The Nation Newspaper

Tag: plateau killings

  • Plateau: Buratai charges troops to be aggressive against bandits

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai has charged troops of `Operation Safe Haven’ to be aggressive and decisive in dealing with armed bandits and other criminal elements operating on the Plateau.

    Buratai said a situation whereby innocent citizens were waylaid, abducted and killed indiscriminately should no longer be tolerated.

    He gave the charge at a demonstration by the Special Forces newly inducted into the operation at Riyom Local Government Area of the state.

    “The Operation Safe Haven should not remain in deterrent position, but you must also be aggressive and deal with any criminal activities, especially those that are bent on disturbing the peace, killing and maiming people.

    “You are not here to protect any ethnic or religious group; we are dealing with criminals, we are interested in criminal elements and they must be deal with decisively,’’ Buratai said.

    He, however, charged them to be professional, but combat ready at all times, noting that serious challenge still remains in the state in terms of the security.

    The army chief said that the killings were still ongoing in the hinterland and other areas and directed the troops to penetrate those areas and clear the “doubt of the criminal elements.’’

    “You are deployed here not to romance the criminals; you are to deal with them decisively; anybody seen carrying arms must be dealt with decisively.

    “If you give them chance, then we will all regret it. Therefore, we cannot afford to give them chance.

    “You are very much aware of what is happening, people are waylaid on the roads, abducted and kept where it is very difficult to locate them and sometimes, they get them killed. This is unacceptable,’’ he said.

  • Policeman, nine others paraded for Plateau killings

    A police sergeant with the Counter Terrorist Unit in Maiduguri, Borno State, was arrested in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State, for allegedly selling ammunition to cattle rustlers and other criminals.

    Sgt. Zakariah John was caught selling a round of 7.62MM Special Ammunition to a suspected rustler.

    Most of the attacks and killings in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Mangu and Bassa councils have been linked to proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

    Media Officer of Operation Safe Haven Maj. Adam Umar, who paraded the suspects yesterday, said: “We have in our custody a serving police sergeant – Sgt. Zakariah John – and a suspected rustler – Sani Muhammed – both of whom are suspected to be gun runners.

    “We also have in our custody Patrick Choji and Yakubu Davou who were arrested for illegal possession of firearms. We have 10 suspects in all but with various offenses, ranging from rustling, robbery, impersonation and gun running.

    “They were arrested from various spots, some from Jos North, Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Nasarawa State.

    “Victor Davou and Joshua Dagwom are suspected to be part of those who rustled cows in Fan district of Barkin Ladi before the attacks last month, though we are still investigating to ascertain their level of involvement.”

    Narrating how the suspects were arrested, Umar said: “As we intensified our investigations following the June 23 incident, we arrested one of the rustlers and he confessed that a policeman supplies him ammunition. So he was told to ask for another supply.

    “We took the suspect to the meeting point, laid an ambush, and the supplier appeared – he supplied 180 rounds of 7.62MM special. Each round of ammunition was sold for N450. It used to be N400 but according to the supplier, scarcity of the product forced him to increase the price.

    “That was how the suspect was arrested and upon interrogation, we discovered he is a police sergeant serving with the Counter Terrorist Unit in Maiduguri.

    “This discovery will help in reducing the proliferation of arms in these troubled areas.”

  • Seven paraded for Plateau killings

    Seven additional persons have been arrested by officials of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) in Plateau State in connection to the June 23 attacks in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas.

    The Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. John Agie, who paraded the suspects yesterday at the command headquarters in Jos, said “I came in from Abuja today in continuation of our intelligence gathering and intensive investigation over what happened last month.

    “Our troops are still after the culprits of the June 23 attacks, and this led to the arrest of two suspects – Ibrahim Choji and Ahmadu Ibrahim. These two were part of those who attacked Zongo village on June 23.

    “We also have three other suspects here -Shuaibu Suleman, Buhari Shuaibu, Zakamin Abdulkadri – part of those who attacked Josho village in Bokkos council on July 14.

    “After this parade, we will hand them over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.

    “Meanwhile, our intelligence is working in the villages to fish out these attackers, and as soon as we get them, we will let the public know, and they will be treated according to the law.

    “We have paraded 11 suspects before, and here is another seven; all of them are connected to the attacks. So we have 18 suspects so far.”

    One of the suspects, Ahmadu Ibrahim, denied ever participating in the attacks. He claimed he was arrested while returning from a cattle market in Bukuru.

