Plateau Killings: Nigeria at War, Citizens Losing Hope, Bishop Kukah Tells Tinubu
*Traditional rulers cancel new year celebrations over attacks
*Senate summons security chiefs
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Seriki Adinoyi in Jos
Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has raised the alarm that Nigerians are losing trust in the government to secure them and asked President Bola Tinubu to urgently address the insecurity facing the country.
This is coming as the Jos-Joint Traditional Council has announced the cancellation of the usual New Year celebrations across the local government areas (LGAs) in the state, following the Christmas Eve attacks that claimed over 140 lives in some communities in the state.
A former governor of the state, Senator Jonah Jang has alleged that the killers were on a cleansing mission to take over the lands of the people just as the Senate yesterday summoned the heads of security agencies over the gruesome killings.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the killings, urging the federal government to ensure justice for the victims.
Kukah has also insisted that there is a need to reset Nigeria’s security architecture to prevent further killings by terrorists and armed groups in the country.
The bishop noted that it is the task of the intelligence community to unmask the sponsors of the killings and tell Nigerians their motives and locations.
The bishop said this yesterday in a statement while reacting to the Christmas Eve attacks that left more than 140 people dead across three LGAs in Plateau State.
The attacks took place in communities in Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin Ladi LGAs. The attackers also set ablaze more than 200 houses, according to the Plateau State Police Command.
In the statement, Kukah said the insecurity across the country was tantamount to Nigeria being at war, adding that the killers have turned the security agencies into objects of mockery and turned Nigerians into mere weeping, helpless victims and spectators.
He noted that funerals and coffins from attacks like the recent Plateau attack are now part of the daily lives of Nigerians.
The cleric, therefore, called on President Tinubu to review the security arrangement of the country and implement permanent solutions to end these attacks.
“President Tinubu must know that the legitimacy of his government hangs on resolving this and giving us our country back,” Kukah added.
He said years of military involvement had led to the mistaken notion that issues of security were military issues, adding that years of a “guns and bullets approach” had led to the growth of corruption, lack of cohesion, collaboration, and coordination, and infighting among the security agencies.
“There is an urgent need to re-set the national security architecture. Enough is enough,” he said.
“National security is a function of robust, deep intellectual analysis and mapping of the goals and even ambitions of a country, its local, regional or global place in the world.
“It thrives on creating scenarios based on a proper understanding and reading of geo-politics and locating where a country wants to be. So far, we have thrived on ad hoc and arbitrary options,” Kukah explained.
The bishop, who asked the intelligence community to identify the attackers, their sponsors, and motives, noted that “these killings are no longer acts by herders and farmers over grazing fields”.
He said: “There is more and we as a nation will do well to face this threat before it is sunset. No evil lasts forever. The world defeated slavery, apartheid, Nazism, racism, and forms of extremism.”
“It is the task of the intelligence community to tell us who they are, where they live, and what their goals are. These killers are professionals and are they Nigerians or do they have just Nigerian sponsors? Their sponsors are among us. They must be in high places. They are now embedded in the architecture of the state,” he added.
Kukah said Nigerians are gradually losing hope in the government’s ability to protect and secure them.
He, however, commended the government for the way it responded to the tragedies, “unlike before when no one bothered to visit the scenes, we are seeing very rapid responses from the top.”
He said it was not sufficient as rebuilding these communities requires more than mere physical infrastructure.
He said there is a need for clearer, more imagined strategies for rebuilding community cohesion and resilience, adding that rebuilding the people’s hearts is more urgent than rebuilding houses.
“Merely awarding contracts for the building of houses is not as important as building markets, rebuilding roads, providing agricultural inputs for farmers, and so on,” he said.
He noted that while religious leaders have continued to use their moral authority to pacify people and encourage them not to take laws into their own hands, there is a rise in anger and frustration among people.
He added that clerics even risk being seen as accomplices to an erring state as they continuously call for calm.
“The Nigerian state itself risks becoming an undertaker in the eyes of its citizens,” he said.
“Our cups of sorrow are overflowing. We have cried enough tears. We may pretend that we are not at war, but truly, a war is being waged against the Nigerian state and its people. God forbid, but we could snap anytime, anywhere, and for any reason.”
Bishop Kukah said the attackers, whoever they are, have unspoken motives in the north-central part of the country.
According to him, the method, choice of location, communities, and timings of the attacks further restate the attackers’ motive.
“We may not know who they are, but someone wants something from the Middle Belt. Stretch your imagination from the emergence of the modern Nigerian state and connect the dots,” he said.
“We have questions crying for answers: Who are these killers? Where are they coming from? Who is sponsoring them? What are their grouses and against whom? What do they want? Whom do they want? Who are they working for? When will it all end? Why are they invincible and invisible? Who is offering them cover? Are we condemned to live with this and hand this broken nation to our children? Should we all just become inoculated and sedated to make all this bearable? Who will supply the opium to dull our pain? Are we sleepwalking to self-destruction?”
The cleric lamented that the ‘murderers’ have left their footprints of blood and tears across the length and breadth of the entire northern states, indiscriminately wreaking destruction across large swaths of land and communities.
He said Nigerians are gradually succumbing to the fact that the killers do not respect religion, region, or ethnicity.
“In all this, the Nigerian state and its security agencies are blind-sided, seemingly incapable of cleaning up this Augean stable of sorrow and pain in our land,” he said.
“We are gradually taking eerie solace in the fact that these killers do not respect the boundaries of religion, region, or ethnicity. We seem to be consoled that they are destroying churches as well as mosques, killing Christians as well as Muslims. We seem to be lulled into a feeling of collective consolation and we all believe that we are all victims of an endless orgy of violence that has taken over our land.”
