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.

  This is a national affair because Amnesty International reported that 10217 Nigerians had been murdered and 672 villages sacked  by Non State Actors between 2023 and 2025.  The NBS gave a more chilling statistics that 615000 were killed in a year and  these are reported cases. In Kwara state, a new terrorist group, Mahmuda has emerged, wrecking havoc in  Kaiama LGA and  like its other comrades. seizing communities.  Things were so bad that  Nicholas Ukachukwu, the Anambra APC gubernatorial candidate had once requested  for  a battalion of16 soldiers, 20 policemen and 12 DSS officers for his  personal security  in a trip to Anambra State. But the President boasts that security has improved significantly in the same period while Ribadu, who agreed with him later announced that insecurity affected 150m Nigerians and adversely affected the agricultural sector.  Recently at the  Abuja Cyber_Security conference , Ribadu still maintained that Nigeria was now SAFER and more stable! And on 8/7/25, 70 people, mostly vigilantes, were murdered in Wase, whose Emir had led a delegation to beg the Emir of Zazau. The National Human Rights Commission has also reported that MORE people were killed in the first half of 2025(2266 deaths) than in the whole of 2024(2194 deaths). And as I tidied up this piece, I read that  on 9/7/24, about 300 bandits trooped from Zamfara state into Mariga axis of Niger state , killing 13 including security operatives. Yet we are assured that  Nigeria is now safer and more secured! The contradictions in the various figures is one of the troubles with Nigeria; it shows the integrity of our data!

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!

Ik Muo, PhD. FCIB. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026624

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