Ex-Envoy Hagher Condemns Benue Govt’s Plan To Rehabilitate Bandits

A former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico and High Commissioner to Canada, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, has criticised the Benue State government’s plan to establish a rehabilitation centre for bandits.

He described the move as a grave misplacement of priority amid what he called crimes against humanity in the Sankera axis of the state.

Hagher stated this in Abuja yesterday while addressing the press on the grave humanitarian crisis that has engulfed Sankera axis, comprising Katsina-Ala, Logo, and Ukum local government areas of Benue State for over a decade.

The conference also presented documented evidence of the scale of displacement, destruction, and civilian suffering in the region, and called for immediate action at national, regional, and international levels.

Speaking, the diplomat said the proposal to rehabilitate bandits without first ensuring justice for victims or the safe return of displaced communities risked normalising criminality and weaponising politics.

“For too long, those in power have denied the existence of these crimes against humanity and instead appear to support mass killings of our people and sympathise with terrorists.

“The recent request by the Benue State Government for federal government approval to establish a centre specifically for the rehabilitation of bandits, without first returning the displaced victims to their homes or meting out justice in accordance with the law, normalises criminality and weaponises politics, seemingly curating and deploying bandits for political purposes,” he said.

According to him, a sustained campaign of attacks, displacement and destruction had produced one of the most severe humanitarian crises in contemporary Africa, yet had remained dangerously under-reported.

Hagher faulted the Benue State Government for what he described as denial and silence, alleging that substantial security votes were deployed to conceal the suffering of the Sankera people. Such actions, he said amounted to genocide denial and protection of perpetrators, contrary to Nigeria’s obligations under international law.

Drawing a contrast with federal efforts, the former envoy noted that while President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration was working with international partners to support victims of terrorism, the state government appeared eager to accommodate armed groups who had neither disarmed nor been reconciled with their victims.

This, he said, prioritised banditry over traumatised communities.

“The Sankera genocide is dangerously under-reported. The State government has deployed its substantial financial security vote to conceal and deny the suffering of the Sankera people. By doing so, the State government bears criminal liability for genocide denial and for protecting the perpetrators.”

Hagher further lamented that displacement has spread across much of Benue State, including Gwer West, Gwer East, Guma and Agatu, describing the devastation in Kwande as a separate chapter of terror, while border communities near Cameroon were also said to be under occupation by armed groups.

He called on the Federal Government to ensure the safe return of all displaced Sankera people, declare a state of emergency in the area, and deploy adequate, rights-respecting security and  urged the establishment of an independent judicial peace and reconciliation commission to investigate atrocities and ensure accountability.

He also appealed to the African Union and ECOWAS to conduct independent fact-finding missions, and asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to urgently review the situation.