The Continuing Human Tragedy in the Middle Belt

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.