  • Buhari, CAN, Lalong meet in Aso Rock over Plateau killings, others

    Worried by the incessant killings of Christians in the northern part of the country, the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern States and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, on Thursday met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    They demanded for the review of the country’s security architecture to end incessant killings by suspected herdsmen.

    The Christian leaders also urged President Buhari to ensure the release of the abducted student of Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Leah Sharibu, who was abducted by Boko Haram militants for refusing to denounce her Christian faith.

    According to presentation at the closed doors meeting with the President, the leader of CAN in the 19 Northern States, Rev. Yakubu Pam, said the review of security architecture in the country has become imperative to give the security apparatus a new lease of life and responsiveness to earn the required trust, confidence and support of the general populace.

    He also lamented that the continuous abduction of underage Christian girls who were forcefully converted to Islam and given out for marriage without the consent of their parents, breeds religious disharmony.

    The group therefore urged President Buhari to intensify and speed up actions for the release of girls in captivity, especially Sharibu.

    Pam said: “That the security architecture of the country should be re-visited to give it a new lease of life and responsiveness to earn the required trust, confidence, and support of the general populace.

    “All communities ravaged by the herdsmen violence in the North should be rebuilt and adequate security be put in place to enable displaced persons to return to their homes and means of livelihood

    “The Federal Government should roll out a robust advocacy programme to enlighten the nomadic herders on modern cattle rearing against open grazing and roaming across states and national boundaries.”

    The group also demanded that the federal government should encourage herders to acquire land for cattle ranching across the country as a means of private business investment.

    The group noted that while the federal government under the current administration is celebrating an agricultural revolution, most farmers, especially in the north, can no longer go to their farms due to the sustained attacks by herdsmen.

    CAN urged the government to reconcile its priority by providing the necessary safety for the farmers to go on with their farming activities.

     

     

  • Plateau killings: Senate mulls state police

    The Senate on Tuesday mandated its committee on constitution review to urgently initiate moves for the establishment of state police.

    The senators were piqued by the latest spate of senseless killings in Plateau State and the seeming hopelessness of the security agencies in tackling the violence across many states in the North Central.

    Senator Adamu Aliero, (APC, Kebbi Central) had during a debate, set the stage for the need to establish state police.

    He narrated how one of his aides was burnt to death when he ran into attackers on a Plateau highway.

    Many of the lawmakers agreed with Aliero, as they vehemently rebuffed objection raised by Senator Kabiru Marafa (APC, Zamfara Central) on the matter.

    The debate followed a motion moved by Senator David Jonah Jang (PDP, Plateau South), who condemned the wanton killings of some of his constituents penultimate Sunday.

    Jang lamented what he described as the helplessness of the security agencies, particularly the police in responding to the attacks.

    The former governor, in the motion, said 155 people were killed in the attack carried out by Fulani herdsmen.

    According to him, 98 of the victims were from Mangu local government area of the state.

    He lamented that the attacks went on for several hours without any of the security agencies coming to the rescue of the victims.

    Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, said as long as Nigeria failed to get it right in terms of policing, the senseless killings would continue.

     

  • Plateau killings: 13 suspects in custody – Police

    At least 13 suspects have been arrested for their alleged involvement in killings in some communities in Plateau State.

    The suspects arrested include Biliaminu Abdullahi, Samaila Saleh, Muhammadu Kabiru, Aminu Mohammed,  Alhassan Saidu,  Abubakar Adam, Gazali Isah, Hamza Inusa  Yahuza Yau, Dahiru Ahmed and Friday Musa.

    The police, however, withheld names of two other suspects.

    Exhibits recovered from them include five AK47 rifles and two live cartridges

    Giving an update into the killings in Abuja yesterday, the Force Spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, said the relocation of the DIG in charge of operations and others has yielded positive results.

    The police spokesman also said security situation has improved in the affected communities.

    He said: “It would be recalled that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, visited Plateau State on the 26th June, 2018. While in the state, he assessed the security situation and police deployment.

    “Since his visit, the security situation has improved, peace and normalcy has been restored in the affected areas in the state.

    “The Police Special Investigation Team, comprising the Intelligence Response Team ( IRT), Special Tactical Squad (STS) and Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU) led by Commissioner of Police, IGP Monitoring Unit deployed to Plateau State have commenced investigation and recorded significant progress in getting to the root of the killings of innocent people.”

    He also said the suspects are assisting the police team with useful information in the further investigation into the incident.

