by Eze Eluchie
To any discerning mind, the news that not 10, not 20, not 40 but over 100 security personnel, inclusive of over 80 specially trained police men, and officers of the State Security Service and Civil Defense operatives were killed in a single operation by a little known rag-tag rural cult group comprised of an admixture of subsistence farmers, fishermen and their apprentices, sounds preposterous, incredulous, like the stuff tales are made of. Not so when you factor in that this is Nigeria. After all, we are the country where the preposterous acquires reason and the incredulous becomes credible.
The pristine, evergreen luscious landscape of Alakyo community in Nasarawa State (north-central Nigeria) in the night of Tuesday 7th May 2013, became the latest waterloo of Nigeria’s (in)security agencies . Over 100 fully armed officers and men from various security outfits, had stormed Alakyo under what had been planned as a clandestine operation to ostensibly arrest a feeble old man who serves as head of an indigenous cult group (Ombatse) – as it turned out, some persons who were suspicious and adverse to security agency operations in the area got wind of the ‘clandestine’ operation, and confronted the huge security convoy of more than 10-truck loads of personnel, resulting in the huge wastage of human lives and destruction of security apparatus.
Sequel to the massacre of security personnel at Alakyo, the attention of Nigerians and indeed the world had been focused on Boko Haram activities in the northeastern fringes of the country and there had been no known security issues in Nasarawa to account for such massive deployment of personnel and weaponry.
What could have gone wrong?
How was the Alakyo massacre possible?
Why was so much force and personnel deployed to ‘arrest’ a feeble octogenarian who had apparently never been formally invited for police questioning?
Are these policemen and security operatives killed, not the same personnel who regularly receive accolades from international agencies when they participate in international peace keeping operations?
The litany of questions could go on for decades – the sad reality remains that as a result of total collapse of intelligence, inept administration and outright folly on the part of the Police hierarchy, over 100 policemen who had opted to serve their country had been unnecessarily, and avoidably, wasted.
It must be expressly stressed at this onset that the killing of policemen and security personnel in lawful execution of their duties is a most reprehensible and objectionable act.
Inquiry into the circumstances which led to the Alakyo massacre reveals far sinister issues which portend great dangers to our already beleaguered contraption. Whilst Police authorities claim the security men were on an ‘official assignment’, the natives of Alakyo, people of the Eggon ethnic nationality, are asserting that they acted in self defense, in response to a series of unprovoked attacks on their community. Apparently, in the course of the past couple of months, over 200 Eggon tribesmen and women have been killed, their women raped and abused and several of their villages sacked by marauding Fulani herdsmen intent on forcefully securing grazing rights for their livestock though Eggon territory. Repeated reports to Police authorities by Eggon leaders had yielded no reprieve.
The Eggon have repeatedly accused the security agencies of colluding with the Fulani herdsmen in their attacks against their villages and were thus willing to treat officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies who sought to entire their community at unholy hours as invading forces.
A foray into the history of rural skirmishes between Nigerian clans will reveal the increasing audacity and ferocious firepower, nomadic herdsmen, usually people of the Fulani ethnic group, have staged attacks against villages and towns through which they shepherd their livestock’s in a seasonal long south-bound march towards areas of greener vegetation and markets in the southern zones of Nigeria. These attacks have led to the death and maiming of thousands in States across the north central and south eastern zones of Nigeria. The attacks take on a worrisome ethno-religious slant going by the fact that most Fulani herdsmen also happen to be Muslims.
The brazen impunity with which nomadic herdsmen attack communities in their path is sustained and emboldened by the aura of invincibility and protection from the law they are accorded by a most partial Police and law enforcement mechanism. What, one may ask, would ordinarily give a band of 50 nomadic herdsmen the audacity to engage their host communities, where they are greatly outnumbered, in violent clashes – the knowledge that law enforcement will come in to assist them and prevent them from answering for their atrocities?
Prior to the present violent dispensation, the herdsmen had historically, and in acknowledgement of the fact that the trade in livestock was beneficial to both host communities and the nomads, negotiated terms of passage with the various host communities through which they had traversed.
The spike in the increasing brazenness appear, unfortunately, directly traceable to the ascension into office of the present occupant of the office of (Head) Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force {IGP. NPF} – MD Abubakar.
