THE TARABA, PLATEAU KILLING FIELDS
These are evidence of another embarrassing failure of intelligence
No fewer than 100 persons have been killed as violence escalates in parts of Taraba and Plateau States in recent weeks. In Taraba, hard hit are Kerim-Lamido and Takum, the home council of former Defence Minister Lt. General T.Y Danjuma (rtd) the governor -elect, Mr. Darius Ishaku and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Mark Useni. But as bloody as the war of attrition between the Tiv and the Kutep communities of Taraba seems to be, there are more casualties in neighbouring Plateau State where fresh attacks by unknown gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have left dozens of people dead.
The latest round of violence in Taraba was reportedly ignited by a reprisal attack allegedly carried out by soldiers who had earlier lost nine of their men to unknown gunmen in one of the villages, even though that is being disputed by the military authority. According to media reports, a few days earlier, some Fulani gunmen had attacked and killed six soldiers who were on routine patrol while three were declared missing only for their bodies to be discovered a few days later. In retaliation, some people in uniform invaded the area in what soon spiralled out of control. The Taraba tragedy is as familiar a story as the killings in Plateau State where a mix of religion and ethnicity has claimed hundreds of lives in
WHY HAS THERE BEEN NO SINGLE PROSECUTION IN THE TWO STATES EVEN WHEN MORE THAN A THOUSAND PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MURDERED AS A RESULT OF THE CRISIS IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS?
recent months.
What makes the current situation in both states particularly tragic is that there seems to be no solution in sight as one round of violence breeds another in what has become a vicious cycle of revenge. In the last few years, there had been, at different times in the two states, mayhem and wanton killings of innocent people who were ordinarily going about their daily lives before getting caught in the crossfire of the elite politics of who gets what. That essentially is at the root of all the violence in both Taraba and Plateau States regardless of the interpretations being put on them.
While we urge the critical stakeholders in Plateau and Taraba States to try and identify the root causes of all the frictions and come together to find workable solutions, we believe that the relevant authorities also have a crucial role to play. Indeed, the inability of the security agencies to effectively nip in the bud this premeditated and dastardly waste of human lives is once more a clear case of intelligence failure in the polity.
There are several questions begging for answers: Why has there been no single prosecution in the two states even when more than a thousand people have been murdered as a result of the crisis in the last couple of months? Also, both the federal and the state governments have, at different times, established judicial commissions and administrative panels of enquiry to investigate these crises. What are their findings and recommendations? What actions have been taken on the reports generated by those committees? Does this suggest a complicit act from those whose job it is to protect human life or is it a clear case of indifference or outright ignorance of what the job requires?
The fact that people die and Nigerians move on unperturbed is fast depicting us as a people who place little or no premium on human lives. Yet when this becomes a way of life, those who kill would want to recreate the scenes more often almost like any addict who goes on the high by reliving his addiction. That today is the tragedy of vast areas in Plateau and Taraba States where killing is indeed fast becoming a way of life.