Police and the task of restoring sanity in Benue

The New Year killings, seventy three (73) in number, and wanton destruction in the Guma and Logo Local Government Areas of Benue State were nothing but sheer madness of frightening proportions. The perpetrators must not be allowed to get away with their humungous, reprehensible crime against the society. President Muhammadu Buhari appropriately captured the mood in his apt and prompt response. Beside condemning it in strongest terms, he also directed the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Kpotun Idris to immediately relocate to Benue State. The terse presidential order given to the IGP includes immediate restoration of law and order, prevention of further loss of lives, forestalling escalation of the crisis either within or beyond the state, as well as, hunting down and bringing to book, perpetrators of the Godforsaken dastardly act.

Mr. Idris went about his assignment sure-footedly. As a former Commissioner of the Nasarawa State Police Command who had similar experiences in handling the uprising of the Ombatse ethnic militia as well as, the herdsmenfarmers clashes in the border areas between Nasarawa and Benue States, the IGP would also have found his mission as going to familiar terrains.

While in Benue State, the IGP held consultations with eminent persons and strategic stakeholders in addition to his visits to the flash points of the catastrophe. At Anyili in particular, he made straight to the community’s centre where over 55,000 displaced persons are being sheltered as refugees. Those of the Anyili leaders, who spoke at the interface, commended President Buhari over his decision to send Mr. Idris on the mission because of their confidence in the IGP’s abilities to accomplish the task of restoring serenity. In response, the police boss promised to urgently look into the Anyili people’s request for the completion of the abandoned Mobile Police Force project. He said he agreed with their view that the permanent stationing of the Unit would go a long way in nipping in the bud, crises of such dimensions.

In a one day dash in Lafia, the capital of neighbouring Nasarawa State, before going back to Benue, IGP Idris held an interactive forum with various stakeholders, where he swore that the Police will thoroughly investigate allegation of Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, that the militia men who carried out the carnage, had been camped in Tunga, Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa. He was also in Tunga where he personally interacted with the traditional ruler and other community leaders, including, very significantly, the leader of the Tiv Community, Abraham K. Vighe, who is incidentally, a cousin to a Commissioner in Benue State and, the Fulani leader, Ardo Laminu.

At every point, IGP Ibrahim Idris has been preaching sermons on the imperative of peace, providing words of commiseration with the aggrieved and of assurance that the Police will ensure that justice is done to them. He told his audience at the Lafia interface with stakeholders: “As security officers, we do not demonise people but carry out impassioned actions geared toward ensuring peace and harmony in various communities”. And at his meeting with stakeholders in Makurdi, Mr. Idris declared: “I want to assure you that Police will not rest on its oars until these hoodlums are apprehended and brought to justice.”

In furtherance of the presidential order, Mr. Idris is of course, well aware that soothing words of placation or sermons on the essence of peace cannot, alone, achieve the desired objectives. Thus, the reason why a number of practical security measures have also been deployed by the Police Force in Benue and adjoining states. In this regard, the IGP announced fortification of existing Police presence with, “five additional Mobile Police Units” in the affected areas. With the Deputy Inspector General in charge of Operations in Command and Coordination, the police boss said, Police Aerial Surveillance Helicopters, Special Police Joint Intelligence and the Police Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD) have all been massively deployed to forestall further explosion as well as, comb for the evil perpetrators.

In accordance with reports, it is so far, so good. With the actions and strategies being put in place, the Police are visibly on top of the situation. For instance, while there has been relative serenity in the flash points, even with hundreds of people yet in refugee camps, the heavy presence of police personnel is conceivably, enough to ward off potential trouble makers. Much more refreshing are the reports that scores of suspects have been arrested and the police have said that they are on the trail of many more fleeing of the blood hounds.

However, the pertinent fact must not be lost on Mr. Ibrahim Idris and the apex political leadership of the country, that, sustainable peace and security in Benue State, as elsewhere, go far beyond what have been achieved in the ongoing police action. The situation calls for determined, courageous and frontal approach to the fundamental causative factors that have turned Benue State into a latent volcanic mountain that erratically erupts intermittently without warnings. What are the issues at stake? What are the grievances of the various factions at each other’s throats? Who are the masterminds who recruit and arm the foot soldiers? These and many more disturbing, critical questions must be addressed with the needed political will to apply the ensuing panacea arising from thorough clinical examination. The Benue recurring decimal of bloodletting is a phenomenon that carries with it dangerous illwinds. Like a cancerous growth, it is capable of engulfing the rest of us as far as we may be away from the theater of the crisis.

The recent Police outing in Benue has once again thrown up the lingering issues pertaining to the operational capacity of the nation’s primary security agency. The role of the Police in the security architecture of Benue State and other troubled spots would certainly have been enhanced if, the much talked about community policing had been working in the society. The Police would similarly have been more capable of detecting crimes if the agency had more number of personnel in its service. Just as, the Police Force has proved once again that, given the necessary crime fighting equipment, it can more effectively and robustly measure up to the challenges of insecurity such as the one perennially experienced in Benue and other states. In other words, investigation, intelligence and crime prevention as strategies of the Police might have detected the gathering storm and averted it before burgeoning into the conflagration that was Logo and Guma disaster. Adetayo wrote this piece from Lagos.