Terrorism & Banditry: To beg, negotiate, Appease, Pray, Give orders, self-defence or To ACT! - Ik Muo, PhD.
Between 23 and 25th
December 2023, a group of heartless and
bloodthirsty gunmen undertook a coordinated attack in Bokos and Barkinladi LGAs
of Plateau State, murdering about 150 compatriots and displacing 10,000 others.
A Jos-based photographer lost 11 family members and the President assured that ‘these
envoys of death, pain and sorrow will not escape justice’. The
terrorists even had the audacity to notify the same communities of further attack within one week, precisely on 29/12/23. Women of the
community justifiably went berserk and burnt down the palace of the traditional
ruler because the military arrived late to the scene of the savage terrorism and started blaming the
victims instead of the terrorists. These
successors of Aba women rioters also blamed the ruler of complacence or
complicity. On June 11, unknown terrorists, murdered 58 and burnt 82 houses in the same Plateau State and the Governor informed a horrified nation, that bandits had
taken over 64 communities in the Bokos axis of Plateau state. It had been
reported that these terrorists attack, sack, rename and occupy those
villages!
As we awaited for the perpetrators to
be ‘swiftly brought to justice’, a worse scenario occurred between 13th and 14th
June 2025 as ‘they’ attacked the Yelwata community in the Guma LGA of
Benue State, adopting a scorched-earth
warfare and murdering about 200 compatriots (including soldiers and IDPs). As one reporter put it ‘Children,
women, men and grandparents were attacked in their sleep, sliced like animals,
burnt to unrecognisable ashes ’ As a compassionate risk-taker and social-media
activist, the Very Dark Man was there live to show the world what
happened, while a compound lost 40 people and a family lost 10 members, Governor
Allia told us that ONLY 59 died. NEMA reported that a
total of 6527 were displaced including 657 children, 252 lactating mothers, 82
pregnant women and 91 elders. The governor also laboured to explain the
excellent performance of this BATified government regarding the Benue security crises, that the number of
LGAs under terrorist control had fallen from 17 to 3. He had also told Benue people not to
retaliate against these bandits (perhaps, they should turn the other cheek). Furthermore,
angry, protesting residents were dispersed violently, and some arrested, by our
‘gallant’ police men.
The Pope had already spoken from
Rome, condemning the ‘terrible massacre’ perpetrated with EXTREME
barbarity, before we heard from the President who described it as
reprisal attack, and directed security operatives to ‘act decisively and
arrest the perpetrators’. He also charged the governor, a ‘chief
Security officer’ who does not
command any troop, to take charge and convene reconciliatory meetings. How does one reconcile and dialogue with unknown,
armed and murderous assailants? This tendency to ask governors to
take charge is a new narrative, which was propounded by Daniel Bwala a few weeks ago. The President also
took out time within that period, when
the nation was burning, to condemn the Israeli onslaught against Iran.
Eventually, the President paid a condolence
visit to Makurdi from where he threw condolences at the Yelwata people. He did not visit them! He directed the governor to constitute a peace
committee, and make land available for ranching. He also established an elders
committee, blasted the IGP for inaction
and repeated his directive to security to hunt down the murderers. It was more
of a political carnival than a condolence visit, with banners and billboards,
uniformed political support-groups.
school children, who should be mourning their classmates and relations lining
the street under the rain (A public holiday had to be declared for this purpose).
