WE HAVE WALKED THIS path before as a nation. That was in 2014. Twelve years after, we are back on the same road, and the bone of contention is similar. Mass abduction! Were over 150 persons abducted in Kajuru in Kaduna State on Sunday? Christian leaders in the state are claiming that they were. They put the figure at 172. Nine were said to have escaped, leaving 163 in captivity. The government and the police refuted the claim.
It is 2014 all over again, yet the 2026 case is eerily odd. The story is being hotly contested by the government and the police. You will say that also happened in 2014. That year in a government girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, some 274 pupils were whisked away in the dead of the night. The school and the community raised the alarm. They looked up to the government for help to get the girls back. Rather than act swiftly, Abuja footdragged. How can 274 girls be roused from sleep and carted away like that when they are not sheep? Some officials were said to have asked, as they made light of the issue.
But it was not a joke. The abduction was real and the reality only dawned on the powers that be two weeks later. By then, it was too late to get the girls back intact. They had been distributed like chattels to the different cells of the Boko Haram Islamic Sect that abducted them. As a nation, till today, we rue the missed opportunity to rescue those girls intact at the earliest possible time. We are still haunted by the image of Leah Sharibu, one of the girls who defied the abductors and has remained with them ever since. One only hopes that the same scenario is not now playing out in Kaduna!
It is now four days that the abductees were said to have been seized from three churches in Kurmin Wali in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Media reports said the incidents took place simultaneously. Some said the affected worship places were a Catholic and two Cherubim and Seraphim (C & S) Churches. Yet, some said they were an ECWA and two C & S Churches. Late on Wednesday, the Force Headquarters confirmed the affected places were a Catholic, an ECWA and a C & S Churches. From the reports, the assailants were said to have stormed the churches in large numbers, encircled the worshippers and marched them in one single file into nearby forests.
This is a serious matter which should be handled with the utmost sense of urgency and care that it deserves. Our worship places and schools, no matter how remotely located they are, should not be allowed to become easy targets for kidnappers to go to at will and pack as many people as they wish. Unfortunately, these places and schools have become human fishing grounds for these marauders. They operate with impunity, and in most cases, they enjoy the cooperation of the locals, who out of fear and at times, pecuniary gains, have no choice but to do their bidding.
Unwittingly, such people have emboldened these criminals by becoming accessories to the fact. From the look of things, what happened in Kurmin Wali four days ago is gradually unfolding. Why did the police and the government initially say there were no abductions, contrary to the claims of the Christian leaders? Rather than dispute the claim, the police should have dug deeper before talking. It reacted hastily without first discharging its primary function of investigating the claim.
It would have cost the police nothing to say that the matter was under investigation and that the public would be briefed on developments. These are challenging times for the country and our security agencies must be seen to be up and doing and proactive.
We are in the firing line, so to say. In the wake of Donald Trump’s claim of “Christian genocide” in Nigeria for which he came ‘gun-a-blazing’ last Christmas eve to take out the terrorists behind these killings, our security agencies, especially the police, must be careful how they react to terror attacks and other related incidents. They cannot afford to do anything that would make them to look partial or lead to their being accused of a cover up.
Their job is to detect crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. They cannot do it alone. They need the support of the people. So, when the Kajuru incident happened, the police should have held back a little considering that the crime scene was in a remote community. In such a situation, they should not rely on one or two sources to draw their conclusions, they should have reached out to as many people as possible, including the common man on the street, who might have seen or heard something about the incidents.
This should serve as a lesson to the police and the government. They should not be too hasty to take only what they consider as ‘good infoŕmation’ to reach conclusions on matters. They should look at the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ as well and sieve them to determine the truth before talking. On what information did the Commissioner of Police Muhammad Rabiu, Kajuru Local Government Chairman Dauda Madaki, and Internal Security and Home Affairs Commissioner Sule Shaibu base their claim that there were no abductions in Kurmin Wali last Sunday?
Did they subject the information to any proof before running with it? It only shows that all they were interested in is that there was no such incident so that they can rush back to the governor and gush, “your excellency, all is calm. There is no cause for alarm”. There was cause for alarm and Governor Uba Sani deserves to know the truth so that all his efforts to enthrone peace in Southern Kaduna and every part of the state do not come to nought.
Just as the respected leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and Abuja, Reverend Joseph Hayab, said in the heat of the row over whether the incidents happened or not, the governor has been working tirelessly to ensure law and order, but that is not to say that something that happened should be swept under the carpet. It is not what the government and the police want to hear that matters, it is what happened that is relevant. Were people kidnapped in Kajuru? Yes, the police finally admitted. So, why was it initially hard to tell the governor the truth so that he can mobilise resources for the abductees’ swift rescue?
Hiding such truth from those in power does not amount to helping them. It further alienates them from the governed who know no other person than the leader and call him out for all actions and inactions, even though he may not know about them. This is the danger of hiding the truth from a leader. The security agencies and the close aides of governors shouod know this and learn from the Kajuru incident that it is better to say the truth than hide it. Contrary to their thinking, this is not political correctness; it is political harakiri.
The person who bears the brunt at the end of the day is the leader, not the police and his aides. Let security agencies and political appointees help leaders by telling them the truth about happenings in the country, no matter how bad things may be, and leave them to take the decisions they deem fit. A leader is a captain, and there can only be one captain in a ship.
