A dark cloud
Gunmen invaded Zaki Akpuuna and Diom communities of Mbaterem district in the Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, killing 24…
Gunmen invaded Zaki Akpuuna and Diom communities of Mbaterem district in the Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, killing 24 residents. Ukum is one of the three hotspots in the Sankera axis, where bandits suspected to be gang members of the slain Terwase Akwaza, aka Gana, hold sway. Other hotspots are Logo and Katsina-Ala. Similarly, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) reported 15 deaths, the burning of 78 houses and the disappearance of over 2,000 cattle after an alleged invasion of their communities in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
In the history of Nigeria’s counterinsurgency operations, one dominant theme stands out: the Nigerian government considers operations against armed groups as successful when the leadership or leaders of those groups are taken out or killed. The government’s smite-the-shepherd approach, despite not completely eliminating threats, has continued to dominate government strategy, with a long list stretching from the Maitatsine Riots of the 1980s to the IPOB saga in the present day. When operatives of the Nigerian military extrajudicially eliminated Terwase “Gana” Akwaza in September 2020, it failed to sustain the momentum by mopping up his lieutenants. Gana’s group responded to his killing in March 2021 by neutralising Terkula Suswam, the younger brother of the former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam. This is reminiscent of the evolution of Boko Haram following the murder of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, by the police in 2009. Furthermore, a 2020 military operation to clear out Islamist group Darul-Salam from Toto local government area in Nasarawa was poorly done, so much so that remnants of the group resurfaced in Kaduna and were implicated in the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train in March 2022. The 2020 operation in Nasarawa came eleven years after the group was ousted from their home base in Niger State. Gana’s group, which used to pillage the Wukari axis of the Benue-Taraba boundary, simply shifted base and moved to Katsina-Ala where they have been operating freely. They have also been implicated in the ethnic clashes between Tivs in Benue and Jukuns in Taraba. While there has not been a recent reprisal attack against the bandits in Benue, the story has been different in Plateau. The government’s failure to rein in attacks by armed Fulanis has increased calls and sentiments for collective and personal armed self-defence, translating into action. Miyetti Allah’s alarm is unlikely to elicit any public sympathy for the plight of its members who have been accused of being masterminds of the killings in Mangu LGA. This is wrong on all sides, but ultimately, the failure lies with the state. All security failure is state failure, and with successive federal and state governments failing to find a sustainable solution to that particular crisis, all attempts to curb the flow of illegal small arms in conflict areas will be rendered worthless, and more groups will decide that the best way to go about things is self-help. It will not end well.