IGP’s relocation to Benue: What impact?
More LGAs under threat – Community leader
On January 10, 2018, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, relocated to Benue State on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the killing of rural dwellers by gunmen in some local government areas of the state.
The IGP who arrived the state capital, Makurdi, a day after the president’s directive, wasted no time in meeting with all stakeholders at the Government House where he had to even apologise to citizens of Benue for referring to the current crisis in the state as “communal” during an earlier interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Idris explained that his comment on the troubled Benue was misconstrued.
“I want to apologise as a person for the misconception of my statement at the press conference in Abuja. I was trying to say that Nigerians should live together and stay together as one family. But I was misinterpreted,” he said.
To further restore the confidence of the people so that he could effectively perform his assignment in the state, the IGP went on to say that he didn’t mean to say communities in Benue were fighting, but he referred to Nigerians as a whole community, being a public office holder who couldn’t have singled out a tribe or ethnic group in the event of what he spoke about.
Police appeal
On that note, Idris appealed to the people to cooperate with the police as he maintained that Nigeria would remain united and wax stronger as efforts were being made to nip in the bud, challenges threatening the country’s unity for the needed peace to prevail.
He further intimated in the course of the town hall meeting with the stakeholders that 10 units of mobile police detachment comprising of 663 operatives, one unit of police special force as well as intelligence and a crack team of investigators were deployed to the state.
Idris also disclosed that he would comb the state in three days before returning to Abuja to brief the president on his findings after the cross-section of people had expressed their minds about the worrying situation. It was indeed, obvious that the apology to an extent doused the high tension with which the people at the meeting had earlier expressed their grievances to the IGP for preferring neighbouring Nasarawa State where he allegedly spent the first night on January 9 rather than Benue, his primary point of assignment.
They had their doubts over Idris’s ability to carry out anything meaningful in the state as two policemen had been killed on the night of Monday January 8 by the gunmen who besieged a police detachment at Awashuwa village in Logo LGA and their bodies recovered from the nearby bush the Tuesday morning which preceded the IG’s coming to Makurdi.
The attackers had seized many villages in Logo and Guma LGAs, including Awashuwa community where the slain security operatives camp was. A detachment of mobile policemen from Mopol 13 was stationed at the time their assailants unleashed mayhem on the police facility, killing the two cops and leaving one other in critical condition.
Some personnel of the Benue State Police Command who went on an aerial surveillance led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, DCP Abdul Gimba, had a stop over at Awashuwa while the corpses of the slain policemen were being evacuated.
“Our men came under attack at Awashuwa in Logo LGA of the state. They were ambushed by the herdsmen who had tried to attack them earlier in the day but they were repelled. Two of our men were killed and their rifles were taken away,” Gimba said.
Before then, over 73 people had been killed by the invading gunmen between January 1 and 3, prompting the earlier deployment of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Joshak Habila who arrived the state on Friday, January 5 with a chopper for surveillance including a special anti-terrorist force of the police whose operation extended beyond the shores of Benue to neighbouring Nasarawa, Taraba and Kogi states.
On Habila’s arrival, the police commenced air surveillance of the troubled areas in the state in a bid to wade off attacks so that villagers who fled their homes in droves could return.
Habila at a news conference before the operation began said the approach among other strategies already in place was meant to put an end to the incessant invasion of rural dwellers as he warned those who may want to disobey the antigrazing law recently put in place in the state that they were in for a tough time with the police as they would be dealt with accordingly to ensure that the law succeeds.
These efforts were however attributed to the IGP’s strategic move to restore calm in affected areas as he visited a few affected areas in the state before going back on January 12, leaving behind his DIG, Habila, who on same day deployed more troops to surmount security challenges confronting troubled vicinities.
“The problem in Benue is nothing to be afraid of. You will go there and ensure peace,” Habila charged his troops.
He told his men not to go the troubled areas and chase the people away but to encourage inhabitants who fled their homes to return, warning also against accidental discharge by the policemen as he urged them to ensure the protection of lives and property of the people they have been deployed to protect.
The DIG further assured the policemen that he would always be in the field with them, as he emphasised that the IGP had drafted him to Benue on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the success of the assignment. Habila added that the police would work in collaboration with all other security organisations in boundary states of Taraba, Nasarawa and possibly Kogi if need be.
Since then however, the over 80, 000 displaced people in five different camps are yet to return to their homes as the sacked villages appear not yet safe for human habitation just as the police are believed to have been also unable to access the places.
Disatisfaction as attacks continue
A community leader in one of the affected LGAs, Chief Joseph Anawah, said, “It is not safe for people to go back home. Personally, I think the IGP’s coming has not helped any issue. While he was in the state, the killings were still going on and even as he left, the killings continued. Sadly, he hasn’t made any arrest of the killers to my knowledge.”
Anawah added, “The gunmen have been left on their own to parade freely with their AK-47 rifles in the affected areas. Even when we alerted the security operatives of their presence, they won’t go there to arrest them, maybe they are afraid. Honestly, I haven’t felt the impact of the IGP’s coming.”
Lingering threats from herdsmen
Governor Samuel Ortom at a stakeholders meeting in Makurdi on Monday, commended the security operatives deployed to the state as he stressed that their coming had reduced crisis in the state but worried that tension was building up at the Agatu axis following pressure by some armed herders to cross the River Benue from the Nasarawa side into the area to openly graze their animals.
Similarly, a leader of one of the umbrella socio-cultural organisations in the state, Ominy’Igede, Chief Ode Enyi, admitted that the IGP’s coming had to a considerable extent doused tension but that there were yet threats by herders which had persisted with no one in particular addressing such.
“As we speak, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Okpokwu and other local governments areas affected are currently under threat from the killer herders. It does not appear that the security operatives are checking this build up,” Enyi said.
It would be recalled that on January 21, a group, the Tiv Professional Group (TPG), asked President Muhammadu Buhari to remove the Inspector General of Police from office over what they described as his incompetence and complacency.
The group led by its chairman, Professor Zacharys Anger Gundu, said the demand was in reaction to an alleged, “genocide and planned ethnic cleansing of Benue people and other ethnic minorities by some herder militia.”
Gundu who was speaking on behalf of the group at a press conference in Makurdi, alleged that the IGP had compromised in his duties with an open partisanship with herders as he recalled that while the gunmen carried out unprovoked attacks in virtually all six geopolitical zones of the country, Benue communities alone had been attacked 49 times in five years.
Reacting, the new Police Commissioner for Benue State Command, Fatai Owoseni, said 11 people had been arrested in connection with the killings since the deployment of the IGP to the state.
Owoseni urged further cooperation of the general public with the police as he said no stone was being left unturned in its commitment to secure lives and property.
As we speak, Agatu, Oju, Obi, Okpokwu and other local governments areas affected are currently under threat from the killer herders. It does not appear that the security operatives are checking this build up,” Enyi said