Danjuma’s Security Concern causes Anxiety

Sat, Mar 31, 2018 | By publisher


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An outburst by Theophilous Yakubu Danjuma, a retired lieutenant general and former Defence minister, over insecurity in the country is causing more than a stir in the political circles as Nigerians see the danger ahead

By Olu Ojewale

THE dust raised by Theophilus Danjuma, a retired lieutenant-general and former Defence minister, by his advice to Nigerians to start defending themselves against Fulani herdsmen and not to look up to the military for help, has been causing catarrh and serious headaches across the country.

In an unusual character, the former army chief while speaking at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba State University in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on Saturday, March 24, lamented that in spite of the cultural diversity in the state, which was supposed to be used as a tool to bring unity among the people, there were armed bandits who come into the state to connive with the military to kill people and cause ethnic cleansing.

Consequently, Danjuma admonished: “You must rise to protect yourselves from these people; if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die.

“I ask all of you to be on the alert and defend your country, defend your state.” He said the unnecessary killings, which is akin to an act of ethnic cleansing being perpetuated against the people of Taraba, specifically, and Nigeria, at large, must stop.

The former chief of army staff, who received the award of honorary Doctor of Science from the University, was not saying anything new. What he said only confirmed the long-held view that Fulani herdsmen appeared to have the support of some persons among the security forces in the country. But the allegation coming from him has again reminded Nigerians of various atrocities attributed to security forces in dealing with some matters.

Apparently to avoid anarchy and to lessen its impact on the generality of Nigerians, a good number of politicians and security officials appear to have been on damage control mission, asking Nigerians to tread carefully and not take Danjuma’s advice to heart.

Mansur Dan-Ali, the minister of defence, in rejecting claims by the elder statesman, said Danjuma’s comment was an invitation to anarchy, and, therefore, should be disregarded by well-meaning Nigerians.

Defence_Minister_Brig_Gen_Mansur_Dan_Ali_rtd_5
Mansur Dan-Ali (rtd)

In a press statement issued by Tukur Gusau, a colonel and his public relations officer, the minister said the retired general’s allegation that the military colluded with bandits to kill people was uncalled for and that his admonition that Nigerians should defend themselves was uncalled for.

Hence, he argued: “The efforts of the  Nigeria Armed Forces towards restoration of peace, security and order in Nigeria are evidently clear and Nigerians continue to show appreciation for changing the security environment from what it was before.

“If anyone has evidence of wrongdoings or dereliction of duty against our troops he should please bring forward such evidence through the appropriate channels for necessary action.”

In a similar fashion, the Nigerian Army, on Sunday, March 25, in a statement signed by Texas Chukwu, a brigadier general and its spokesman, said the Army viewed Danjuma’s statement as most unfortunate, especially “at critical time that the military has embarked upon the demilitarisation of the North Central region of the country.’’

Chukwu said contrary to Danjuma’s accusation, the Army remained impartial in its handling of crises.  He thus, asked Nigerians to disregard Danjuma’s advice and enjoined the citizenry to go about their day-to-day activities without fear and be law abiding.

The army warned that “anyone caught with arms and ammunition will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the land.”

But Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State supported the call by Danjuma that Nigerians should defend themselves.

On the criticisms that followed the self-defence advice, Ortom said people misrepresented the message. According to him, it was a normal thing for people to defend themselves from any attacks.

He said: “You can’t just wait in your house and allow someone to come and kill you. You can resist the person, but you don’t necessarily need to have arms. I think that was what the minister was saying.  There is need for people to arise to defend themselves, not necessarily using weapons that are banned.

Buhari
Buhari

“You can use a stick and disarm someone. Some years ago, I was able to disarm armed robbers bearing seven AK 47 rifles without anything. I think that is the kind of thing he is trying to say. Nigerians should rise up to do this. Security matters are not just left in the hands of security men, it requires every one of us to put our heads together and be courageous to be able to surmount it,” he told State House reporters on Monday, March 26.