In 2001, a Judicial Panel of Inquiry into lethal ethno-religious violence which recorded hundreds of fatalities and enormous destruction of property headed by a respected Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria (Justice Niki Toby) had in its recommendations implicated the then Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) { MD Abubakar} for complicity in the crisis for deploying the arsenal of the Police Force in a partisan manner to the detriment of the indigenous Christian population. On MD Abubakar, the panel had recommended, and the State Government approved, "Religious fanatics should not be posted to head state police commands. The commission recommends that for his ignoble role during the September 2001 crisis which resulted in the loss of lives, the former Commissioner of Police, Plateau State Command, Alhaji M.D. Abubakar, be advised to retire from the Nigeria Police Force and in the event of his refusal to do so, he should be dismissed from the service." – this recommendations were not implemented, and the same MD Abubakar has now wound his way right up to the headship of the Nigeria Police Force.
Till date, MD Abubakar neither challenged the recommendations of the Panel nor the decisions of the Plateau State Government. At the appointment of MD Abubakar as IGP of the NPF, President Jonathan neglected several calls from various quarters on the possible consequences of appointing someone branded a ‘religious fanatic’ by a Judicial Panel of Inquiry as Chief of Police in a society rife with ethno-religious tension and with a history of inter-religious crisis.
In the course of MD Abubakar’s tenure, thus far, as the IGP-NPF, attacks by Fulani herdsmen and militia have increased exponentially. From the continuing massacres of Berom villagers in the Jos area of Plateau State to attacks on the Tivs of Benue State, from killings of Katafs in Southern Kaduna to sacking of Igbo communities in Imo State, from maiming, raping and looting communities in the Yewa North Local Government of Oyo State to similar dastard acts as far south as in Cross Rivers State, the Fulani herdsmen have shown an uncanny ability to unleash violence anywhere in Nigeria without any hindrance whatsoever. In all these attacks, the Nigeria Police Force has failed to initiate any single, not even one, prosecution, talk less of a conviction, of the marauding herdsmen.
When reports are lodged with the Police authorities, arrests are routinely made, and the herdsmen somehow get admitted to bail and being nomadic in nature, simply disappear with the winds.
The Fulani ethnic nationality represent one of the most beautiful peoples comprised in the Nigerian population and the criminal tendencies of a micro element of their population should never be used to define a hardworking and intelligent people.
When one realizes the fact that in Nigeria, all criminal prosecutions, with the sole exception of drug related matters and matters pertaining to corruption, must first be investigated by the NPF before prosecution can commence, the damage occasioned the belief in the justice system and the powers of the Police Force as an independent arbiter/investigator in criminal infractions by the presence at the head of the Police Force of a man perceived as a religious fanatic becomes quite clear.
In the instant case of the killing of over 100 security operatives in Alakyo community, the issue of neutrality of security forces in dealing with traditional skirmishes has being raised.
It will be appropriate in this instance that a neutral investigation body, preferably international, be empanelled, to investigate the matter of the Alakyo massacre. The Nigeria Police Force under MD Abubakar’s leadership must be cautioned against any reprisal attacks against the Alakyo or anyother communities of the Eggon people for that matter, as they often times engage in when their personnel are slain wheresoever. What happened in Alakyo was a grievous crime - if the Police authorities 'retaliate', it will constitute crimes punishable under international laws.
Most unfortunately, however, dedicated policemen and other security personnel, whilst responding to commands of their superior officers, have had their lives cut short in ambiguous circumstances which should not be swept under the carpet. Whosoever masterminded the massacres and those who created the enabling environment for such horror to occur must be held accountable and brought to justice.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/05/tension-in-nasarawa-100-police-dss-officers-missing-in-lafia/
http://premiumtimesng.com/news/5088-hundreds_displaced_as_fulani_herdsmen_attack_communities.html?wpmp_switcher=mobile
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/05/20/menace-of-fulani-herdsmen/
http://www.euronews.com/2013/05/09/nigeria-militants-killed-46-police-officers-in-an-ambush/
Picture: Some of the over 100 policemen slain in Alakyo. May their souls rest in peace.
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