It is dangerous for the Nigerian government to give the impression that
the fratricidal violence within the Plateau-Taraba-Benue area has
officially gone out of control, writes Vincent Obia
It is a tragedy that the incidents reported in parts of Plateau and
Taraba states last week can still take place in a modern society
governed under laws. According to the reports, about 100 people were
killed in the two states in separate clashes between penultimate
Saturday and Monday.
Seventy of the deaths were said to have occurred in Karim Lamido and
Takum local government areas of Taraba State, while 30 people were
killed in two villages – Vat and Zakupang – in Barkin Ladi Local
Government Area of Plateau State. Fulani herdsmen, reportedly, invaded
Vat and Zakupang, and killed a pastor, Luka Gwom of the Church of Christ
in Nation, and 29 others in the early hours of Monday.
Just before the Monday incidents, three Taroh communities in Plateau
State were invaded on Saturday by soldiers believed to be on a reprisal
mission following the alleged killing of their colleagues by unknown
attackers. The soldiers, reports said, arrived Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata
in about 40 vehicles after news of the alleged killing of six of their
colleagues at Angwan Nanmi in Karim Lamido Local Government Area of
Taraba State broke. Locals said about 40 people were killed in the
attack, but the military put the figure at 28.
Spokesman for the military Special Task Force in Plateau State, Ikedichi Iweha, confirmed the incidents.
Iweha said in Jos that Fulani herdsmen had launched the bloody attacks
on Barkin Ladi following an alleged theft of about 400 of their cows,
more than 300 of which were later found and returned to their owners.
The cows, according to him, had been stolen in Jos East Local Government
Area and taken to Barakin Ladi.
On the incident in the Taroh communities, Iweha said 28 people were
killed, but the traditional ruler of Kadarko, Lot Nde, said it was 39
dead. The STF spokesman said soldiers from the 3 Armoured Division and
STF launched an operation to flush out militias who had been terrorising
people along the Plateau -Taraba border. He stressed that an armoury
used by the militiamen was destroyed in Kadarko.
If the military operation had focused on neutralising the murderous
militia stronghold, it certainly would have attracted commendation from
the communities in the area, who equally live under the constant fear of
groups like the one that attacked and killed six soldiers. The outrage
the operation by the military has caused is a clear indication that the
soldiers did not go to defend the communities and flush out the
criminals, but they went to take vengeance on innocent communities. It
appears the soldiers who went to Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata were given
orders to shoot as soon as they saw somebody.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights,
Beni Lar, condemned the military invasion of the Taroh communities,
calling it a crime against humanity. The Nigerian military and the
police have become notorious for such bloody reprisals.
The killings by the military in Plateau State are a chilling reminder
of the Zaki Biam carnage in Benue State in October 2001 in which more
than 100 people were killed. It also reminds the country of the Odi
massacre in Bayelsa State on November 20, 1999 in which nearly 2, 500
people were killed, according to the executive director of Environmental
Rights Action, Nnimmo Bassey. It reminds Nigerians of the Umechem
massacre in Rivers State on October 31, 1990 in which nearly 100 people
died. In Zaki Biam, the soldiers had attacked to avenge the alleged
killing of 19 of their colleagues by some unknown locals, while the
death of 12 policemen at the hands of some local militia had triggered
the Odi incident. In Umuechem, men of the Police Mobile Force, who
launched the bloody attack on the community, were said to have been
enraged by the killing of three of their colleagues.
In all the above incidents, innocent locals who never had a hand in the
actions being so callously avenged, and who in fact were equally
victims of the same groups that allegedly killed the security agents,
bore the brunt of the vengeance missions. The Nigerian military and the
police acted like an occupation force against the very citizens they
were paid to defend and protect. This is sad.
It is even sadder when considered against the backdrop of the virtually
unchallenged attacks by gunmen on communities supposedly being defended
by the military. If the military had pursued the bandits that have been
perpetrating all manners of bloody crimes in Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa,
and Taraba states all these years with the same ferocity with which they
attacked Kadarko, Kurmi and Wadata in the alleged search for persons
who killed six soldiers, certainly, criminalities like the Fulani
herdsmen massacre in Vat and Zakupang on the flimsy excuse of cow theft
would not be a daily affair.
The federal government must act fast to bring soldiers who killed the
innocent natives in Plateau State to justice. The government must
demonstrate capacity to protect lives and property. The rising incidence
of fratricidal violence and bloody military vengeance against
communities have the dangerous repercussion of encouraging self-help.
The ultimate end result is a society akin to the Hobbesian state of
nature, where life is nasty, brutish, and short.