Similarly, Akin Oyebode, a professor of Law and former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, said in an interview that Danjuma’s advice was not a call to anarchy.

Oyebode said people had to protect themselves when threatened and therefore, supported the general’s assertion that the country had not demonstrated its capability to protect Nigerians.

Oyebode said: “Nigeria being a failing state, unable to render protection to its citizens cannot consider General Danjuma’s call an invitation to anarchy.”

Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, on its part called on the United Nations, UN, and President Muhammadu Buhari to launch full scale investigation into allegations made by Danjuma.

Yinka Odumakin, the publicity secretary, after a meeting held by the group in Akure, Ondo State, on Sunday, March 25, noted that if not well probed by the UN and Buhari, such statement by Danjuma against the military could lead to serious security breaches and lack of trust among ethnic groups in the country.

Afenifere expressed dismay that nobody had been sanctioned or convicted over the incessant herdsmen’s attacks on farmers across the country.

According to the Yoruba leaders, President Buhari must be more decisive in dealing with security issues, hence the need for the federal government to investigate and brought to book any military officer found to be compromising in Benue, Taraba killings and other parts of the country.

Indeed, rather than castigating Danjuma for his outburst, Taraba State indigenes have also been narrating their ordeals to show that the retired general spoke from his unalloyed concern for Nigeria.

Shiban Tikari, the chairman of Takum Local Government, said the Army began “Operation Cat Race” on February 15, without notifying him and others. Tikari said he reported to Governor Darius Ishaku before the Army served the governor a notification letter on March 1.

“The commencement of the Cat Race has caused resumed attacks and killings by Fulani herdsmen. Many more are now displaced,” he said.

Ortom
Samuel Ortom, Benue State Governor

Rimamsikwe Karma, chairman of Ussa local government council, similarly alleged that the soldiers were harassing his people, “collecting kitchen knives and cutlasses from them while herdsmen were walking freely with AK-47 riffles, burning homes and killing people without provocation. The herdsmen come with machine guns. They are killers; they are not the herdsmen we know – who had lived with us over the years.”

Jumai Andeyaba, a widow, told reporters in Jalingo that she had left home on Tuesday, March 20, for a funeral, when soldiers broke into her home, harassed her daughters and stole her N150, 000.

Government officials and state residents allegedly fingered Ibrahim Babatunde Gambari, a lieutenant colonel and the commanding officer of Takum Barracks, as complicit in the whole matter. Gambari claimed that he had no authority to react to the allegations.

Indeed, it was learnt that Governor Ishaku on August 11, 2017, wrote to the National Security Adviser, NSA, requesting that Gambari be moved from his post as the commanding officer of the 93 Battalion, Takum, for his “disappointing conduct, in spite of huge security challenges in the state.”

The letter, citing a case of collusion, said some herdsmen who attacked communities in Takum and Ussa local government areas on May 6, last year, were later overpowered by security agents and their 224 cows seized and given to Gambari so as to help track down the culprits.

Instead, Gambari reportedly released the cows to the culprits without the knowledge of the governor.

Besides, based on the complaint, the NSA, in his reply, signed by AT Famadewa, a brigadier general, on August 29, 2017, was said to have requested the chief of army staff to “investigate the allegations against the commanding officer by the governor.”

Besides, on Saturday night, January 20, residents of Wukari alleged that a chopper had dropped arms in the pastoral village of Jubu.

“Our governor (Ishaku) had cried out that he received threats that the state would be attacked in 10 days.

“Ten hours after the governor’s alarm, the killer-herdsmen struck and killed four people, among them a couple. Yet, the killers were not found, and the whole thing was downplayed,” a resident alleged.

Irked by the development, on January 26, 2016, Ishaku wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari, saying: “It is very clear that these attacks can no longer be viewed as inter-ethnic crises.

“It can’t be viewed as communal clashes. There is definitely more to it.”

Besides, a government official claimed that close to 50 villages in southern and central Taraba exist only in name as Fulani herdsmen had wiped out the indigenous population and were commandeering the villages.

