Nigerians started this week on a very grim note. More than a dozen people, precisely 16 Hausa travellers on their way from Port Harcourt to celebrate the Eid holiday in Kano, were intercepted by a group of local vigilante operatives in Uromi, a town in Edo State already under the siege of kidnappers and so-called cattle herders generally profiled to be Fulani or people of Northern Nigerian origin.
It was a nervous moment that led to interrogation about the identity of the travellers. This in turn led to a search that revealed an arms cache of 16 dane guns that were concealed beneath the cargo of the Dangote Cement truck they were travelling in. This discovery changed the story as the travellers who identified themselves as hunters were now suspected to be kidnappers, the actual group of outlaws that have made life unbearable for the people of Uromi.
Kidnappers, bandits and other criminal types that have outfoxed the security agencies, were the reason for the existence of the vigilantes. In the confusion that followed, a report has it, a member of the vigilante was stabbed and the others without delay fell on the travellers, beat and restrained them before finally setting them alight in an instance of unauthorised justice that was announced to the world in footages too difficult to view. These were gruesome and totally avoidable deaths.
Nobody deserves to go that way, especially where the victims’culpability has in no way been proven. Suspicion is not and cannot take the place of evidence. Even when proven, summary execution may not necessarily be the punishment for persons found to have turned the violent seizure of others for money into a lucrative trade. Anyone could be framed and made a victim of such mob action in such circumstances. It is a frightful reality we cannot condone even if in this present case the narrative around the activities and itinerary of the travellers raise a few unanswered questions.
Is it normal practice, based on our experiences as Nigerians, for hunters to hunt across multiple state boundaries? Where could these hunters have been going to or coming from? Where was their actual base- Kano, Port Harcourt or where? Where were they going with their weapons? Was it to continue with their hunting expedition in Kano or elsewhere? Were they game hunters, if yes, which types of animals were they after and how many of such expeditions have they engaged in recently? Many of the questions now sound merely academic as none but one of the travellers is now alive and that is the driver of the Dangote truck. From his account, he knows nothing about the travellers but had only offered them a ride out of pity after they hailed him from the roadside where they stood.
We can only pray that the families of these travellers be consoled as no amount of material compensation can relieve their sense of loss.
It was good to see both the Edo State government and Abuja rising quickly to douse the rising tension from that incident. Governor Monday Okpebholo was quick to act. He visited Uromi and the site of the gruesome murders and thereafter made his way to Kano to meet Abba Kabir Yusuf, the state governor. The leaders of the vigilantes at both the local and state levels in Edo have been either arrested or relieved of their position, while Abuja has also been quick in pouring oil on the troubled waters from Uromi. But all of these are reactive actions and they should not lead to the scapegoating of anyone, terrible as this incident was. We need to ask ourselves how we got to this point. It was in response to moments of mindless carnages perpetrated by criminals, kidnappers and bandits, masquerading as herders and what-not that vigilantism became an option in communities where the state had criminally abdicated its role.
In getting to the roots of the murders in Uromi, therefore, efforts should be made not to punish innocent people just because we want to be seen as working to punish offenders. In the circumstances where these killings occurred, good sense tend to take flight while emotion and a herd mentality takes over. It is possible that the vigilantes were themselves overwhelmed by the mob that responded to their call. Since footages exist of the murders in Uromi and some of those involved were actually recorded in the act, there have been calls for their arrest. Some of them have, indeed, been arrested. Except for the need to be seen as actually working and going after the perpetrators of this criminal act of multiple murders, Abuja ought to have left the prosecution of the suspects to the Edo State government. It’s about time we started showing more faith in our institutions, wherever they may be located. There is a level of mistrust of the ability of the Edo State government to act right beneath the decision to transfer the suspects to Abuja.
The same thing happened during a communal clash between the Northern Nigerian community and their Ife host in 2017. The suspects were transferred to Abuja for investigation and trial. But for us to get to where we ought to as a nation and prevent future occurrences like this, the latest incident has to be put in and juxtaposed against the broader context of previous inter-ethnic clashes and the responses to them. Governor Abba Yusuf has demanded compensation for the people killed in Uromi just as Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso did during a visit to Rauf Aregbesola after the clash of 2017. Governor Okpebholo has offered to pay compensation even before the demand came. But how often have incidents like these occurred in the North with neither any arrest nor compensation made? Not only were the faces of some of Deborah Samuel’s classmates who killed her available on camera, they were of known addresses but not one of them was prosecuted or pulled in for interrogation.
There have been many sectarian or inter-ethnic clashes in the North than elsewhere in Nigeria, from Southern Kaduna, to Plateau, Nassarawa and Benue yet there has been nothing by way of compensation to the victims. Beyond the question of unequal treatment of similar incidents, the question of each state taking responsibility for their own security again becomes imperative. It’s about time the last hurdle against the operation of state police is removed. With that done, we can hope for better policing of our communities by trained personnel. The governors have showed their readiness for this, President BolaTinubu has no excuse to delay things anymore. He is lucky that the proactive response of Mondy Okpebholo has taken the wind out of the sails of the usually hyper-alarmist opposition programmed to dance at moments of national tragedy.
The post The carnage in Uromi was avoidable, by Rotimi Fasan appeared first on Vanguard News.
