SENATORS rose yesterday in unison to seek a sustainable solution to the insecurity in some parts of the country.
The upper chamber, which devoted its entire plenary to debating a motion on “recent attacks and killings in Plateau, Benue, Kaduna and other parts of Central Nigeria”, resolved that steps should be taken to address urgently the insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
The lawmakers are afraid that the growing insurgency in parts of the country may be a signal that Nigeria is on the verge of disintegration.
A bleak future, they said, awaits the country, if nothing is done – urgently too – to address the spreading virus of insurgency.
For the senators, the American think-tank prediction about the possibility of Nigeria disintegrating in 2015 must not be allowed to happen.
The Senate mandated its Committees on Security and Intelligence, Defence and Army, Interior and Police Affairs to undertake a fact finding mission to the affected areas and report back to it.
The lawmakers also resolved to condemn “the incessant killings occasioned by the simultaneous multiple attacks on communities and villages”. They observed a minute silence in memory of the deceased.
Two prayers were, however, rejected. Thye are that the allegations of complicity by security should be probed and that the President set up a committee to look into the root cause of the sudden widespread attacks in the Middle Belt.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, noted that the emerging insecurity required effective measures to tackle. “If we decentralise the police we may be able to deal with problems of insecurity,” he said.
The touchy motion was sponsored by Senators Barnabas Gemade (Benue North East), George Akume (Benue North West), Gyang Jwajok (Plateau North), Joshua Dariye (Plateau Central), Victor Lar (Plateau South) and Nenadi Usman (Kaduna South).
Gemade, who led the debate, noted with dismay ‘how human life has become increasingly very cheap and impunity has become the norm in Nigeria, particularly in the case of the Northcentral and Northeastern geo-political zones.
Gemade is worried that the unhealthy situation is further degenerating to a point in which “we can clearly say that we are in the middle of a civil war with multiple ill defined fronts and worse still the perpetrators are often presented as faceless “unknown gunmen” “Boko Haram” or, in some instances, “Fulani herdsmen” in “conflict” with “farmers” and victims on the Plateau, in Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Borno, Adamawa, Yobe states and other parts of Nigeria;”
He noted that in Plateau State, between May 29, 2011 and January 31, 2012 alone there were 1,131 deaths reported.
“The relative peace and calm that had returned to the state for several months based on the collective resolve of the people to sustain the peace was sadly interrupted on Tuesday 26th of November 2013, by simultaneous multiple attacks on four communities and villages of Tatu, Rawuru, Bok and Dorang, leaving 45 people dead including a family of seven -father, mother and five children – apart from the fact that most of the poor victims are infants, children and women,” he said.
Gemade added: “Aware that these well planned and organized simultaneous attacks professionally unleashed on vulnerable villages came less than 48 hours after the Governor of Plateau State Dr. Jonah David Jang publicly raised an alarm over the plot to attack the State beginning with the 2013 Christmas season and as a result these incidents cannot really be said to be as a result of total intelligence failure.
“Further aware that these serial attacks have persisted in the last two months, covering parts of Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos South, Mangu, Bokkos, Wase and Shendam local government areas of Plateau State with massive destruction of lives on an average five persons per day and properties worth hundreds of billions of Naira comparable to the civil war years.”
The senator went on, listing attacks and casualties. He said: “Notes that between the 21s* of May 2013 – 6th of March 2014, villages such as Kuka, Magama, Karkashi, Bua, Baracks, Riwam Doka, Timshab amd Yamu in Plateau South Senatorial Constituency came under vicious attacks with massive destruction of lives and property worth billions of naira;
“Deeply disturbed that these attacks also took place on 5th of January 2014 at Shonong Village of Bachi District, the same area where Senator Dalyop Gyang Dantong lost his life in Riyom Local Government Area. 34 persons reportedly lost their lives and 13 injured.
“Worried that similar attacks were carried around 1:00 am on Thursday February 20, 2014 at Rapyem Village of Barkin Ladi Local Government area in which 13 people were killed, including nine children and on Friday 21 at Rakok, Razat and no fewer than 29 people were also killed by gunmen on 22nd February 2014 on border villages of Rakong near Kafi Abu between Barkin Ladi and Bokkos Local Government. 16 people including a 70-year-old, women and children, were also brutally killed and 91 houses razed down in Wereng-Rim village of Riyom Local Government Area at about 5 pm on the 4th of March 2014;
“Equally worried that in Kaduna State, it has been rough for the people of Maroa and attakad communities of Kaura Local Government Area and bordering Plateau State, as no fewer than 40 people were killed in two separate raids in which a soldier and a policeman were also slain. The daring raid of 3rd of February 2014 brought the total number of such invasions to 11 with about 100 deaths at least five villages in Mayit, Kirim, Danti, Zangang razed down and over 10,000 people displaced. At least no fewer than 114 villagers were killed in the night of Friday, March 14, 2014 when heavily armed men entered three villages of Ugwar Sankwai, Ugwan Gata and Chenshyi of Kaduna State gunning down residents burning down all the houses in sight.”
Gemade told the Senate that survivors and eye witnesses’ testimonies repeatedly raised allegations of duplicity or dereliction of duty by “bad eggs” within the security circles and doubts as to the capacity of the agencies to provide security.
He said in Benue State incessant attacks were carried out on communities in Guma, Gwer West, Makurdi, Agatu, Kwande, Logo and Katsina Ala Local Government Areas.