Senate Summons Security Chiefs over Killings
In a related development, the Senate yesterday summoned the heads of security agencies over the gruesome killings on Christmas Eve in Plateau State.
The Senate said the coordinated nature of the massacre showed that there was a failure of security intelligence.
The Red Chamber, following a motion by Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau) during yesterday’s plenary, invited the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Director-General of State Security Services, National Security Adviser, Director General of Nigeria Intelligence Agency and Inspector General of Police over the killings.
The security chiefs are to brief the Senate on the gruesome killings in Plateau State to enable the parliament to take further action.
Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), said the bandits, numbering about 400, operated freely without hindrance, alleging that the security agents failed to act on the prior information before the attack happened.
He also said there was no synergy among the security agencies.
A former Plateau State governor, Senator Simon Lalong, faulted the claims of the military that the terrain was difficult to access and the attacked communities were too distant from military formations.
He expressed disappointment that despite the various military operations, including Operation Safe Haven, innocent lives are being lost in a gruesome manner
House Urges Army to Establish Military Base in Bokkos LGA
Also, the House of Representatives has called on the Chief of Army Staff to establish a military base in Bokkos Local Government Areas and other volatile areas of Plateau State.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion on the urgent need to condemn and investigate the gruesome Christmas Eve killings in some parts of the state.
Moving the motion at the plenary yesterday, Hon. Ahmed Wase noted that findings from the assessment of the ugly incidents in Bokkos LGA revealed that the total number of villages attacked was 12, while 221 houses were set ablaze, 27 motorcycles were burnt, eight vehicles were burnt down and over 79 persons were killed, and 17 deaths were recorded in Barkin-Ladi LGA.
He noted that the death toll from the various attacks at Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu LGAs of Plateau State has surpassed over 200 as of December 29, 2023, with many others seriously injured according to several news sources.
Wase lamented that till this moment, security agencies are yet to identify the perpetrators of these heinous attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives of innocent citizens and destroyed properties worth millions.
He expressed worry that if these dastardly attacks are left unchecked, they would escalate with time and worsen the already volatile security situation on the Plateau;
Wase stressed that further escalation in these killings might lead to a conflagration in the whole of the North-central zone which might spill into other geopolitical zones in the country.
The House, therefore, directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to immediately assess the extent of damage and displacement in attacked communities within the said local government areas to provide necessary relief materials.
It also urged the Inspector General of Police to immediately conduct a detailed investigation into these attacks to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
It also urged the Minister of Defence to initiate a coordinated Joint Security Operation within these local government areas and adjoining towns located in Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, and Nasarawa states to flush out criminals and bandits and prevent them from escaping to other states.
It urged: “The Chief of Air Staff in collaboration with the Chief of Army Staff to provide aerial surveillance and support to flush out criminal hideouts and camps.
“Urge the Department of State Services and Directorate of Military Intelligence to gather intelligence information on the influx, camping, and operations of criminal groups within Bokkos, Barkin-Ladi, Mangu, and other volatile local government areas and adjoining towns and share same with other sister security agencies.
“Urge the Chief of Army Staff to establish military presence/bases in the said local government areas and other volatile areas of Plateau State.”
The House also mandates the House Committee on Police, Defence, Army, and National Intelligence to investigate the root cause of these incessant killings to provide lasting solutions.
Traditional Rulers Cancel New Year Celebrations over Attacks
Meanwhile, the Jos-Joint Traditional Council has announced the cancellation of the usual New Year celebrations across the LGAs in the state.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Chairman of the council and Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba “directed that there should be no public procession, outdoor gatherings, or celebrations during the New Year festivities except strictly in worship places after which everyone must disperse and go to their respective homes. This is aimed at avoiding any unpleasant situation.”
The statement which was signed by the special assistant to the Gbong Gwom, Da Yakubu Mamman Dang, and directed to all district and village heads added that “in the light of this directive, the usual New Year gathering in the palace of the Gbong Gwom Jos in Jishe, is hereby suspended.”
Meanwhile, a former governor of the state, Jang has alleged that the killers were on a cleansing mission to take over the lands of the people and reiterated his call for the establishment of state police.
Jang made the call when he commiserated with the families that lost loved ones during the Christmas Eve attacks.
In a statement signed by his media consultant, Mr. Clinton Garuba, the former senator representing Plateau North, said: “The killings on the plateau would seem to have gone on unabated as the non-arrest and prosecution of perpetrators have bolstered the serial killers to carry out more and more killings. Jang alleged: “These killers are out on a cleansing agenda and plan to take over the lands of the people they try to wipe out is no longer hidden.”
Jang said: “States should be given the power to create, train, and equip their police to enable state governors to deal with peculiar security situations in their various states. More than ever, the time to heed the call for state policing is now. The National Assembly must take this call seriously and rise to the occasion, act in the interest of the Plateau people, and consider the issue as a matter of urgent importance.”
ECOWAS Asks FG to Ensure Justice for Victims
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has condemned the recent killings in Plateau State.
Reacting to the incident in a statement yesterday, ECOWAS said the “dastardly act” demonstrated the “callousness, insensitivity and total disregard of the sanctity of human life on part of the perpetrators of the heinous act”.
“The commission further expresses profound condolences to the bereaved, wishes a speedy recovery to the injured, and conveys its heartfelt sympathies to the Government and People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the statement reads.
“The ECOWAS Commission calls on the government to intensify ongoing efforts to identify and bring the perpetrators of this terrorist act to justice.”
The commission also reassured the government and citizens of its unwavering commitment to accompanying the country in the on-going efforts towards promoting peaceful co-existence.
ECOWAS added that it was committed to ridding the region of the scourge of terrorism, violent extremism, and banditry.
