All the stakeholders should stand united behind the peace deals
In the aftermath of recent gruesome attacks highlighting renewed insecurity in Plateau State, dozens of persons from 10 communities in Kanam and Wase local councils were on Monday buried in a mass grave. Some gunmen riding on motorbikes and wielding sophisticated weapons had earlier invaded the communities, shooting sporadically, killing, and setting alight homes. We commiserate with the families that have now been thrown into mourning and wish speedy recovery for the injured. We also condemn in the strongest terms this bestiality. And since the sanctity of life means nothing to these blood-thirsty criminals, no effort should be spared in tracking them down and bringing an end to their madness.
While the Kanam attack was perhaps the worst since the beginning of the year, Plateau State – which prides itself as the ‘Home of Peace and Tourism’ – has for long been fittingly described as the home of violence. The latest attack has created a huge humanitarian crisis in the communities. More than 5000 people are reportedly currently rendered homeless. “It is devastating,” said Dayabu Garga, chairman of the Kanam local council. “These people require at least protection. First and foremost, we need to have security outposts, either MOPOL or Army, because if we don’t stop who is going into the forests, there will be more attacks in the future.”
For more than 20 years, sporadic killings have become a recurring staple, almost crippling the state’s once thriving economy that is boosted by temperate climate and tourism. The violence is often traced to issues ranging from fights over indigeneship to clashes between farmers and herders over access to land. Last August, about 90 travellers who attended an annual prayer session of the Islamic New Year were waylaid and attacked by persons described by the police as ‘suspected Irigwe militants and their sympathisers’. The body count was 27 dead. Besides, some 35 persons were killed in Yelwa Zangam, which prompted mourners to take the corpse of a deceased to the State House of Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Miango district of Bassa local government has become a graveyard of sorts. Only last January, some gunmen killed 15 in an attack on Ancha village, the third in 2022. Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong described the incident as ‘another sad tale in the unending cycle of violent attacks’ in the area despite several measures taken by the government to tackle it. President Muhammadu Buhari who made some feeble statement at the time has merely now just asked everyone to “expose the perpetrators of such incidents, their sponsors and those who encourage such criminals who carry out these dastardly acts of murder, so that the law will take its course.”
What is particularly worrying is that because of these incessant communal conflicts, many communities across the country are self-arming either to protect themselves or for reprisal attacks as bloody battles for supremacy and for the control of land become increasingly alarming. It is one other repercussion of a growing culture of elite indifference to a scourge that has become a vicious cycle. Yet we are ready to spend more money to investigate what we already know, buy more guns to fight what we caused and yet do nothing scientific to engage the problem.
Hence the culture of impunity persists because the relevant security agencies have not succeeded in apprehending the entrepreneurs of violence to bring them to justice. There are several questions begging for answers: Why has there been no successful prosecution of anybody involved in this orgy of violence and bloodletting? Also, both the federal and the state governments have, at different times, established judicial commissions and administrative panels of enquiry to investigate these killings: what are their findings and recommendations? What actions have been taken on the reports? Our inexplicable tin ear to the increasing carnage in the land – by moving on unperturbed – is fast depicting us as a people who place little premium on human lives. Yet when such bestiality becomes a way of life, as it is now in Plateau State and many other centres across Nigeria, those who kill would want to recreate the scenes more often almost like any addict who goes on the high by reliving his addiction. That today is the tragedy of our nation.