By Taye Obateru

Following the unending blood-letting in Plateau State which heightened in the last two weeks resulting in the killings of women, children and men, climaxed by last Sunday evening’s twin blasts at the junction to West of Mines, President Goodluck Jonathan had directed Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, to take charge of security in the state.

While some Nigerians view the directive as virtually asking the CDS to take command of the state, a state of emergency by other means, some others see it as an indication that the Federal Government is, for once, tackling the crisis headlong.

While details of Petirin’s schedule of duties remains to be seen, a nagging question on several lips in the state and elsewhere is, “will he make any difference?” Posers like, “what will he do differently?; “Is he going to bring a new set of soldiers or will he work with those on ground who are already suffering from a crisis of confidence from a section of the state?; “How will he restore the confidence of the people in the military and what is he going to do differently? arose from Sunday Vanguard’s interaction with residents following the directive.

Like the saying, ‘one bad apple spoils the whole bunch’, the activities of a few members of the Special Task Force (STF) also known as ‘Operation Save Haven’ on a mission of restoring peace to the trouble state, appears to have cast a slur on the impartiality of the force in the ethno-religious crisis. As a section of the community some time ago, accused the police of being sympathetic to one side, soldiers have been accused of connivance in the recent attacks on villages.

Many eye-witnesses of the serial killings in different villages allege that they saw men in uniform or sighted military trucks in the vicinity of the attacks.

This has generated hostility towards members of STF to a level of calling for their withdrawal or replacement. While most of the accusations against STF might have been caused by ‘a few bad eggs’, many individuals, civil society groups and others believe that something urgent must be done to correct the impression that the personnel are divided along religion and ethnicity lines or that the quest for money influence their operations. They cite instances to back up their claims.

The recent revelation by Mr. Michael Obi, father of Nigerian international soccer player, Mikel, that he was abducted by soldiers before he was handed over to civilian accomplices was a clear example.

Narrating how he was abducted following his rescue in Kano by the police, Obi said five soldiers stopped him while on his way home on the fateful evening of August 5 and forcefully took him in their army colour Hilux Pick-up van to a remote part of Rayfield in Jos where their civilian partners in crime joined them and took him to Kano in another vehicle. That two of the soldiers allegedly involved were identified and are already being investigated is also very instructive.

Soldiers were literarily sacked from Heipang village following the killing of nine people, eight from a family, by gunmen on Monday, August 15, as the people insisted that those who carried out the attack came in a military van and were in military uniforms.

The alleged discovery of three identity cards belonging to members of the Special Task Force,STF, at the scene of the attack did not help matters. The villagers, in anger, uprooted the tent used by the STF members in the village and pelted soldiers sent to the village (following the attack), with stones.

Media Officer to the task force, Capt. Charles Ekeocha, confirmed to journalists that men of the force shot and killed one of the vigilante group members in the village when they (soldiers) came under attack. He, however, exonerated his men from any involvement in the attack on the villages, saying they were posted there to protect the people and not to attack them.

Nonetheless, as is usually the case in such situations, emergency ‘analysts’ in the state have formulated various permutations as to why soldiers sent to protect the people would take up arms against them. Rightly or wrongly, the soldiers are being accused of wanting to create the impression that peace was yet to return so that their stay could be prolonged.

It is a subject of jokes among residents of the state that the allowances and other perquisites being enjoyed by them were something they did not want to give up in a hurry. Many concerned residents feel that though they remain mere allegations, it was telling on the confidence hitherto enjoyed by the soldiers among the people, hence should be addressed.

A resident, Joseph Yakubu, told Sunday Vanguard that he would never run to a securityman if he had any emergency because of the current situation. “It will be foolish of me to see a security man and run to him if I have a security problem because with what has been happening, how can I be sure that he is not one of the bad eggs that they are talking about? We have heard of policemen who leave their check-points to go and rob. Soldiers are now alleged to be working as mercenaries in crisis situations, so who among them can one trust?” he queried.

Despite these, there are those who believe that taking concrete steps to redress the situation would restore the confidence of the people in securitymen. The Civil Society Coalition in Plateau State which addressed a press conference on the rising insecurity in the state believes that a re-organization of the security arrangement could do the needed magic.

