As Plateau Celebrates Black Christmas

While Christians all over the world were celebrating Christmas, Plateau State was mourning and wailing as over 140 persons were gruesomely murdered in attacks on some communities in the state. Seriki Adinoyi writes that President Bola Tinubu’s reaction to the carnage should not end up like the empty rhetoric of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari under whose watch the agents of darkness had a field day

It was another black Christmas in Plateau State as gunmen attacked and killed over 100 persons in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi on the eve of this year’s celebration.

While Christians celebrated Christmas in other parts of the country, the people of the state were mourning and wailing as mass burials were conducted for the bodies of children, women and the elderly, who were gruesomely murdered in the attacks.  

Giving the account of the incident, the state police command said over 79 persons were killed in Bokkos Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, while another 17 were killed in Barkin-Ladi LGA, bringing the total number of casualties to 96 persons. However, there have been conflicting figures from different quarters, with some putting the total number of those killed in the attacks at 160, while the state governor puts the figure at 115.

The attacks were similar to those of Kanam and Wase LGAs in April 2022 in which gunmen killed at least 142 persons in some communities in the two local government areas.

The April 2022 attacks, which happened on a Sunday, were carried out in Kukawa, Gyambawu, Dungur, Kyaram, Yelwa, Dadda, Wanka, Shuwaka, Gwammadaji, and Dadin Kowa villages of the two LGAs when gunmen rode in motorcycles into the communities in broad daylight and killed over 142 persons.

In the twilight of the last administration, just before the current Governor Caleb Mutfwang was sworn-in, a similar attack that claimed about 150 lives happened in Mangu LGA of the state. Resolving the crisis became the first assignment the governor had to embark on when he was sworn on May 29.

After then, there have been several other attacks that increased the number of persons killed in the state to over 500 since the governor assumed power in May 2023.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Okoro Alawari said he had directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge Operations (DC DOPs) to relocate to Bokkos LGA and also deployed high-power delegation of well-armed operational forces to the troubled areas to prevent further attacks and also assess the level of damages in the affected areas, even as investigation and monitoring of the incidents were ongoing.

Meanwhile, the governor has condemned the violence, calling it “barbaric, brutal and unjustified”, and assuring that proactive measures would be taken by the government to curb ongoing attacks against innocent civilians.

It is pathetic that massive killings have become a recurring decimal in Plateau State with no help in sight. The villagers have now fled their homes and farms and further complicated the already dire situation of the densely populated state capital, while others have swelled the population of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps across the state.

Farmlands have been abandoned, and this has posed a threat to food security.

Several efforts by the state and federal governments seem to have been defied by the attackers as not much has been achieved by their strategies. The survivors are wondering if they are still part of Nigeria with the frequency of the attacks and the poor handling of the situation by the federal government.

After the Mangu attack in May 2023 where over 100 persons were also killed, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt-General Taoreed Lagbaja, launched a special operation code-named ‘Operation Hakorin Damisa IV’ to tackle the insecurity in the state, particularly in Mangu LGA and environs.

He charged troops of the special force to respond to all distress calls and work with other security agencies to end all forms of insecurity in the area.

The Army chief had tasked the soldiers to “end the conflicts in Mangu and environs,” insisting that they “must work with other security agencies and because you are a people’s army, you must respond to all distress calls. You must also give feedback to the people at all times in order to win the confidence of the public.”

Lagbaja, who promised to address challenges of troops in war fronts, said his leadership was determined to restore peace and security to all troubled areas in the country.

Unfortunately, not much was achieved as the attackers seem to understand the terrain more than the soldiers such that whenever they attack, the soldiers will always get to the scene after the assailants have escaped.

Recently, Governor Mutfwang also concluded the training of 600-man state security personnel to complement the soldiers and the police, and appreciated President Bola Tinubu for his support to state-owned security outfits.

The governor stated that the revitalisation of the outfit was timely, coming when the state needed consolidation on the gains of tackling security challenges that had ravaged the state for years.

It is disheartening that these efforts by both the state and federal governments have not been able to save the citizens of the state from persistent harassment and attacks that have led to senseless killing of hundreds of them.

The Christmas eve carnage was a call for a change of strategy or for security agencies to re-double their efforts since it seems that the current strategy and efforts are not yielding positive results. The security of citizens remains the responsibility of the government, and it must do everything within its powers to ensure that people are not only safe on highways but also in their homes in the cities or villages.

It is time for President Bola Tinubu, National Security Adviser (NSA), Service Chiefs, the governors and all that are saddled with the responsibility of securing the citizens to think outside the box and find a solution to end the persistent carnage in the state and indeed other parts of the country.

Since President Tinubu reconstituted and reconfigured the nation’s military architecture which many viewed as a sign of seriousness to tackle the agents of darkness, not much success has been achieved in Plateau State as none of the attackers has ever been arrested.

Though it is not the first time the president would order troops to go after suspected terrorists who embarked on the mass killings, he has renewed the call. In a statement on Tuesday, he expressed sadness and ordered that actions should be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice and assist victims. But the events of the next few weeks will reveal if the president’s directive will end as a mere rhetoric.