     

     

  • Renewed Plateau killings

    When shall government and its security agencies evolve new approaches to halt the insurgency of Fulani herdsmen? This question has once again, been brought to the fore by last week’s massacre of innocent villagers in three local government areas of Plateau State by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

    As typical of such attacks, more than 100 people were killed, many more wounded and properties of inestimable value destroyed. Video clips trending in the social media showed truckloads of those butchered in the most callous and despicable manner. It was a scene of surviving women, children and the aged fleeing their ancestral homes to escape the superior gun power of the herdsmen.

    Curiously, the reaction of the federal government and its security agencies has followed the same predictable fashion of inability to prevent the attacks only to deploy men and ammunitions after much harm has been done. Then, we are treated to condemnations, condolences, excuses and rationalization.

    True to type, the government fingered geographical and economic indices as contributory factors to the herdsmen/farmers clashes. It went further to accuse politicians of taking advantage of the situation. Before now, media aides to President Buhari had on two different occasions also accused politicians of sponsorship of most of the attacks. The allegation however, fits into the hallmark buck-passing and refusal to take responsibility of the government unless they unmask the said politicians.

    Yet, in a statement the presidency released after the Plateau massacre, they said they had information that 100 cattle was rustled by a community in Plateau and some herdsmen killed few hours before the invasion of the villages and the subsequent loss of lives and property.

    By implication, cattle rustling and killing of some herdsmen by the said Plateau community were the immediate causes of the well coordinated attacks and subsequent killings. It was a reprisal onslaught. Sadly, even as the government was fully armed with this information especially given the temperament and antecedents of the herdsmen, it never took pre-emptive security measures to forestall the impending attack.

    At the centre of the latest clashes and killings are alleged acts of criminality by some Berom youths. These criminals allegedly rustled some cattle belonging to the herdsmen and killed some of the herders. Due perhaps, to the inability of security agencies to apprehend the criminals and recover the lost cattle, the herders reorganized and went on revenge attack. Sadly, most of those killed have nothing to do with the alleged criminality of the rogue youths.

    It is the duty of government to fight such criminal tendencies, apprehend the offenders and make them face the full weight of the law. Our laws do not provide for self help in redressing such infractions no matter the level of pains they inflict on the innocent. Three hundred cows for 100 lives; meant for each three cows, one human life has been dispensed with. That shows scant regard we assign to human life. Very sad! What of the injured and properties destroyed?

    The development has opened a new chapter to some of the claims hitherto bandied regarding those responsible for the killings. President Buhari had on a number of occasions sought to absolve the herdsmen of complicity in the killing by making copious references to traditional herdsmen whose only weapons consist of sticks and probably machete to cut foliage to fed their cattle against the ones wielding sophisticated weaponry. At another time, he placed the blame on armed bandits trained in Libya by the late Gaddafi. These excuses also featured during his last visit to US president, Donald Trump.

    But from what we have now been told and public suspicion all along, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria MACBAN, has the capacity to levy war on any community that incurs its wrath. This is more so, as they have well established branches in virtually all the geo-political zones of the country. Whether they are the ones directly doing the killings or some other groups do it on their behalf as has been suggested, they cannot escape culpability. That the killers strike each time herdsmen are aggrieved is at the centre of the accusation that the latter are the masterminds. It should be a big puzzle that apart from the herdsmen, no other group, organization or tribe muzzles the awesome capacity to battle indigenous people in their ancestral homes and escape unhurt.

    Before now, there have been calls for the leadership of that association to be arrested and arraigned for the serial killings by herdsmen. Some have gone further to rightly route for its proscription given the devious technology of the herdsmen to levy war on indigenous populations. Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom had severally pointed accusing fingers at that association as the brain behind the killings and demanded the arrest and prosecution of its leadership to no avail. He had repeatedly told who cared to hear that he knows the sponsors of the killings.

    Fulani herdsmen have also featured regularly in Global Terrorism Index report. It is rated the fourth deadliest terrorist group coming after ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Shabab.  Despite this criminality profile, the government has been ambivalent in admitting the potent danger which their activities pose to the peace, unity and security of this country. What we find has been a curious attempt by the government and its functionaries to rationalize the killings.

    It is however, one thing to rationalize the causative factors for the killings arising from farmers/herders clashes and entirely a different kettle of fish to evolve effective therapeutic responses to stem the scourge. That is where the government has appallingly been serially found wanting, fuelling feelings that it has more than a passing interest in the killings. What interests do such rationalizations serve: stem the tide or escalate the killings?

    Each time the government or its official attributes the clashes to geographical factors, anti-open grazing laws and blocking of grazing routes, the impression is that of justifiable reasons for the clashes. Little wonder the killings have continued. There could be tangential connection between these and the clashes. However, what purpose is there in regurgitating them each time the killings occur instead of focusing on why those killers serially escape the prying eyes of our security agencies?

