    “Is it a state that cannot pay teachers that would pay policemen? Do you know the cost of a gun? only Lagos is ready to fund state police.”.

    The communique of the summit, signed by Clark, Abdullahi, Adebanjo and Nwodo said: “In the eyes of many affected communities, there appears to be palpable government complicity in the killings. These killings claimed 3,500 lives in 2017, a figure that could be much higher in 2018.”

    On the economy, the summit noted with dismay what ut described as “mismanagement” and expressed concern that the nation had been adjudged to be more corrupt than it was in 2015 by the Transparency International.

    The summit resolved to insist on the emergence of “a visionary and dynamic leadership which will deal with our security and economic challenges and ensure good governance in the country.”

    It demanded the revamping of the security architecture, removal of killers from the communities they have occupied and return of same to their rightful owners who now live in camps.

    The elder statesmen said they would strive to reach a consensus on the positions of the various Nigerian communities and arrive at an agreed template in the issue of federalism and restructuring.

  • Our Girls; Killings; Cup; Fayemi

    It is four years+ since our Chibok girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. We await the release of the remaining Chibok girls. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15 year old, Leah Sharibu is not released. Why have we not extricated this one single girl from the terrifying clutches of Boko Haram?

    How is it possible for the Boko Haram to again, just last week, dent Nigeria’s territorial integrity and our security apparatus by raising a terrorist, foreign flag over Nigerian territory? However, as proud Nigerians, we cannot understand why the armed forces appear only after the murderous event. This is in no way to disregard the supreme sacrifice made by so many, largely unsung, gallant officers and men and women, with 23 now Missing In Action (MIA). Because of that sacrifice that we cannot afford to lose another life military or civilian. The armed forces were well-funded during the military era and also judging from the billions stolen by generals and admirals and buried in soak-aways in the civilian era. Can the armed forces be pro-active to prevent ‘take over events’, village massacres, and fake or genuine terrorist activity?

    But Boko Haram is not the only battle front in Nigeria.

    There is another equally vicious enemy, masquerading as fellow Nigerians! Government and President Buhari must prevent themselves from being seen as Nero ‘Fiddling while Rome Burns’ while people scream in anguish as they die, rot and roast in villages torched by fires, holocausts, set by the vicious herder militias!!

    What manner of cumulative evil is one death per day, 10 deaths per day, 20 deaths, 30,40,50, 60, 100, 200  up to and even beyond 300 murders in any single day or night of attacks by Nigerians on Nigerians? The president’s claim that the perpetrators are Gadhafi spawn rings hollow from all reports of survivors. True or false, it should make him spring into action to protect the territorial imperative and is no excuse for allowing the farm destroyers to run amok, unchallenged by our mighty armed forces nationwide which deny complicity. Close all barracks, cancel all leave, and redeploy them to the village war front, garrison the villages to eliminate this scourge.

    In Ghana this incursion has been nipped in the bud. And if they really are Gadhafi spawn, are they invincible, invisible or merely being wrongly reported to Buhari by his intelligence? Does that presidential ‘ID’ not instantly make them instant invading terrorists and mercenaries? Government and National Assembly (NASS) warn of fire and brimstone against South Africa when one single unfortunate Nigerian is killed. But strangely, they have collective inertia and incoherent plans when Nigerian villagers are wiped out. No one is brought to justice. We appear to be at war with a fake or ghost enemy. This calls for commando type units to protect Nigeria’s rural populations before the farms become deserts and Nigeria has a serious famine. We will be forced to give up eating cows reducing their value to zero except to be used for bride price! It is an unbelievable propaganda paradox for the Ministry of Agriculture to ‘rightly’ claim a triumph about rice production, which is good, while ignoring the huge threat to Nigeria’s food supplies of the bloody onslaught of herders. Government must be aware that forced peace without justice and seizing one side’s weapons of self-defense is no peace.

    We cannot bring back the dead. Their ancestral line is destroyed. Child survivors will never know their history or even their name. The Buhari government’s failure to save life is a Human Rights failure to meet SDG 8,9,10,16 to protect. It prompts suggestions of complicity about the mounting murderous death toll on and around the Plateau and will have election 2019 consequences as too many voters have first-hand trauma knowledge. Bermuda has its ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of mystery and strange accidents, disappearances of boats, ships and planes and people. The herder-instigated farmer killings create a deadly Plateau Triangle including Benue, Nassarawa states and spilling into Benue, Adamawa and Bauchi and now Sokoto and nationwide. Certainly NASS is impotent. Government must stop the matter today instead of offering alternatives including abandoning one’s ancestral property to the terrorist invaders. And yet we all still shed cow blood for meat provided by the blood shed of thousands. Have we no shame? When is enough blood enough bloodshed?

    As we mourn, we congratulate France’s multi-ethnic team for lifting the World Cup in a good clean game. Give opportunity to the youth and witness their Mbappe after Brazil’s teenage Pele. Meanwhile Nigeria’s Footbal Federation members rather risk expulsion /suspension of Nigeria from FIFA than obey FIFA rules thus biting the hand that feeds them and the game of football in Nigeria with millions of often untraceable dollars. Football administrators should be above ‘winning’ or viciously destroying the game.

    So even more congratulations to ex-governor and ex-Minister Fayemi for re-winning the Ekiti elections. Educated Ekiti, have witnessed the horrors of anti-judiciary thuggery, Shakespearian Macbethian medical theatrics and a tragic stream of unsolved political murders. Can Fayemi put any demons of his past performance aside and bind all the people of all political parties in a spectacular service manner? Nigeria sorely needs a new breed of leader-Obama, Mandela? You choose. Ekiti’s development cannot afford to lose a minute of one day in the next four years.

    • Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.