By Abel Zwànke, Lafia

The Zumunta Association USA Inc., a Pan-Northern Nigerian diaspora group based in Washington, D.C., has strongly condemned the ongoing spate of killings in Plateau State and other parts of Northern Nigeria, calling on the Federal Government to take immediate and decisive action to end the bloodshed.

In a statement on Tuesday by the National President Bitrus Sunday stated that the association described the killings as senseless and brutal, expressing deep concern over the increasing frequency and scale of the attacks that have claimed the lives of scores of men, women, and children.

“This disturbing trend has become a national crisis,” the association said.

“We are compelled to ask — is there a functioning government in place? Are we at war?”

The group lamented the apparent lack of effective security response and accountability from authorities, stating that the victims are more than just statistics.

“These are human lives — lives cut short without cause, leaving behind grieving families and shattered communities,” the statement read.

Zumunta Association emphasized that the violence must be investigated thoroughly, with root causes such as land disputes, political manipulation, religious tension, or reprisals identified and addressed.

“The nation demands answers, and more importantly, action,” the association stressed, while reaffirming its commitment to non-violent conflict resolution.

“Peace cannot be achieved if the perpetrators of violence are not held accountable, and if justice continues to elude the victims. Dialogue, mediation, and proactive community engagement must replace silence, neglect, and impunity,” the statement added.

The group also expressed the emotional toll on its members abroad who are frequently confronted with questions from their host communities about the recurring violence in Nigeria.

“It is disheartening and embarrassing that we must explain why these killings continue in a country that claims to uphold democracy and rule of law,” the association noted.

Zumunta Association called on the Federal Government, security agencies, traditional leaders, civil society organizations, and religious institutions to prioritize the protection of lives and property.

“This crisis must not be allowed to fester any further. Enough is enough,” the association declared.

From Joseph Ebi Kanjo, Benin

The Edo State Police Command has disclosed that another set of four hunters who came from Kano State were intercepted by operatives of the Edo Security Network with arms and ammunition when they arrived in the state.

Police Public Relations Officer, Edo State Command, Moses Yamu, disclosed this in a statement Saturday night.

He said the discourse became necessary in order to dispel the misinformation currently ongoing on social media that four herdsmen armed with guns were arrested at a hotel in the state and handed over to the police.

According to the statement, contrary to the report, those apprehended were hunters and not herdsmen.

 In the statement, the suspects were named as Yusuf Abdulkarim, Mujaheed Garba, Shittu Idris, and Jamilu Habibu.

According to the statement, items recovered from them include:  Three Dane guns, six empty cartridges, three half-filled cartridges, four cutlasses and two daggers were recovered from the suspects.

“The Edo State Police Command is aware of misinformation on social media that four herdsmen armed with guns were arrested at Americanus Hotel on Osemwenkhae Street after Big Joe Motors, Ramat Park, Orogbeni Quarters and handed over to the police.

“The command wishes to inform the general public that four suspects: Yusuf Abdulkarim, Mujaheed Garba, Shittu Idris, and Jamilu Habibu, intercepted by a member of the Edo Security Network with three Dane guns, six empty cartridges, three half-filled cartridges, four cutlasses and two daggers were swiftly taken over by officers from the Ikpoba Hill Police Station.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that they are hunters, not herdsmen. They were from Doguwa in Kano State, heading to Uvbe community in Orhionwon Local Government Area of Edo State. Meanwhile, an investigation is ongoing.

“The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonika, wishes to use this opportunity to discourage residents of the state from circulating wrong information capable of causing unnecessary tension,” the statement reads.

By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo announced on 10 April that the State and Federal Governments have decided to investigate the killings in Uromi of sixteen “hunters” from Kano State.

Exactly one week before, he had flown to Kano and paid compensation to the families of the sixteen.

This gave the impression that investigations had been conducted and concluded finding the sixteen innocent hunters and not bandits.

The Uromi people are not opposed to any transparent investigation of the 27 March violence. They are telling their stories, insisting they must be heard, demanding that crass generalization must be avoided, and asserting that any transparent investigation must equally take into consideration the concrete conditions that led to the violence.

Questions must continuously be asked for they are critical tools in understanding, appreciating, tackling, and resolving problems. Besides, questions help promote critical thinking, gain beneficial knowledge, discover gaps, foster meaningful dialogue, encourage collaboration, build trust, take informed decisions, and implement practical programmes, plans, and projects.

But the concrete conditions which lead to problems, including violent ones, must equally be investigated, as they expose the underlying and immediate causes; the forces and actors involved; and what is to be done to avoid violence.

Without these, the outcome of any investigation will be, what the Hausa people call, dogon turanci – ‘groundless, senseless, meaningless, and useless grammar’. Grammar that mystifies issues, complicates matters, inflames passion, deepens hatred, and further aggravates the crises by compelling people to take their faith into their hands.