    That is the key issue. The killers usually come in their hundreds with sophisticated weapons; wreak havoc and disappear without any trace. Yet, they operate in states where indigenous people dominate. How possible is that without some connivance? There must be something in the current security arrangement that allows that to happen. It must be tinkered with to reflect the heterogeneity of the country.

     

     

     

     

  • Women group decry Plateau killings

    The Women and Youths Support Group (WAYS) for Atiku 2019 has decried the Plateau massacre and the Otedola bridge explosion in Lagos, describing it as painful.

    The National President/Global coordinator, Princess Kemi Adesanya-Eboda, commiserated with the bereaved families and called on the government to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

    She hailed President Muhammadu Buhari for visiting Plateau State to assess the situation himself and called for an overhauling of the country’s security apparatus.

    Princess Adesanya-Eboda hailed the Lagos State Police Command; Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC); National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA); Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASAMA) and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) for their gallantry in containing the fire.

    She lamented the escalating clashes between herdsmen and farmers, and opined that the only solution is for Nigerians is to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and support the Presidential bid of Atiku Abubakar for the 2019 presidential election.

  • Plateau killings and APC, PDP spokesmen

    IN their reaction to the killings in about a dozen Plateau State villages between June 23 and 25, during which rampaging herdsmen reportedly killed over 200 people, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared a seven-day mourning period. That declaration, more than anything else that the PDP said through their spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, provoked presidential spokesman Femi Adesina into accusing the opposition party of hypocrisy. To underscore his assertion that the PDP acted mala fide in its response to the killings, Mr Adesina gave a historical account of the killings that took place under the PDP government in its 16 years in office but which did not elicit any declaration of mourning period.

    The PDP mourning period was undoubtedly more political than empathetic, and more melodramatic than poignant. But Mr Adesina’s furious riposte was also clearly misplaced, disproportionate and misconceived. The presidential spokesman in fact feared that his unusual reaction to the PDP’s melodrama could be misinterpreted; why then did he embark on that pointless journey? In his response to the PDP, Mr Adesina recounted the grisly carnage that marked the PDP years in office, from 1999 to 2015, some of the killings actuated by the PDP itself, and others instigated by external forces like the Boko Haram which propagated a twisted version of their religious ideology. The presidential spokesman then wondered why the PDP would now declare a period of mourning when it was not impelled to do so under far more cataclysmic loss of lives in its years in office.

    Mr Adesina should have resisted the urge to respond as he did by citing comparative death statistics. It was sufficient that he castigated the PDP for hypocrisy. But to delve into morbid comparisons as he did, knowing full well it was bound to be misunderstood or even misinterpreted, is hardly the wisest of steps in this period of grave national provocation. More than 200 people are estimated to have lost their lives in the Plateau State killings; any innuendo that diminishes the gravity of that loss, no matter how cursorily, will be deemed by nearly everyone as offensive.

    The presidential spokesman himself knows this. Hear him: “Those who take pleasure in twisting statements from the presidency may claim we are saying that many people were killed under PDP than under President Muhammadu Buhari. It would be unconscionable to do so. The intendment of this statement (the comparative death figures) is to show that wanton killings had been with us for sometime…Every single soul is precious, and no man should take a life which he cannot create. But when tragic situations as had happened in Plateau State occur, such should never be used to play politics. ”

    But it does not require a twisted mind to conclude that the presidency, given the statistics it published, is in fact saying that more people were killed under the previous PDP governments than under the APC government. The statistics Mr Adesina published indicated that simple fact. It does not require any twisting. Predictably, the PDP spokesman, Mr Ologbondiyan, has latched on to that comparison and described it as odious and insensitive, asserting that the APC’s predilection for making “morbid references to past killings” was unhelpful and dishonourable.

    Whether Mr Adesina likes to hear it or not, the APC does in fact have a predilection for indulging in wholesale comparisons, much of it truly befuddling and odious. For the first two years of the Buhari presidency, for instance, the APC kept up a fusillade of comparisons that seemed to paralyse their own government and excuse its lethargy and confusion. It has taken bitter criticisms and objections to force the APC to squarely face the task of governing the country, for, as the critics argued, that was why the former ruling party was rejected at the polls. But for the APC and Mr Adesina, old habits seem to die hard. Whenever they are inspired, the ruling party will still lapse into their default mode.