According to the coalition, “the security apparatus saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property should be overhauled to weed out bad eggs that have brought disrepute to the task force. In Egypt, military officers who unleashed violence on protesters are being tried. STF must court-martial all those that have been fingered to have compromised the security of the state to restore public confidence”.

Even as the debate on the role of the security personnel continue, condemnations and concerns over the increasing violence in the state and other parts of the country have not relented. Reacting to penultimate Sunday’s blasts, Director, Centre for Advocacy of Justices and Rights, Comrade Gad Peter, said “the on-going killings around Jos and the recent bomb blasts in West of Mines have shown that the state is under siege and we are under threat of terrorism and guerila warfare.

This clearly calls for closer collaboration among the security agencies and better understanding between the federal and state governments.”

He advised citizens of the state to take their personal security seriously “because clearly we can no longer trust those that are meant to protect us.” A pressure group, the Middle Belt Dialogue added another dimension to the debate during the week, alleging that the problem in Jos was a continuation of the alleged orchestrated campaign against minority groups in the North by those who wish to dominate them perpetually. Addressing a press conference last Wednesday, Plateau State Coordinator of the dialogue, Mr. Aminu Zang, said certain interests were out to instill a culture of violence to achieve a particular end.

“In Plateau, the mass murder of villagers by Hausa/ Fulani militia has now reached a frightening dimension. Our people in Bauchi and Borno states are daily massacred by Hausa/Fulani militia simply for not showing sympathy to the hate philosophy which they hope to project.

“Another goal of these Jihadists is to drive them from their fertile ancestral lands. In Benue and Kaduna, the story is the same. The recent major reason for the heightened hatred on our people was mainly because we all decided to support a minority from the Ijaw nation. The hatred for the new government is manifested by deranged groups, who want Sharia imposed on the entire country.

“Anything short of this and Nigeria can as well burn. They have bombed several churches and public buildings, killed hundreds and causing everlasting hardship for hundreds of thousands. The evil of these groups have no territorial limit, as they attacked the United Nations Buildings in Abuja (a claim publicly attested to by Boko Haram) killing innocent men and women of many nationalities offering humanitarian services to Nigerians.

“The aim of Boko Haram and its sponsors is to rubbish the government that we have sacrificed much to elect. Boko Haram wants to cause insecurity, social chaos and underdevelopment in Nigeria to give its backers enough reason for the destabilisation of this government. We also suspect that under the cover of this group, some leaders are using these mindless killing of people and the humiliation that government has suffered by this spate of bombings, to negotiate for relevance and stay close to the corridors of power,” the group said.

It expressed support for the existence of a united Nigeria but said attempts to force minorities in the North to toe a particular line through the use of terror would be resisted. “We believe that the great losers in the end of this barbarism would be the entire North, because as long as the North believes that terror is the best means to force its minorities to support it, the more it misses the mark.”

Middle Belt Dialogue also expressed support for genuine efforts by government to solve the problem in Plateau State and hailed Monday’s directive by President Jonathan that various reports and recommendations on the Plateau crisis be brought up, reviewed and implemented, adding “We are holding the President on this promise.”

Just as many groups and people have welcomed the decision of President Goodluck Jonathan to dust up the reports of past inquiries into crisis in the state for possible implementation, there are those who feel it will not achieve the desired impact and instead advocate a new form of engagement that will heal past wounds.

Former Minister of State for Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande, one of the leaders of the Hausa/Fulani community in Jos, is one of those who believe that the reports have lost relevance.

In a chat with Sunday Vanguard, he alleged that most of the reports were skewed against his people because the constitution of the commissions was not balanced.

“To me, I feel the reports have lost relevance and to implement them will cause more problems. The way forward is for government to take full responsibility of the situation by initiating some form of engagement that will address the underlining causes of the problem. What has been happening is the tendency to see peace purely from a security point of view without addressing the real issues.

“For instance, what our people are agitating against is the injustices against us in many fronts and unless these injustices are addressed, the agitation will continue. So, there is need for engagement through the introduction of programmes that would assist to heal past wounds and maybe some form of compensation to those who have suffered various losses from this crisis.”

While the different sides continue to bare their minds on the matter, the prayer of many Nigerians is that the various efforts to address the unending crisis should bear fruits this time round.