April 02, (THEWILL) – The killing last Friday of 16 Northern travelers along the Uromi-Ubiaja road in Edo State is an event that will live in infamy. Twenty-five travelers from Port Harcourt, en route to the North, specifically Kano, for the Eid el-fitri celebrations, were intercepted by vigilantes along the way. On the suspicion that they were kidnappers, they were lynched to death. Of the 25 individuals traveling together, nine managed to survive, but for the majority, it was a fatal encounter. Some of the victims hailed from the Bunkura and Rano Local Government Areas of Kano State, predominantly from the villages of Garko, Kibiya, Toronkawa, and Rano. These men left behind wives, children, and mothers. They were reportedly hunters, and the vigilantes’ suspicion arose from the fact that they were allegedly carrying dane guns and had dogs with them. It was a profoundly tragic incident. Madam Sadiya Sa’adu, for instance, lost her son, her brother, and her nephew: “They were not criminals; they were simply out to make an honest living. My son’s blood must not be spilled in vain,” she lamented.
One of the victims, 21-year-old Abdullahi Harisu, had been married for only four months. According to one account, the Edo Vigilante Commander allegedly ordered the killings, having concluded that the travelers were Boko Haram terrorists and kidnappers. Three of them were reportedly taken to the police station, with the vigilante commander informing the police that they had apprehended kidnappers. He then, disregarding the police presence, instructed that the remaining apprehended individuals should be killed by the vigilantes. Now, the communities of Bunkura and Rano LGAs are in mourning, with more orphans and widows created. Nigeria happened to the Uromi 16. When Nigeria happens to you, it signifies that the state has rendered you a victim of its numerous imperfections, and justice may never be served. In many other parts of the world, even in cases of unjust death, the law takes its course. However, in Nigeria, a nation of over 230 million people, when an entire village is razed due to jungle justice, the media generates fleeting righteous indignation, the public expresses momentary shock, and almost immediately, the country moves on. Everything that is fundamentally wrong with Nigeria is starkly evident in the Uromi tragedy. It is a bitter irony that Uromi, in that region, is the hometown of prominent nationalist and statesman Anthony Enahoro, and his brother Peter Enahoro – the inimitable “Peter Pan” – two brothers who championed the ideals of national peace and progress.
The Nigerian 1999 Constitution guarantees the right to life (Section 33), the right to the dignity of the human person (Section 34), freedom from discrimination (Section 42), and the right to freedom of movement (Section 41). The rights of the Uromi 25 to all these fundamental human rights were brutally violated. Only a court of law can determine the taking of a life after the accused has undergone the justice system, been afforded due process and a fair hearing, and it has been established that a criminal offense punishable by death has been committed under an existing law of the Federation of Nigeria. However, the situation has deteriorated to the point where vigilante groups of various affiliations across the country take the law into their own hands and dispense jungle justice. The vigilante group in Uromi reportedly went to the police station. What was the police response? It was the police’s duty to intervene and prevent the vigilantes from inflicting punishment and committing murder. We need to know the precise police station where the complaint was lodged, the officers on duty, and the exact actions or inactions that followed. Vigilantes informing the police that they had arrested Boko Haramists and kidnappers should have immediately prompted police intervention. Their inaction makes them complicit in the ensuing tragedy. The very least the police could have done was to ascertain whether the apprehended individuals carrying dane guns possessed the requisite licenses under the Firearms Act. The Nigerian Constitution further outlines the government’s duty to ensure the safety and welfare of every citizen (Section 14 (2b)) and affirms every Nigerian’s right to move freely, reside in, and enter and exit any part of Nigeria.
The dangerous and painful reality witnessed in Uromi and elsewhere is that these constitutional guarantees often remain unfulfilled. A Nigerian can leave home in the morning, only to encounter the road lying in wait, perilous and unforgiving, whether in the form of dilapidated roads, hazardous, unsecured container trucks, tankers carrying toxic and flammable cargo, or armed vigilantes and other criminals dispensing jungle justice and operating with impunity. This prevails because the state is in retreat, and because it has been captured by unscrupulous elements. The emergence of non-state actors, be they called vigilantes or any other name, is a direct response to this failure. We are in a country where the routine loss of life and the pervasive conflicts have forced many to resort to self-help. People have lost faith in the state’s institutions. They distrust the police, believing them to be easily compromised. They doubt the judicial system, convinced that the courts no longer dispense justice fairly. They distrust anyone who does not share their language. The Uromi 25 were labeled and profiled as terrorists and kidnappers solely based on their origin – the North – despite no reports of them engaging in any aggressive or suspicious behavior. They were simply traveling, carrying dane guns, and identifying themselves as hunters returning to the North. They were citizens moving within their own country! They did not deserve to die simply because they spoke a different language or looked different. The fundamental problem with Nigeria is that ethnicity permeates every aspect of social interaction.