Similarly, Ortom blamed the federal government, the service chiefs, and the Department of State Services, DSS, to whom he said he wrote to inform of the two recent attacks that claimed 102 lives in his state this year.

Kanu
Kanu

Perhaps, more harrowing for the people of Benue State, was that Ibrahim Idris, the inspector general of Police, initially dismissed the invasion as communal clash and later apologised. Even when it was reported that Idris did not obey President Buhari’s order to immediately relocate to the state to take charge of things, nothing was done to rebuke him.

As if that was not bad enough, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State said he was disappointed with the way security agents handled an intelligence report he got 24 hours before armed invaders killed scores in the state early this year. Yari said: “I alerted the security agencies,” who deployed inadequate personnel that were easily overrun by a group of gangsters.

This gave vent to the belief that Fulani militia seemed to be enjoying some form of protection.

Indeed, in the first 10 weeks of 2018 alone, more than 1350 people were killed, largely, as a result of violent killer herdsmen attacks. Some of the activities have been described as pure criminality. Both Benue and Taraba states have done mass burials for victims of the attacks twice each in the past two months. But killings are yet to stop and cognate arrests have not been made to get the criminals to stop.

Clashes between herdsmen and farming communities are not restricted to Benue and Taraba states alone. Amnesty International in its 2017/2018 report said: “Inter-communal violence linked to lingering clashes between herdsmen and farming communities resulted in more than 549 deaths and the displacement of thousands in 12 states. In February, 21 villagers were killed in an attack by suspected herdsmen in three communities in the Atakad district of Kaura, Kaduna State. Witnesses said the herdsmen killed, looted, and burned the villagers’ houses.

“In June, a communal clash in the Mambilla Plateau of Taraba State left scores of people dead, mostly herdsmen and their families. In September, at least 20 people were killed when suspected herdsmen invaded Ancha village in the Miango district of Jos, Plateau state, after a misunderstanding between villagers and herdsmen residing in the community. In October, 27 people were killed by suspected herdsmen in a classroom where they were sheltering after three days of attacks in the Nkyie-Doghwro community of Bassa, Plateau state. In December, herdsmen attacked at least five villages in Demsa LGA in Adamawa state to avenge the massacre of up to 57 people, mostly children, in November in nearby Kikan community. Residents described being attacked by a fighter jet and a military helicopter as they attempted to flee. At least 86 people were killed by the herdsmen and air force bombing.”

AI similar gave a damning report about the military for its attacks on the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.  It accused the Army of killing unarmed 10 IPOB members and injuring 12 others in Umuahia, Abia State, on September 14. The military claimed that they were killed when they tried to resist the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, their leader, at his home. Witnesses said that, in addition to those killed, at least 10 IPOB members were shot and taken away by soldiers.

Indeed, the group, earlier on September 10, 2017, took to social media to report that the Nigerian Army had laid an ambush on the residence of Kanu. The group claimed that the military men had tried to forcefully enter the premises of Kanu and on failure to do so, had began firing shots at security officers and unarmed IPOB members around the area. The secessionist group claimed that three persons were killed and 20 others severely injured.

Ibrahim Idris
IGP Ibrahim Idris

Kanu himself claimed that the soldiers stormed his residence and injured several occupants in an attempt to kill him.

In response to the accusation, the Nigerian Military shared a video reporting that the IPOB members had attacked its armoured personnel carrier as it drove by the residence of Kanu. The Nigerian Army denied any attack was carried out on the premises of the IPOB leader.

That notwithstanding, it was common knowledge that during the operation python dance carried out by the military in the South East, several members of the outlawed organisation were killed. Subsequently, the federal government tagged the IPOB as a terrorist organisation.

In a statement issued on Sunday, March 25, signed by Emma Powerful, media and publicity secretary, the IPOB described Danjuma’s statement as “crying over spilt milk.”

It said what Danjuma said was what Kanu had foreseen many years back.

