it is not surprising that General TY Danjuma’s candid assessment of the sloppy affitude and handling of the security situation in the country by the military has generated a huge amount of reactions. His comments on national issues which are never too frequent are always profoundly thoughtful, respectable and appreciated whenever they come. What is surprising, however, about the recent views expressed by the elder statesman about the deteriorating state of security in the country is the attempt by some people to localise the comments.
General Danjuma’s comments were not on the security situation in Taraba, his home state, alone. The worries he expressed were about the poor handling of the herdsmen’s killings that have taken place and have continued in all parts of the country by the Nigerian military. His call for vigilance was meant for all Nigerians. The present desperate effort by the Ministry of Defence and the Army to rubbish the honest and courageous criticism of the highly biased handling of their interventions in the herdsmen’s onslaught against Nigeria and Nigerians is unpatriotic and wicked. The Military High Command in the country should rather be honest enough to accept their failures, become more patriotic and reject further attempts to be used as tools of vendetta against law-abiding and peace- loving Nigerians.
In their desperation to shift the huge and shameful burden of blame they now carry for their failure to stop the killing of innocent people by herdsmen, the Army and its mother ministry lied against the Office and the person of the Governor of Taraba State, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku. They had, at different times, claimed that the Governor did not cooperate with the military deployed to the state and that they never received reports of misconduct from the Governor against the soldiers deployed to the state. Again, these claims are wrong and callous.
The truth is that all efforts made by Governor Ishaku to get the military contingent to the state to show commitment and fairness in their handling of the crises in Taraba State were ignored. Letters written by his administrate on to the highest security authorities drawing attention to these lapses were also ignored, while military personnel posted carried on as if the Governor did not exist.
The following instances deserve mention:
- Sometime ago, the Ministry of Interior influenced the visit of Military
investigators to investigate an allegation against His Royal Majesty, Dr, Shekarau Angyu Masa-Ibi, the Aku Uka of Wukari, and Chairman of the Taraba State Council of Chiefs. The military delegation had no courtesy to even inform the state governor who is the chief security officer of the state on the visit and purpose of the visit. The government protested this obvious act of disrespect for the office of the Executive Governor of the state in a letter to the Chief of Army Staff, dated February 23, 2016, but received no response.
- Governor Ishaku had reason to write to the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on January 26, 2016, to complain about threats to peace and security in Taraba State. In that letter signed by Governor Ishaku himself, he lamented the devastating effects of internal conflicts involving the Fulani and Tiv which led to the sacking of 200 settlements in Gassol, Bali, Ibi, Donga and Gashaka Local Government Areas by herdsmen believed to have moved into the state from neighbouring coun
Also, in the letter, the Governor informed the Presidency about the concerns raised by some traditional rulers in the state concerning the influx of Fulani militia and about the subsequent attacks on their communities. Letters of complaints from the traditional rulers whose communities suffered from these attacks were also attached and forwarded to the Presidency. In the same letter, the Governor urged the Presidency not to view these attacks and killings as inter-ethnic clashes anymore because the attackers take over “conquered” communiti es and farm lands in large numbers. The government called on the Federal Government to take a more serious view of the crises and act decisively on it, but nothing happened. Copies of this letter were sent to the National Security Adviser to the President, Chief of Staff to the President and the inspector-General of Police.
On July 5, 2017, Governor Ishaku, in a letter to the Acting President, drew his attention to the precarious security situation as contained in a letter written by the contractors handling the Kashimbilla Dam project and called for high level intervention. He requested that the Army, the Navy and Air Force be made to establish permanent security bases in the area. Again, this was ignored.
- The Taraba State Government had complained about the conduct of the Commanding Officer of 93 Battalion, Ada Barracks, in Takum on several occasions, but no action was taken against him by the Military High Command. For example, the Fulani militia attacked communities in Takum and Ussa on May 6, 2018. The crisis led to the abandonment of 224 cattle belonging to the Fulani herdsmen. The Taraba State Government took possession of these cattle and handed them over to the Commanding Officer for safe-keeping until the owners return to collect them. This was meant to be a ploy to get the perpetrators of the crisis arrested. Sadly, the Commanding Officer released the cattle without arresting anybody.
There was another case when the Commanding Officer marched soldiers to attack and brutalise communities in Kashimbilla. Properties of the people were damaged, while many were injured. The letter said the Commanding Officer had been partial and discriminatory in the discharge of his duties and requested that he should be transferred. The advice was ignored.
This letter dated August 11, 2017, and signed by the Governor himself, showed that the Governor had always raised the alarm on the security situation in the state, but was always ignored.
On January 30, this year, The Governor of Taraba State wrote another letter to the Vice President to again complain about the affitude of the Commanding Officer of 93 Battalion, Takum, Lt.-Col. Ibrahim Babatunde Gambari, whose soldiers always looked the other way while the herdsmen militia men come to kill.
In the letter, the Governor said that the security situation in the country and, in particular, Taraba State demanded that every security officer cooperate and take directive from the Chief Security Officer of the state who is the governor, but lamented that this has not been the case with the Commanding Officer.
The letter listed instances of security challenges in which the military failed to live up expectations.
- The kidnapping of Hon. Hosea Ibi, a member of the House of Assembly on December 30, at a residence right opposite the Army Barracks in Takum. He was subsequently killed after 15 days in the custody of his abductors.
- The attack on the vehicle of the Chairman of Takum Local Government Area on January 28, 2018, along Takum-Wukari Road, which resulted in the death of a student of the College of Health Technology.
- On January 28, this year, a man named Chidiebere Okonwa was again kidnapped opposite the Army Barracks, Takum, after several gunshots were fired. The wife of the victim escaped and reported to the military in the Quarter Guard, but the soldiers refused to act.
- The letter also alerted the military authorities of a planned massive movement of Fulani and their cattle into Takum Local Government Area. The motive was to provoke the people and precipitate crisis. The military in-charge of security area did nothing.
- The widely published report on social media and which was investigated and confirmed to the effect that a chopper dropped arms in a village near Wukari was simply downplayed by the security agencies. Three persons were later arrested and one of them had 50 pieces of AK-47 guns in his possession. The man confessed that all their arms and ammunition had arrived in Taraba State and that they would launch an attack in 10 days.
Despite all these efforts by the Taraba State Government to get the military to act, they never did. Since then, the arms and ammunition brought into the state have been deployed against the people in various communities in the state by the herdsmen.
The present operation Ayem Akpatuma in the state has also been discriminatory. While every instrument, including cutlasses and kitchen knives, have been taken away from the people, the herdsmen have been left with AK-47 guns which they are still using against the people in the communities across the state.
