It’s Time to Arrest the Killings

The Advocate

By Onikepo Braithwaite

Onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive.com

The violence and insecurity that appear to have enveloped Nigeria are multi-faceted, and even if the different scenarios may be driven by different reasons, it is obvious that in some parts of the country like the South East and North East, they have experienced considerable amounts of terrorism, while in areas such as Benue Plateau, even if it could have begun as clashes between herders and farmers, their circumstances appear to have long since escalated to unprovoked attacks and massacres, even considered by many as genocide against the people of Benue Plateau. Some have also accused foreign nationals in cahoots with some unscrupulous Nigerians, such as Chinese nationals involved in plundering Nigeria’s land and engaging in illegal mining (for instance, in 2023, 13 Chinese nationals were arrested in Ilorin for illegal mining in almost all the 16 local government areas of Kwara State), as being sponsors of violence against Nigerians, in order to displace indigenes and have a free run of the areas they are plundering. Also see the case of the explosion that occurred in Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State in January 2024, as a result of a Malian storing explosives used for illegal mining in his house located in Bodija, a high brow residential area in Ibadan. 

Terrorism and Genocide

Though they are both heinous, there is a difference between terrorism and genocide. Terrorism concerns non-State actors hitting certain targets, not just to impose their warped ideology on the State and the people, but to intimidate and instil fear in them. See Sections 1 & 2 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 (TPPA). See Musa Abdulmumuni v FRN (2017) LPELR-43726 (SC) per Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun, JSC (now CJN) on the definition of terrorism; Nnamdi Kanu’s cases – FHC/ABJ/CR/ 383/2015 & CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022. So, for instance, Boko Haram unleashing a suicide bomber in the market place in Maiduguri, and bombing in Kano, or kidnapping the Chibok Girls possibly to intimidate parents into not sending their children, let alone daughters to school, because they claim that Western education is prohibited in Islam; or IPOB/ESN bombing State facilities such as Police Stations (State symbols of authority and law enforcement) and forcing Monday sit-at-homes for the people of the South East, are all acts of terrorism. See Musa Abdulmumuni v FRN (Supra); Simon Ekpa’s case in Finland bordering on incitement of terrorism online and participating in a terrorist group. 

Genocide, on the other hand, involves the intentional, organised killing of a particular group of people to annihilate/destroy them, whether race, ethnic group and so on. Sometimes the genocide may be State-sponsored, or Government may be aware of it and stand by/condone it while it happens. See the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia groups when the Government populated by Hutu extremists, was led by Hutu President Habyarimana. 

Just over a week ago, gunmen alleged to be Herders murdered about 200 people in Yelwata, Guma LGA, Benue State, even setting fire to bodies in a marketplace where people had taken refuge. For many years now, violent Herders or Herders-so-called have attacked farming communities and killed, raped and maimed innocent people, including children, and the Nigerian Government has looked away, calling it Farmers-Herders crisis, pretending that it was a case of two fighting, when it had become clear that, even if the attackers were real Herders, most times there was no provocation by anybody; they were trespassing on people’s farms with gusto and aplomb to graze their livestock, and attacking and killing innocent Farmers for good measure! The systematic killing of farmers to take over their farms for grazing cattle, is also an example of genocide. In 2015, when Chief Olu Falae was kidnapped by about 7 Fulani Herdsmen who were convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Ondo State High Court, was it because of Farmer-Herder crisis? No! Subsequently, Fulani Herdsmen attacked Chief Falae’s farm again, and killed his staff.

The truth of the matter is that those responsible for these horrible crimes are a mixed bag – some Herders, maybe some Farmers, some outright criminals, some Nigerians, some foreigners. The most important thing is stopping them, whoever they are. 

President Tinubu, the Tor Tiv and the Townhall Meeting

I am pleased that, unlike his predecessor, President Bola Tinubu realises what the primary purpose of government is – the security and welfare of all Nigerians – see Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended)(the Constitution) and Tanko v State (2009) LPELR-3136(SC) per Pius Olayiwola Aderemi, JSC on the primary purpose of government. 

It is good that President Tinubu visited Benue State personally, saw some of the survivors of the violent attack of June 15 in the hospital, particularly the innocent children, and was part of a fact-finding townhall meeting. I am also happy that during this meeting, HRM, the Tor Tiv, Professor Ortese Ayatse, told it as it is directly to President Tinubu – that what has been happening in Benue State “is not Herders-Farmers or communal clashes, nor reprisal attacks, but a calculated, well planned, and full-scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing campaign by Herder-Terrorists and Bandits”. This is what immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasiru El-Eufai, who stated that he himself is 87.5% Fulani, had to say in a 2016 Channels TV interview: “Cattle rustling and banditry is an essentially Fulani phenomenon. It is Fulanis, and we know where they were….Today, we have over 300 young Fulanis between age 18 and 30 in custody, for kidnapping, cattle rustling and robbery….This problem has multiple dimensions….To a large extent, we degraded cattle rustling; they moved on to kidnapping……”. 