Here
are some perspectives on that condolence visit: Instead of a reflective
respectful condolence visit. We saw a display more befitting of a ribbon
cutting ceremony. The president arrived not in a mourning attire but in a celebratory
agbada, like it was an occasion of joy-… A time that should be marked by
silence and solemnity is now polluted by banners, music and rehearsed
spectacles… politicisation of tragedy. When such incidents like this turn into
campaign or festival, we are finished-Peter Obi; Talking as if he
was preparing for campaign, speech disconnected, insensitive and politically
motivated; it was apolitical spectacle, not a consolatory mission. Failed to
display empathy or seriousness- ‘his visit offered no comfort, no real
solution, only a showcase of political theatre as though he was at a campaign
rally.. it was as though they had gone to dance on the graves of those who had
not even been properly buried or identified’- Dele Farotimi
It was also an opportunity for the
Tor_Tiv, His Royal Majesty, Professor James Ayatse to speak a BIG, BOLD AUDACIOUS
& RAW truth to power when he
expressed grave concern with extant misinformation and misrepresentation
on Benue insecurity, which has led to
suggestions like remain tolerant, negotiate for peace, learn to live with
your neighbours. He told the
president that ‘it is not herders
farmers clash or a reprisal attack but a
calculated, well-planned and full scale genocidal invasion and land grabbing
campaign by herder terrorists and bandits
Eventually, other stories emerged:
that the security forces were informed
early enough but that they were deceived with a decoy, that security officers
have been compromised and that there was
insider collusion with the invaders. In
line with our usual festival of speeches, the Chief of Defense Staff had vowed
that this would be the last of such wholesale attacks, stating that ‘We always receive information that these attackers
are coming from across borders. Wherever they are coming from, we will go after
them. We must not wait for them to strike’ I hope that the talk-do gap will be decisively narrowed. What was the
source of the decoy? The CDS later said that hunger and poverty were the
drivers of insecurity; maybe he was talking of the footsoldiers. A hungry
person cannot afford the kind of deadly and high-calibre amoury possesed by these invaders, at the
sight of which some soldiers flee, a weighty allegation by the
Emir of Yashkira in Kwara State, Amb Dr Umar Sarki Usman. Some
villagers stated that the soldiers worked with the invaders, providing cover for
them and providing borehole and social services for the occupied
territories . It was also reported that te Benue State government
started providing security for cows during that tense period! Primate Ayodele
claimed to have called Ribadu 130 times to warn about the Benue Massacre but
was ignored! Anyway, the only tangible outcome of all this is that the Benue
State Government has just established its own security outfit, the Quick
Response Squad. Lets home that it will be adequately funded and ARMED.
But because the internet never forgets, some wicked wailers, recalled when citizen Tinubu courageously stated that the festering BH attacks were a proof that Nigeria had no government and suggested a failure of intelligence; that the bulk stops at GEJs table as a Chief Security officer, and that he must bear the blame and responsibility for the security breaches. Now, he is directing governors to take charge!
However,
another perspective was added by The Guardian, which said what people have been
rumouring.’Nigeria now see the fight against against terrorist in the
country as a big business fetching
billions of naira formany who are saddled with the task of ending the
menace while the country bleeds. The citizens believe that the security
operatives and institutions have been compromised. They believe that security
personnel in collaboration with some political office holders are feeding fat
on the tax payers money meant to prosecute the war against the criminals. The
perceived corruption in the
anti-insurgency fight is now the real problem, not lack of capacity by the
security agency to obliterate the hoodlooms. Trillions of naira has been spent
with little to show for it( Guradian editorial, 5/7/25). I will leave
this for another day
About 160 persons (including
security officers) had been slaughtered within the previous month in the same Benue state and the Catholic Church
complained that about 50 adherents had
been murdered and 15 churches closed in Makurdi. A week earlier, about 61 people were killed and over 200
houses razed in Apa and Gwer LGAs of Benue. It was at this time that Governor
Alia openly accused NASS politicians of instigating and
funding the killings. I don’t think anything was done
about such a weighty and specific intel
from a high-powered APCian!
Before these two atrocious developments in Plateau and Benue states, a lot of equally hearth-wrenching developments had taken place. In Zamfara State, terrorists murdered 10 farmers for failing to pay a levy of N20m. ISWAP had blown up the transmission lines along Maiduguri Damaturu highway. Terrorists had kidnapped 10 people from Safgwari Estate Layout, in Bwari Council of FCT, killed three as a warning and had the audacity to hike the ransom from N60m to N700m;they had taken over several communities in Niger State, imposed restriction of movement of goods and people and imposed levies allow those movements. Between February and June, Bokoharam had unleashed 4 vicious attacks on Hong LGA. In Oguta Imo State, terrorists launched 3 attacks within 2 weeks, killing 5, kidnapping and injuring many. Turji, the most wanted terrorist( and second only to Ibrahim Shekau in ‘wantedness’) imposed a levy of N50m to grant farmers access their farms in some Niger and Kastina communities.
So, what have
we done and what should we do? The Federal and state governments, with the
security officials have always assured
that no stone would be left on turned and they have so turned and overturned these stones that no stone is
left in peace; they are all in pieces. The Federal Government has always ordered the security people to finish
those terrorists and as I write, the security high command in Nigeria has reportedly relocated to Benue State. This is
better optics than the PMB era, when the
IGP ignored the presidential order to relocate and the president confessed that
he wasn’t aware. The government has also adopted the odious deradicalisation and rehabilitation policy in which so called
repentant BH members are treated with
deodorant by being empowered and
returned to the society( it is rumoured that some are absorbed into the army). This is while the
victims wallow in penury and human
degradation in IDPs where they are regularly attacked by other unrepentant terrorists and exploited by
IDP officials.