It is deeply regrettable that this incident occurred at the close of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, while Christians were still observing the Lenten season. Nigerians are a profoundly religious people, yet often exhibit hypocrisy in their faith. Many of those who murdered the Uromi 16 in the early hours of Friday would have attended mosques later that day, adorned in garments of piety. Others would have been in church on Sunday, singing alleluia and imploring their pastors, the entrepreneurs of Christianity who trade salvation for tithes, to pray for them. Both religions preach self-discipline, composure, compassion, and charity, but these virtues are sorely lacking in our land. The leaders set poor examples, and the followers often fare worse. We reap the consequences of this collapse of values and ideals in the needless mass graves we frequently dig, the cries of orphans and widows, and the agony of parents and communities. There is a vast chasm between private morality – what we profess to God – and public morality – our actions as citizens.
The bloodbath in Uromi has been condemned by numerous individuals and groups, including Waziri Adamawa Atiku Abubakar, Senators, members of the House of Representatives, the Northern Elders Forum, the Edo community in Kano, and the Arewa community in Edo State. The Governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has since ordered the suspension of all vigilante groups in the state and has suspended the Commander of the Edo State Security Corps, CP Friday Ibadin (rtd.). The state government has also disowned the vigilante group involved in the heinous act and commenced investigations. Furthermore, Governor Okepbholo has visited the Governor and people of Kano State, as well as the families of the victims, to offer his condolences. Fourteen suspects have reportedly been arrested. This indicates that the Governors of both Kano and Edo states, along with community leaders, are making efforts to de-escalate tensions and prevent retaliatory killings. Nigeria has witnessed too much shared bloodshed. This is what precipitated the counter-coup of July 1966 and the subsequent three-year fratricidal civil war of 1967-70. To this day, the civil war’s wounds have not fully healed; there has been no complete reconciliation. The most significant emergency in the land is the specter of revenge killings, tragically evident in Southern Kaduna, Plateau State, and the entire Middle Belt, and most recently in the third week of March in Ondo State, with the killing of five farmers by individuals described as herdsmen. In Ondo State, just two weeks prior, approximately 14 persons had been killed in the same Akure North Local Government Area. The perpetrators, it was claimed, infiltrated Ondo State through Edo State, and one could logically infer a connection between the Uromi incident last Friday and the killings in Ondo State two weeks earlier, potentially leading to a continuing cycle of death and violence.
This is the real national emergency that the Tinubu administration must address urgently. Insecurity across the country and a growing culture of vengeance and reprisal killings are the critical issues that the current government must tackle to stem the tide of imminent anomie and anarchy, which pose a threat of disintegration. We survived the civil war, but no country can withstand two – the consequences would be catastrophic. The interests of individuals or specific groups benefiting from power and position should not supersede the interest of the nation. There is a clear and pressing need to rethink the country’s security architecture; what we currently have is not effective. It has failed in the past and has no prospect of success in the future. With over 200 million people and only about 300,000 policemen, the country is severely under-policed. The police are also underfunded, and there are too many criminal elements within the security sector. In fact, the police are so overwhelmed and poorly structured that the military are frequently called upon to perform police duties. What would happen in the event of external aggression? The same soldiers immersed in police habits and culture would be tasked with defending Nigeria’s territorial integrity. The police force must be restructured for efficiency and performance. As presently constituted, it cannot meet the security needs of the country. The emergence of groups like vigilantes and regional quasi-police structures such as Amotekun, Hisbah, Agunechemba, and neighborhood watch groups are attempts to fill the void and meet the people’s needs. There is now a compelling case for the creation of state police and even a National Guard. The fact that an incident in Uromi or elsewhere requires a convoluted process of seeking clearance and direction from Abuja makes a mockery of the urgency of the insecurity crisis facing the country.
The most unfortunate aspect of it all is Nigerians’ propensity for selective amnesia. A pervasive apathy seems to have gripped the land. Nothing truly shocks the average Nigerian anymore. We have become so desensitized by state failure that when a tragedy occurs, our defense mechanism is to move on, to carry on with life as if nothing happened, as if no one died. Like a people accustomed to disaster, akin to those in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, we seem to have developed a sympathy for death. It is a terrible state of affairs for a country to be moving backward, or at best paralyzed and devoid of empathy, while the rest of humanity strives for progress. The death of the Uromi 16 must not be treated like the cases that came before it. The investigations must be thorough and complete, the files must not disappear, all police officers involved must not be transferred out of Edo State until comprehensive investigations are concluded and a report is written. Furthermore, this report must not vanish, and appropriate action must be taken in this case, as in all similar cases. Certain questions demand answers: what were hunters from Kano State doing in Rivers State? Rivers State is predominantly a fishing community. Does anyone fish with dane guns?
Other state governments must learn from the tragedy in Uromi. It is superficially appealing for Governors to don elaborate uniforms of auxiliary security outfits in their states and inspect guards of honor formed by untrained, ill-equipped fancy brigades who lack both the authority and the intelligence to manage the security situation. Many Governors have even learned to dance on such occasions, mistaking it for some form of Nollywood entertainment. Meanwhile, Nigerians find themselves in a situation where security is a major concern and welfare is a nightmare, with more people falling into poverty daily. From where, then, shall our help come?
Reuben Abati