The Uromi people insist that the violence which led to the killing of sixteen “travelling hunters” was only an aspect – the climax – of the physical and psychological violence Fulani bandits/terrorists have subjected them to for years. One told ‘Saturday Vanguard’ of 5 April that bandits/terrorists: “kidnap poor men, they kidnap our women, they rape our women, and they insert sticks in their private parts…”

Another said that the bandits/terrorists: “fed a newborn baby to their dogs in the mother’s presence… She (the mother) is still living with the trauma… After this incident, they still asked for ransom before they (mother and father) were released.”

One Esan king, HRH Solomon Itoya Itoya Iluobe, bitterly complained in January, that: “Our women are raped on their farms, and in some cases, they even set them ablaze. I have paid ransom three times to Fulani herders – they kidnapped my elder sister and two others from this community. Even last month, I paid a ransom. We are tired. We can’t sleep peacefully. Travelling on these roads requires security. Whoever supports their stay in our forests must tell them to leave. We need protection before we are all wiped out.”

Where was the Edo State Government (EDSG), the police and other security forces when all these were happening? What did they do? Why did they leave people to their faith?

Uromi indigenes are still insisting that the sixteen people killed were neither “hunters”, nor “travelers”, but bandits/terrorists. They are insisting that huge cash, arms and ammunition were found in the Dangote trailer which carried them. Why were these not displayed for the world to see?

They are still asking why the trailer refused to be checked in Ubiaja by the vigilante squad. Why, even in Uromi, was it a tipper, fully loaded with sand, that was used to stop the trailer?

Some Uromi indigenes kidnapped in the past, who were at the scene of the violence, identified some of the “travelling hunters” as those who kidnapped them. They also asked, if they were hunters, why was any animal not found in the trailer? Another said: “They use the weapons they carry to hunt and kill their fellow human beings, not animals.”

So, where were governments and security agencies in all these crises?

The on-line ‘Daily Excessive’ newspaper quoted the sister of one of the sixteen victims who said: “My brother is not a hunter; he is a terrorist who has been going from village to village, killing people. Before he and his fellow terrorists set out on their last mission… my mother warned him, saying, ‘The South East is not like the North, where people are killed indiscriminately.’ But he refused to listen. Now the truth is out.”

Some have argued that it is not only Fulani that are bandits/terrorists; that other ethnicities participate as informants/collaborators and even kidnappers! Videos to this effect are circulating in social media. Definitely true. But whether in the north, south, east, west or centre of Nigeria, Fulani constitute over 95 per cent of the people terrorizing others.

Fulani bandits/terrorists created the conditions which others are capitalizing to kidnap and terrorise their people. Worst still, while other ethnic groups severely punish, ostracize, expel and even inflict jungle justice on their informants/collaborators and kidnappers, some top Fulani aristocrats, politicians, clerics, and even academics, shamelessly rationalize, justify and defend the bandits/terrorists.

Uromi violence was triggered by EDSG lackadaisical attitude and ineptitude towards security. The insecurity that the vigilantes were trying to tackle was what the government, in the first instance, should have been doing. If the vigilantes did not do it well, then, EDSG must bear a greater responsibility.

But where was the Federal Government of Nigeria when sophisticated weapons flooded Nigeria? What did state governments do when these bandits/terrorists took over their forests? What did governments do when rag-tag, gun-carrying, blood-thirsty, human-hunting, and blood-shedding bandits/terrorists were recklessly terrorizing people throughout the federation?

Where was the FGN when bandits/terrorists were destroying farms; burning food granaries; imposing fines and taxes on villages; raping women, children and even men; feeding infants to their dogs; sacking villages; desecrating places of worship; and indiscriminately shooting, injuring, maiming, and massacring people, especially in the rural areas?

Where was the Federal Government when Muslim faithful, observing Friday afternoon congregational prayers, were killed and beheaded? When churches were invaded and worshippers mercilessly massacred during Sunday Services? When clerics were abducted, killed and corpses thrown into bushes? When traditional rulers were killed in Kachia and Gobir?

What did the Federal Government do when primary, secondary, and Islamic school children were abducted in their hundreds? When students of tertiary institutions were kidnapped and wasted?

Why is it that whenever victims of banditry/terrorism are defending themselves, they are disarmed, but the marauding bandits/terrorists are left with their sophisticated weapons?

Have they seriously taken time to investigate why victims of terrorism are now and then bombed from the air?

What did the Federal Government do, when bandits/terrorists caught in the act and, taken to police stations or courts, are released? The bandits/terrorists even boast that they will be released when caught!

Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, confirmed this, when he said, that: “We arrested the bandits, and they confessed to killing people and possessing weapons. They had contacts in Abuja who assured them that they would be released even before being taken to court. However, we received news yesterday that they were granted bail.”

The Edo State Government and Federal Government should take the main blame for the escalating violence in the country. They failed to tackle the psychological and physical violence inflicted on Nigerians and non-Nigerians by the bandits/terrorists.

There would have been no resistance to the various forms of terrorism, if there had not been terrorism in the first place. Whenever and wherever injustice becomes the norm and the law, resistance naturally becomes an obligatory duty.