We also try to conceal the facts by promoting
a culture of silence. Somebody had bemoaned the apparent alliance between the
government and the media, which had become silent and complicit because they
appear to be beneficiaries of state patronage. This may or may not be the case
but the NBC had not too long ago ordered the media not to report details of
terrorist attacks. So, they are also trying
to save their necks. Kaduna and Kastina State governments have negotiated
with the self-acclaimed terrorists and at times, SUVs (and probably cash) were gifted to their
leaders for peace. At the height of the
Benue massacres, the Sokoto State Government declared that ‘we are open
to engaging in negotiations with bandits
who are genuinely willing to surrender and
embrace peace’. How do we know those that are genuinely
willing? Can a scorpion stop stinging?
Sheik Gumi a ‘respected Muslim cleric’ who was just disgraced and deported by
Saudi Authorities had deepened the appeasement model by declaring that before
the killing of Christians would stop, the government MUST build hospitals and
schools for them or we should expect MASS BURIALS! To the best of my knowledge, the government
did not respond to this outrageous and audacious statement.
This report of a negotiation with wanted
terrorists in Kastina is very painful
and shameful: what happened today in Danmusa Kastina was not a peace
dialogue. It was not reconciliation; it was negotiation with terror. A
surrender of the Nigerian state. a betrayal signed in silence, sealed with
shame and witnessed by soldiers. Ado Alero.. a butcher (of humans’), a bandit,
a destroyer of villages sat like a king, surrounded by military personnel,
community leaders and traditional rulers. He spoke not from a place of regret but of power, of pride; he told us :
as long as you keep calling us terrorists, we will keep acting like terrorists.
No one objected; no one stood up. No soldier raised a weapon; no official
raised a voice. The only thing that was raised was a terrorists confidence… He
was not arrested; he was respected; he
wasn’t interrogated; he was invited. He wasn’t hiding in a cave. He w as welcomed like a guest of honour in the
very state where blood still stains the soil from the horrors he and his men
unleashed (Khaleed Yaseed: Negotiating with the devil: A nation that
bows before blood)15/6/25)
Ado Aleru, a ‘ranking
terrorist’ in Kastina( we also have ranking terrorists, not only
ranking senators!) had also boldly decreed that peace can only
return if the authorities stopped stigmatising them, ensure respectful and honest
engagement, genuine reconciliation and reintegration. There was no mention of
their numerous victims. In all this,
they are giving the conditions for peace an indication of who has the power. Did Iran dictate the terms of peace to Israel the other day? We are engaged in this pusillanimous handshake with human butchers despite the warning
that ‘a government that negotiates with murderers while its people bleed
has chosen cowardice over justice; that the greatest insult to the dead is a handshake with their killers’. The
President, Gowon and the Sultan had called for prayers while Hope Uzodimma once
begged the terrorists, at the burial of one APC women leader who was murdered in Imo State
Recently,(29/6/25)squarters in Yarkoda Grazing Reserve in Kubau LGA of Kaduna State murdered the commander of Kaduna State Vigilante Services, Saleh Shuabu when the officials of KDSG visited the area to enforce the Government directive on the reserves. The directive was to allocate over 200 hecters to a corporate investor which the squarters resisted due to lack of compensation. It is also reported that the compensation has been paid but they want more. Pay compensation to sqartters in a government property? Is this how the ruga seetlements and ranching reserves will work and is this how they will relate with their hosts after negotiations?Is that how the reserves will work? And just the other day, the military announced that 210 terrorists had repented and surrendered and the Governor is already making plans to integrete them into the societ after skiils acquisition programmes
Should we negotiate, beg,
appease, conceal give orders, play
politics or pray? A bully does not
listen to ‘abeg’. Once they have the capacity to bully, they will continue to
bully. They only pipe low if the victim has
the capacity to respond decisively or even pre-emptively. As long as
these non-state actors have the ability to easily inflict death and pain
without consequences, our pleas,
negotiations and other such puerile strategies will not work. We need to so ‘fire’ them that they will be the ones begging for mercy.
That is when they will be willing to talk; that is when negotiation will yield
fruits. As one of my friends,
DrNO opined, what we need is the will to implement, the integrity bto act
and the courage to fire those who fail to act! I am not a
TRUMPeteer but I agree with his
philosophy of peace with strength. Early July, Bello Turji
reportedly sued for peace after the death of his righthand man and cousin.
Yellow Danbokolo. If and when we hit them real bad, they will beg for peace!
In a lighter mood, we are so secured that even
a security camera meant to secure the environment needs to be secured!
“Find a great mentor, someone who has already been through the many challenges of being an entrepreneur..” -Jodi Levine
Entrepreneurship in Practice: Cases, Challenges and Lessons By IK, MUO PHD is now available on Amazon, since 14/5/21. Click here to view Available for order +2348033026625 | Delivery: Worldwide
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