It is an emergency in the local communities, if the rest of the country does not feel it. But the story as told by the governor of Benue State should generate empathy enough.
Bandits are overrunning citizens and the homes they have known since antiquity. They cannot move, breathe and have their beings in places that have conferred on them the legitimacy as natives.
These bandits come like barbarous hordes, fully armed with AK-47 and AK-49. They don’t carry the visage or the accent of any Nigerian. Hear the governor of the state describe them: “They don’t speak what we speak,” he intoned. “Their Hausa is one sort of Hausa, not the normal Hausa we Nigerians speak.”
Citizens who have seen them and heard them are authentic witnesses of the attacks, and they say they are Malians.
“They come in as they kill, as they maim, as they push people away. They just keep killing, and then they run back,” said Governor Hyacinth Alia.
When they lay siege to a number of villages, they betray savage readiness and willingness to take anything “walking or breathing out.” Anything or anyone on their way is not spared.
In a recent onslaught, as the governor narrates it, “by morning, 72 deaths were confirmed—29 in Ukum, 27 in Logo, three in Katsina-Ala, and others in hospitals—along with countless injuries.
‘’They grab the land, they chase the people out, and they stay in the land. That’s what’s going on because there are some local governments here, and these people have occupied them in the last 15 years.
“These occupied areas serve as bases for repeated attacks. Those are the areas you hear of constant attacks, because they hit and then they go back into the local government hinterlands.’’
One of the big consequences of these activities drew a dire warning from the state’s chief executive.
“The attackers also target food security, with herders in their group destroying stored crops. They would now open the barns, destroy the food, cut the yams and whatever. They cut the guinea corn and maize and throw them to the cows to eat.”
Benue will no longer be known as the food basket of the nation, if this persists. They are also grazing on the farmlands while their victims are in internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps.
The fraught local government areas include Ukum, Logo, Katsina-Ala, Kwande, Guma and Gwer west. Some of the communities have fallen to these cruel bands for up to 15 years. In Plateau State, the governor said 62 communities are under their control.
The uniformed men and women seem overstretched. So, the locals, rooted in the sentiment and history of those places, want to protect “our turf.”
This hits straight not only at the survival of these communities but the livelihoods of many Nigerians outside the state.
It is therefore urgent not only to protect these Nigerians but to flush out these interlopers who have colonised the legitimate homes of our fellow citizens.
The decision to take urgent steps was emphasised by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun. He wants to deploy the Police Mobile Force (PMF) for intervention in the trouble spots. But he has raised an important issue about the abuse of these forces by VIPs.
“The foundational mandate of the force has been compromised over time. A significant number of PMF personnel are deployed as escorts, guards or aides to private individuals and VIPs. This diversion weakens our capacity to respond where needed most,” said Egbetokun.
“Effective immediately, each PMF squadron must maintain at least one fully equipped, combat-ready unit on standby for tactical interventions,” he emphasised.
We hope that the Benue emergency will be treated as such.
@TheNation