He said: “In Ndzorov Ward of Guma Local Government Area, 21 reported deaths and N3bn worth of property were destroyed in villages, such as Ahor Akuroko, Tse Akaahena, Tse Ormeagh, Tse Jija, Tse Bako and Tse Iorhon.
“Also that in Mbagwa and Nyiev wards, 44 people were killed and over N5bn worth of property destroyed in Tse Kyuer, Tse Agbe, Yogbo, Tse Kulayemen, Tse Ama, Kpanye, Agela, Uhembe Ikpev, Agahar, Gbor Gyo Ubii, Hule Zem, Shan Avungu, Bern Walu Shange, Akor, Gbayange, Chenge, and Ahoile.”
Gemade is disturbed that even more ferocious attacks were launched in the following villages in Gwer West Local Government: Sengev, Gbenda, Tongov, Tyouhater, Injaha, Nyamshi, with a death toll of 88 people and over Nlbillion worth of property destroyed. The most recent attacks in Gwer West and Guma Local Government Areas also occurred on February 20th and 21st 2014 and left over 30 people dead, including a 70-year-old woman and an estimated 100,000 people sacked and displaced while the personal house of paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, Dr Akawe Torkwula, was burnt down at Tse Torkwula.”
In Agatu Local Government invasion, dozens were also killed and thousands displaced in the following villages: Okoloko, Ocholonya, Inminyi, Adana, Olejeje, Inoli, Olegoga, Olegada, Pate, Olegigeni, Ochelefu Icho, Igagishu, Olegodege, Okpanchenyi Ekwo, Warri, Ikpele, Ogwumogbo, Ogbai, Okpokpolo and Olegadakele where 83 people were killed and over N500 million property destroyed;
Gemade cited Makurdi Local Government where, he said, 70 people were killed and thousands displaced. The following villages were affected: Tye Gido, Tye Takyi, Tye Cha, Tye Tongu, Tye Anjua, Tye Azongu, Tye Ayele, Tye Ayagwa, Tye Akordam, Tye Kyase, Tye Agan, Tye Mue, Tye Kyev, Tye Tingiv, Tye Mzo, Tye Jime, Tse Adinya, Tes Akenabo, Tse Akaa, Tse Tatyongh, Tse Ajahar, Tse Madugu, Tse Nyon, Tse Kudi, Tse Akaa, and Tse Adai.
Kwande and Katsina Ala villages were also attacked over N2billion property destroyed.
Also, Tyobibi-Gbetim, Anybe-Azge, Genyi, Dwem, Awashua, Tse-Nyaki and Anyiin in Logo Local Government Area. Jato Aka, Yaase, Waya and Inyamate in Kwande Local Government Area as well as Sai and other communities in Yooyo Ward of Katsina Ala Local Government Area were attacked.
Gemade noted that “these late night guerrilla style attacks and daylight mass killings of people, sometimes not directly involved in any form of conflict, have become the hallmark of organised and specialised terror or killer groups with the resultant effect of destabilising the states and stifling the people’s determination to shun violence, embrace and trust one another towards ensuring sustainable peace and collective security.
In his view, “anxiety, fed by what are now incidences of serial night killings and daylight mass attacks bordering on war crimes is approaching a panic loss of confidence in the federal security regime.
Federalised policing under a unitary command may have made sense under military regimes in the past, but it is hardly the best in the prevailing situation of insecurity, with the increasing volume of grassroots crimes and attacks on the nation’s defenceless rural communities,” said the senator.
Gemade raised the looming prospects of potential famine, “if drastic steps are not taken to put a stop to these attacks and return the displaced persons to their homes so they can tend to their farmlands”.
Ekweremadu, who summed up senators’ contributions, said: “If we have devoted the whole day as we have done now to dealing with the issue of insecurity in Nigeria, we are living up to the expectation of the ordinary people of Nigeria, for us to show concern for the general insecurity in the country.”
“So I do believe that a country as big as Nigeria needs effective security. Just as have been mentioned, it would be difficult for us to afford effective security if we continue to use the type of policing we have in Nigeria presently.
“We run a federal system of government and it is completely unacceptable in a federal system for us to have a federal system and for us to also have a centralised police.
“Policemen are not magicians. There is no way a policeman can stay in one kilometer and know when a crime is being committed in another kilometer.
“We must be able to provide sufficient police personnel that should at least be one policeman per hundred meters away.
“This can only be achieved if we decentralise our police, ensuring that we have state police and possibly local police that is well coordinated and regulated. We had problem in the past in this area because they were not well regulated and they were not coordinated.
“I think time has come for us to reflect on this and see how we can provide efficient security for our people.
“Our police, as it is now need to be more trained and then they will be able to ensure that the laws are enforced, no matter who is involved.”
Ekweremadu went on: “If we do some of these and all that we have said here, I am sure that we would be able to recover our country from the doomsday that is being predicted. But I believe, as said by Senator Thompson Sekibo, that we can overcome this challenge and be stronger again as a country.”
Other Senators who contributed to the motion include Victor Lar, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Abdul Ningi, Kabiru Marafa, Zainab Kure, Solomon Ewuga, Pwajok, Abu Ibrahim, Suleiman Adokwe, Babafemi Ojudu and Mohammed Magoro.
