Apart from the Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan drama that was playing out in Kogi State, last week, the lynching of 16 travellers of Northern origin in Uromi Edo State on March 27 is one other news item that had hugged the cover of most newspapers.
According to the story, 16 travelling hunters presumably from Kano State were lynched in Uromi, after the truck conveying them was stopped by a vigilante group. Events in the aftermath of that sorry incident have, however, pointed to one direction-a government’s concerted effort at preventing a reoccurrence and spread of reprisal and hate.
That is commendable by all standards, giving that the whole essence of government is to guarantee peace, order and good governance in the society. While narrating how the incident happened, spokesman of the Edo Police Command, Moses Yamu had told newsmen that a truck with registration number KKF225XA, conveying 25 travellers from Elele, near Port Harcourt, was accosted by some vigilante group members at Uromi. The vigilante group arrested some of the occupants of the truck who were found in possession of locally made guns.
“While this was going on some vigilante members raised an alarm of them being suspected kidnappers, which led to some members and passersby in the community to attack and lynch sixteen (16) of the occupants while the truck conveying them was equally burnt.” The Command’s spokesman went further to state that fourteen suspects were immediately arrested while investigation was ongoing.
President Bola Tinubu led the way with a quick response when he ordered a manhunt for the killers. “President Tinubu commiserated with the families of the affected victims and assured them that criminals would not be allowed to shed the blood of innocent Nigerians,” Mr. Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesman said in a statement released on Friday March 28, a day after the incident. Governor Monday Okpebholo, equally took it up from where the President left. He announced a string of measures aimed at tightening security in the area. He immediately ordered a freeze on the activities of the vigilante groups, while his administration commenced a full-scale probe. Speaking on the development, the governor said: “I was deeply saddened by this unfortunate incident. Upon my arrival, I met with my Hausa brothers who had genuinely supported me during my election campaign.” He said that his administration was implementing robust security measures to hold those responsible to account, adding that security operatives have already launched investigations to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Between Saturday and Monday of last week, almost all the groups that matter in Nigeria have voiced their opinions on the dastardly development. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, while condemning the incident, said in a statement that the Armed forces of the federation will work closely with the police and other security agencies to fish out the perpetrators. The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Northern Senators Forum, Norther Governors Forum, and several other groups condemned the killing. Kano State governor Abba Yusuf and the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, have also lent their voices to the call for calm while demanding justice for the victims. On Monday, Governor Okpebholo embarked on what looked like shuttle diplomacy around the country, also in line with the search for peace in the aftermath of the killing. He was in Kano to meet with his colleague in that state, Abba Yusuf, and was also a guest of the Deputy Senate President, Jibril Barau, who equally demanded justice for the victims and their families. The government apparatus did not just make statements on the issue. They acted as well. Edo’s security network was immediately touched while everyone connected to security in the country had inputs into the unfolding scenario.
Commendable as the actions and speeches are, one thing is, however, emerging. The issue I am about to raise lends credence to one saying of the Yoruba, which when translated to English would sound like this: If the crowd that gathered at a funeral had all gathered to look after the sick, several deaths might have been averted. If the type of groundswell that greeted the Uromi killing had been witnessed on previous occasions when the nation had recorded such unwarranted attacks, kidnapping and killings, either by bandits or kidnappers, the scenario of our security would perhaps be different.
In a publication in September 2024, titled, Deaths caused by Boko Haram in Nigeria 2023, Doris Dokua Sasu, had reported thus: “Between 2011 and 2023, Boko Haram was responsible for thousands of deaths in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Nigeria is the country most affected by the terrorist group’s attacks. States in the North-East register the highest number of deaths. Borno is by far the most threatened state, in that Boko Haram has caused over 38,000 deaths in this area. Among the news on attacks mostly present in the media, the kidnapping of 276 female students from a secondary school in Borno in 2014 received a global response. As of April 2021, over 100 girls were still missing, while six students were believed to have died.”
While the 2014 attacks, which led to the kidnapping of 276 girls, attracted global attention and condemnation, several killings and attacks have gone unnoticed. I was alarmed the other day when the government of Ondo State went about as if nothing happened when some 40 persons were killed in a night attack by suspected bandits near Akure and it has been like that for incidences several recorded in Benue, Plateau, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara and Sokoto. On most of those occasions, government officials had gone about as if it was normal to shed the blood of an innocent Nigeria to borrow the words of Mr. President. Blood has been flowing in Nigeria since the launch of Boko Haram insurgency in 2009, and blood has continued to flow. In the initial times, those attacks automatically led the cover of the newspapers. These days, however, an editor would think twice before leading his paper with the story of ‘10 killed in bandits attack.’ Things have gone that bad, and it questions the value of man in a nation described as the largest Black nation in the world.
Just as we are still mourning the Uromi victims, blood started flowing again in various parts of the country. We first heard of the bandit kingpin, Bello Turji, killing eleven farmers in Lugu town, Isa Local Government Area of Sokoto State, just after the Sallah celebrations. According to the story, Turji silenced his victims in the early hours of Wednesday as the bandit leader and his men were returning from a Sallah visit. This is one man the security forces had declared wanted dead or alive. He still holds court on the Nigerian soil and had the temerity to attend Sallah celebrations. An eyewitness quoted in the media described the situation thus: “Yesterday, Turji and his men left Fakai, his village in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. They passed through several communities in Isa before attending their Sallah celebrations. On their way back, they brutally killed eleven farmers.”
The dust raised by that incident has not died down when reports from Plateau State indicated another resurgence of killings. As I was concluding this piece on Friday, sixty persons were said to have been killed, up from the initial ten reported on Thursday.
A report on Friday indicated that fatalities from the recent attack on Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State had risen to sixty, adding that ten persons were initially discovered killed in Ruwi village on March 27, 2025, and another ten discovered on April 2. The communities attacked included Mangor Tamiso, Daffo, Manguna, Hurti, and Tadai.
Chair of Bokkos Cultural Development Council (BCDC) Farmasum Fuddang had confirmed the development, when he said: “We released the statement about the killing of ten people in Mangor Tamiso, Daffo, Manguna, Hurti, and Tadai on Wednesday morning. Since then, we have recovered forty more bodies. We even buried them around 7 PM. on Thursday using torchlights. It was the community members who discovered the bodies of their loved ones.”
Even though they were buried in the dark by family members who used torchlights to dig the graves, nothing should suggest that their deaths would go unpunished or unnoticed. The country owes the victims and their families that duty – to hold the perpetrators to account.
As much as we mourn the untimely death of the Uromi 16, this nation has no right to grow a thick skin to stories of blood flow elsewhere. An injury to one is injury to all, which is a popular saying among labour leaders in this country and elsewhere. Just as we have seen in the case of the Uromi 16, the concern for security of lives and property should be total and unmistakable at all instances. Nobody should shed the blood of innocent Nigerians without facing the law.
Published by Sunday Tribune, April 6, 2025)