The group said if people like Danjuma, who vilified Kanu then, had supported the IPOB leader’s view, Nigeria would not have degenerated into a state where life meant little or nothing.

In the press statement entitled, ‘Only if they had listened to him (Kanu) four years ago,’ IPOB said: “We state without any equivocation that all those killed by marauding Fulani herdsmen and the Nigerian military that provides them covert support died in vain because people like Danjuma initially supported the oppressors and vilified Mazi Nnamdi Kanu instead of paying careful attention to what he was saying.

“The same way the likes of Danjuma from the Middle Belt have woken up to the reality of the failed state that Nigeria has become,  so will the South-East governors,  Ohaneze Ndigbo and PANDEF do in the coming months.”

Nevertheless, Martin Luther Agwai, a retired general and former chief of Defence Staff, in an interview with Realnews published March 4, said the issue of herdsmen and Nigerians at large must be handled with utmost care. “So an ethnic dimension has been created into the problem. Then most of the herders are Fulanis. The farmers, the aborigenes, most of them for want of words are pagans or Christians. So you see another dimension – religion has been created. So if we do not handle it properly, the ethnic or religious issue will create an ethno-religious conflict that could blow out of proportion that this country will not be able to contain,” he said.

Agwai
Martin Luther Agwai

Besides, Agwai said he was not convinced that the military had been taking side with Fulani herdsmen in attacks on farmers and communities that where clashes have been reported. He told Realnews: “I have not seen a direct evidence and unfortunately I am now a common Nigerian citizen and have no access to these things so I cannot say. But I believe and I am convinced that the Nigerian military will never do that. Remember that there are a lot of warlords in Nigeria and in other parts of the world. Remember that Boko Haram told us that they are the ISIS of West Africa. So that means they have some connection and we know and Boko Haram has testified and people have testified that they are in contact with the rebel group in Mali and Somalia. So they are also becoming an international body not only within the bothers of Nigeria. So I won’t be surprised if in their bid also for survival tactics tried to paint their helicopters in the colour of Nigerian military.  I won’t say it is impossible in the modern world we are in. But I do not believe that our military will do that.”

Be that as it may, the Punch editorial of Thursday, March 29, titled ‘Understanding Danjuma’s call for self-defence’ by calling Buhari to handle the situation carefully to avoid implosion.

It said: “Buhari can still save the country from imploding by first, fulfilling his oath of office to protect the lives and property of all Nigerians. Crime must be punished. Dan-Ali, Idris and Abdulrahman Dambazau, the Minister of Interior, should stop acting like spokesmen for Myetti Allah. Killing, raping, looting and burning down farmland and houses, as the Fulani herdsmen terrorists do, are reprehensible and perpetrators should be apprehended and prosecuted,” it added: “As long as Buhari’s security and inner circle remain skewed in favour of pro-Fulani personalities, he will deny himself unbiased diagnoses and advice. His Presidency is failing on many fronts because of his rabid sectionalism and the bias of his appointees, whom he has serially failed to rein in even when they demonstrate partisanship and crass incompetence.”

Consequently, the Punch editorial enjoined the Presidency to investigate Danjuma’s allegations. It noted that the elder statesman’s was only the latest in long-running accusations against the military, police and DSS. Thus, it asked that the agencies should be overhauled and complicit officers identified and flushed out.

“We should avoid the Afghanistan situation, where treacherous servicemen turn their guns on comrades instead of the Taliban enemy.

“Buhari and his team are trifling with the fragile cohesion of Nigeria. A country with a divided military and security forces is in mortal danger of implosion, a one-way street to Somalia or the worst years of sectarian bloodletting in Lebanon. Idris, Dan-Ali and other security functionaries cannot inspire confidence in all parties; Buhari should, therefore, no longer delay in shaking things up to reflect the country’s diversity,” Punch admonished.

But whether Buhari will accept the unsolicited advice is anybody’s guess.

– Mar. 31, 2018 @ 4:00 GMT |

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