Stopping the Killings

Beyond President Tinubu’s visit to Benue which was a good step in the right direction, the next step that Government must necessarily take, is to stop the wanton killings – shi ke nan. Manipulating the narratives to try to be politically correct or to secure votes in some quarters, is ruining the country, and we can no longer continue like this. 

I believe that without saying so, President Tinubu is more or less declaring a state of emergency with regard to Nigeria’s security. See Section 305(3) of the Constitution. Declaration of a state of emergency allows for a limited suspension of some constitutional rights, if need be. While the endless debate  on the establishment of State Police/State law enforcement apparatus rages on, Government can no longer fold its arms while the security situation in the country continues to deteriorate because its initiative to immediately try to curb insecurity may appear to be more of Unitarianism than Federalism. Section 5(1)(b) of the Constitution empowers the President to take measures to execute and maintain the Constitution, including Section 14(2)(b) thereof – security. For example, whether or not the Forest Guard is a Federal initiative to man State Forests, it is urgently required in the interest of public safety, as criminals have turned Nigerian forests into havens of criminality, not just being the place where kidnap victims are held, but using the forests as their residence and command post, from where they commit all kinds of atrocities. 

Some of the issues that have been raised against State Police are not trivial – that the Governors, who, even without State Police, are more like mini-Emperors and accountable to no one, will become uncontrollable when they have a State Police Force to command. That they may use them as their own personal militia against the people (this is the accusation against Katsina State Hisbah), their opponents or even the Federal Government, particularly if the Governors are able to form themselves into a group and combine their Forces. 

Another argument is that, it may be dangerous to establish State Police because of lack of adequate funding. How will Governors, who have mostly argued that they do not have enough funds to run their States and are fond of owing civil servants salaries, sometimes even for years, pay their State Police? Like former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, who, for example, through his first term as Governor, owed salaries for almost the whole four year period – when you arm people and don’t pay their salaries, they can easily become armed robbers or resort to other criminal activities to make ends meet! A suggestion to surmount this problem, is that many State Civil Services can be pruned, while some staff may be reassigned to State Police, without increasing the State wage bill. In the meantime, while the 26 year old or more debate on State Police continues, the Nigeria Police Force must undertake mass recruitment of personnel as a matter of urgency, ensuring that the new intakes are local to each State.

It is also necessary, to physically secure some of Nigeria’s vast and porous borders. If President Trump’s wall-building initiative may be too expensive to adopt everywhere, walls call be built at the more troubled borders, while deep trenches which may be cheaper in cost to create  can be dug. This will stop pedestrian crossings by foreign Herders and criminals, into Nigeria.  The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has also spoken about the deployment of technology to man our porous borders. 

Most importantly, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Olufemi Oluyede, alluded to the fact that there are moles within the ranks of the military colluding with these criminals, to assist them in their dastardly activities and to help them avoid detection. I have always advocated for the use of foreign military contractors who are paid to render their services, to assist Nigeria in her fight against insecurity, not because our Forces lack the capacity to tackle insecurity head on, but because our security agencies are overstretched, compromised and riddled with moles. No matter how effective and efficient an agency may be, no matter how excellent a plan may be, once it is leaked out to the enemy, it will be frustrated; it will fail. I recall narrating the 2011/2012 story of two men, British and Italian, who worked for a Construction Company, and were kidnapped in Kebbi State. The rescue mission planned by their governments failed, because it was alleged once the Nigerian Government was involved, moles within the Nigerian security agencies leaked out secret information to their kidnappers, and they were killed by their captors before they could be saved. These days it appears that when such rescue operations are carried out by foreign governments, they are done without the knowledge of our people to avoid frustration or failure. 

Conclusion 

The Nigerian Government has its work cut out for it, whether it’s to secure Benue Plateau or the whole of Nigeria. President Tinubu has seen and heard first-hand, what the people of Benue are experiencing in the hands of these criminals. For one, the people cannot continue to be left as sitting ducks, particularly in remote villages, completely unprotected, waiting for the next massacre to occur. There needs to be a mass deployment of armed law enforcement agents, especially to vulnerable areas like Benue Plateau, to protect the people. What is the use of law enforcement rushing to the scene of an attack after the fact? They must be proactive and preemptive.

The Tor Tiv has explained that one reason for the genocide, is land grabbing. This can only be curtailed by policy reforms and dealing with perpetrators harshly, to the fullest extent of the law when they apprehended, instead of making excuses for them, by shifting the blame onto largely innocent parties in order to protect wrongdoers and not to offend the sensibilities of some people. It is also unacceptable for people to be equated with livestock. This lackadaisical or nonchalant approach which has hitherto been used by successive Governments, if anything, has only emboldened perpetrators and spread the cancer. It’s time to stop it.