    After all, last March, President Buhari himself spoke in Jalingo, Taraba State, during one of his unproductive condolence visits, suggesting that the killings in Mambilla, Sardauna local government area of Plateau State, and Zamfara State exceed that of Benue State. He was probably using that statistics to justify the order of his visit, more than anything else. But such comparisons always tended to obfuscate the issues at hand. It bears restating that presidential spokesmen have a responsibility to weigh their words and measure their responses, especially in times of grave national crisis. The APC has been slow in recognising the severity of the existential crisis facing Nigeria, and is therefore a little casual in tackling it with the dispatch and depth the problem requires. The PDP is not the cause of the APC’s lethargy or the muse for their serial misspeaking. Nor are the crises all over the country an indication that both the opposition and critics of the ruling party are intent on undermining President Buhari. The president should get on with the task of ruling, a responsibility he has met with deep aversion for rigour, and grumbling.

  • Plateau killings and herdsmen sophistries

    PRESIDENTIAL spokesmen Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu have made very futile efforts to convince Nigerians that the killings in Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba States are neither religious nor ethnic, but simply a clash between farmers and herdsmen. They angrily insist that the crisis has some political undertones which can be resolved if politicians play politics well and eschew injustice and bigotry. Both spokesmen know that their theories have not convinced anyone. Furthermore, they know that their theories are at variance with those of other top government officials, including the president himself, the Defence minister, the Agriculture minister, Army chief, and the Police Inspector General, some of whom have spoken either derisively of Benue’s and Taraba’s anti-open grazing laws or with an air of summary defeatism about porous borders and influx of foreign arms and mercenaries.

    It is fair to say that the Buhari presidency has neither a unified understanding of the crisis nor, understandably, a coherent solution. It is, therefore, doomed to contradict itself, pussyfoot or engage in handwringing. Indeed, after the recent massacre of more than 200 people in the Barkin Ladi local government area of Plateau State, the president has spoken astonishingly of putting pressure on his security chiefs, with whom, on at least one occasion, he had met for over five hours, and calling for prayers, assured that his call would connect with the futile religiosity of Nigerians. It took long for many analysts to acknowledge that herdsmen were behind most of the attacks. The government and its military had tried to sell the idea that some agent provocateurs, some of them Christian mercenaries, were to blame. They have also tried to insist that politicians and all sorts of sponsors and indigenous ethnic champions were behind the attacks.

    Indeed, the more herdsmen associations claim responsibility for the attacks, sometimes providing the immediate causes for the killings, the more the government has sought explanations elsewhere. There are grazing land pressures, they argue, without providing an answer for why that must inevitably end in destruction of farmlands. There is climate change crisis, without suggesting what long-term solutions the government intends to apply to mitigate its effect. All they insisted on at first was that farming communities must host herdsmen, open grazing routes, and establish ranches. The impracticability of their suggestions does not strike them. And for a long time, no one in government acknowledged that lands were being seized by herdsmen. But Benue and Plateau chiefs have now given a list of communities forcibly taken over by the herdsmen. And finally, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has obliquely acknowledged that such expropriated lands would be returned.

    Plateau does not have a law banning open grazing, and so too Nasarawa. But both have been subjected to horrendous attacks, like Benue, Kaduna and Taraba. To justify the attacks, herdsmen associations have complained of cattle rustling and killing of herdsmen. However, they have not been able to defend why they must inflict reprisals on the innocent, or show that their victims got their just dessert.

    But perhaps the most shocking thing about the attacks is the reaction of the president and his security team. The president talks of putting pressure on his security chiefs, while governors suggest that he replace them. The president is not persuaded that the insularity of his team is a problem. Even worse, he has persuaded only a few Nigerians that he does not see Nigeria’s problem from the prism of his ethnic stock, an allegation he tried to dampen by joking about his ethnicity during his condolence visit to Jos. Sadly, his tame reaction to the killings has virtually negated the enthusiasm and lift his party got from staging a successful convention. Even the MKO Abiola and June 12 honours have diminished in importance and value.

    Rampaging herdsmen see themselves besieged, fearful that they could be subjugated or even ‘cleansed’ from Nigeria. President Buhari who should wisely address these legitimate fears and peer into the future by enunciating and implementing modern cattle breeding and dairy farming practices to eliminate conflict and obviate the need for more grazing lands, has unfortunately been paralysed by his own fears and confused loyalties. If he does not turn things around in the next three to four months, if he cannot show convincingly that he is first and foremost a Nigerian and a president who must protect everyone without fear or favour, his presidency may be irretrievably lost. Neither his rejuvenated party, nor the June 12 honours, nor a belated general or kitchen cabinet reshuffle, nor yet any sweet words he might say would deflect the electoral cataclysm bearing down on him.