If you are not outraged at the unprovoked killings of over 150 persons, including women and children, by terrorists who attacked communities in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi local government areas of Plateau State, then something is fundamentally wrong with your humanity.
It was black Christmas for residents of these villages and others on the Plateau. At a time that residents of these predominantly Christian communities ought to be celebrating, families have been thrown into mourning by these marauders who, for all intent and purposes, kill for fun.
Although different figures are being bandied about as death toll, the chairman of Bokkos LGA, Monday Kassa and his Barkin Ladi counterpart, Danjuma Dakil put the death toll at 155 comprising 125 and 30 from Bokkos and Barkin Ladi respectively. In fact, Kassa described the massacre as a “well-coordinated attacks” that swept across no fewer than 20 different communities. The latest killing is undoubtedly the worst since the massacre in May this year which, according to reports, was occasioned by farmers-herders’ clash.
Recurring killings
How come Plateau, like Zamfara and other states in the North West, has continued to witness recurring killings by terror elements who rarely get caught, let alone face prosecution?
In May this year, more than 100 persons were brutally murdered with villages razed down by these killers during an attack on communities in Mangu local government area of Plateau state.
Killings on the Plateau, which has been raging for over a decade, have continued to assume a worrying dimension. A report by a human rights organisation, Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation noted that between April 17 and July 10, 2023, no fewer than 346 persons were killed in eight Local Government Areas of the State.
In April 2022, over 100 persons were killed across 10 villages of Kukawa, Gyambawu, Dungur, Kyaram, Yelwa, Dadda, Wanka, Shuwaka, Gwammadaji, and Dadin Kowa communities in Kanam and Wase Local Government Areas of the state.
It is alarming that in what seems to be the new normal, terrorists have continued to raid communities, killing and maiming scores in Plateau State and other parts of the country, almost on a daily basis.
Tellingly, the latest attacks on Plateau communities underscores the need for a re-examination of response mechanisms put in place by our security operatives. For over a decade since the outbreak of crisis on the Plateau in 2001, security operatives have been stationed at trouble spots in the state. How come it was possible for these killers to beat the men of Operation Safe Haven, for instance, and operate almost unhindered in this manner?
Attacking about 20 communities in two local government areas, no matter the numerical strength of these killers, requires time. Were there no distress calls on the security operatives? What was the response? How come there is no intelligence and even a report on the movement of these killers? How come the police, DSS and other security agencies in the state are cut unaware in spite of their presence in every local government area?
Clearly, it is essential to have an entirely new approach to curtailing these mind-boggling massacres which are gradually turning the renowned Home of Peace and Tourism into a killing field. We cannot be doing the same thing and expect different results.
Need for alternative strategy
It is a given that the greatest incentive to crime is the knowledge by the criminals that they could go scot-free. Without any fear of contradiction, the government’s failure to go after these killers and make them face the full wrath of the law is a great incentive for the killings.
How come those behind these killings have not been arrested? Are they invisible? Those who are tempted to conclude that they are being shielded cannot be faulted. It is annoying that each time these killings occur, both the government and the governed – those not directly affected- rise in unison to condemn the gory act and then wait for another set of killings to continue with the often-worn-out cliché of condemnation. Mere condemnation has not and will not deter a criminal. Only the weight of the law can end this spilling of innocent blood.
The fact that the government needs to adopt an entirely new strategy, including revisiting and ensuring full-scale implementation of the report of previous commissions of inquiry, cannot be over-emphasized.
Perhaps it is fitting to remind both Plateau State and the federal governments that the primary purpose of government is the protection of lives and properties. Can Governor Caleb Mutfwang and President BolaTinubu look families whose loved ones were senselessly killed in the latest Plateau massacre in the face and say they have discharged that onerous responsibility? Certainly not.
The current harvest of deaths in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGA must be treated with the utmost urgency it deserves, including bringing the perpetrators to book without delay. Victims of these killings and similar ones in different parts of the country are sick and tired of government’s mere condemnation and distribution of relief materials. No; the killers must be apprehended and prosecuted. Only that can end this cycle of killings.
Without meaning to sound repetitive, the latest and most aptly, ruthless massacre on the Plateau, like those before it, with no exception to the ones in other parts of the country, is inexcusable, devoid of reason and tints our shared humanity. This heinous crime must be put to a halt with immediate promptness.
With the spate of killings going on in different parts of the country, it would be right to assume that the nation is at war because it is doubtful if it could be this bad even during a war situation. The intensity and indeed frequency with which these killings occur make one to wonder if human life has not completely lost its cherished value.
For residents of Plateau, especially those who have been victims of these continued killings, Nigeria is symptomatic of Thomas Hobbes’ description of human life which is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”.
I strongly believe that the government has what it takes to confront this monster and put an end to this patently endless killing, kidnapping for ransom and other high-profile criminal activities that have continued to force Nigerians into living in constant fear.
It is crystal clear that Nigerians are being killed in their hundreds and these killings are gradually becoming the new normal as the killers rarely get caught. As a nation, we cannot afford to witness a steep descend into a stage where victims of these killings would resort to self-help. That will translate to total anarchy. Nigerians cannot continue to live and die under the dictates of killers whose activities have deprived the citizens of their inalienable rights to life and peaceful living. These killings must stop!
