By Emeka Omeihe
Escalating insecurity in Kwara once known as the “State of Harmony” is generating considerable concerns. High profile abductions and killings have in the last three months so jolted peace and harmony in the state that questions are being raised regarding what brought about this odious pass to an otherwise peaceful state.
Reasons adduced include a spill-over effect from regions prone to conflicts, illegal mining and exploitation of porous borders. In this wise, armed bandits and terrorists displaced from the north west and north central by military operations are said to have migrated to Kwara’s dense forests sharing common borders with some of the states in two zones including the Republic of Benin.
The presence of fully armed illegal miners is another factor with the burgeoning kidnapping industry fetching quick money to bandits to buy sophisticated arms and ammunitions adding to the complications. But their combined threat to lives and property would have paled into insignificance were the security agencies able to effectively rise to their statutory duties.
This deficit is evident in the relative ease with which all manner of terrorists and marauders abduct, maim and kill innocent citizens in several parts of the country without consequences.
There are issues in the handling of the terror attacks of last Tuesday on the Woro and Nuku communities, Kaiama local government area of Kwara state that should not be glossed over. This is especially so, given the responses of the Kaduna state government and the state police command when 176 worshippers were serially abducted from three churches last January, in the Kajure local government area of the state. Both incidents share common but contrasting traits that need further exploration. What are the issues?
Apparently angered by the rejection by the Woro and Nuku communities of their weird Islamic ideology requiring residents to reject the Nigerian constitution and embrace Sharia law, a band of terrorists was reported to have arrived the communities around 5pm on motorcycles and surrounded them. Shortly after, they opened fire from all directions. Those who attempted to flee were shot dead on the spot while others that surrendered were gathered at the palace of the village head where they were tied and shot dead.
An eyewitness who gave a chilling account of the incident said the wife of the traditional ruler, his mother and three of their children were among the people abducted. Rough estimated put the dead at 170 with many others still missing even as the state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq confirmed 75. But a source said 75 people were hurriedly buried one night in a mass grave.
Residents said there was no security intervention throughout the 10 hours the terrorists had a field day levying mayhem on innocent citizens. Abdulrazaq told residents at the palace of Emir of Kaiama after the attackers had fled that the victims were “local Muslims massacred for refusing to surrender to extremists preaching a strange doctrine”
But independent sources said some Christians also died in the attack. In fact, one source put the ratio at 75 per cent Muslims and 25 per cent Christian victims. Issues raised by the Woro and Nuku attacks require further interrogation. But not until the circumstance of the Kajure abductions has been put into the picture.
Last January, terrorists unleashed serial attacks on three churches in the Kajure local government area of Kaduna state abducting 176 before the escape of a few. Despite the alarm raised by residents and the leadership of the Christian association in the north, both the state government and the police command kept sealed lips over the incident. They were later to address a joint press conference in which they vehemently denied there was any such abduction with a stern warning to those allegedly peddling such misleading information.
It took the publication by the Christian association of the names of those taken hostage by the terrorists for the state police command to admit very tepidly there was such incident. What followed was a hollow rationalisation of the reasons why residents could not get assistance such as poor communications, the remoteness of the area and bad roads. It should be an indictment to the state government that it has no access to its constituents. How it procures votes from the area during elections?
In the face of the denials and cover-ups (for whatever reasons), the terrorists had sufficient time to ferry their victims to their safe dungeons. They made humongous cash ransom demands including motorcycles. It is not surprising that the Kajuru abductees regained their freedom only last week.
Kajure, Woro/Nuku attacks present common traits both in terms of the high number of victims involved, the responses of the respective state governments and the security agencies. Kujure was simply a case of abduction possibly, for ransom as there was no reported killing within the church premises. That of Woro/Nuku were reprisals for their refusal to accept a weird Islamic ideology.
It was an act of vengeance that made no distinction between individuals within their shooting range. Incidentally, those communities had a preponderance of Muslims resulting in higher fatality to people of that fate. Apparently armed with that fact, Abdulrazaq wasted no time in announcing that those killed were local Muslims who refused extremists preaching of a strange doctrine. He had no hesitation in announcing that those killed were Muslims.
It was not just a mere happenstance. It was deliberate. Coming in the wake of renewed focus on Nigeria for religious extremism, Abdulrazaq sought to demonstrate that Muslims are also victim of religious extremism as variously canvassed by the Nigerian authorities. That is not in doubt.
But attacks and killings of Muslims or Christians do not in any way diminish the potency of the danger religious extremism pose to the overall peace and progress of this country. Neither do they further the sanctity of the human life. Even then, who says the purveyors of these extreme and weird religious ideologies are so naïve of Nigeria’s diversities that they could not deliberately mount such attacks to obfuscate the situation and hide their real intent.
That is the danger in the way that line of argument is being pushed forward. It glosses over the fact that selective attacks on Muslims could be a deliberate strategy by its enablers to inject complications on their real motivation of implanting a theocratic state in this country. Nobody should be deceived by that.
Even then, there is a common force driving most of these attacks as the Woro/Nuku incidents bear out- weird Islamic ideology that seeks to impose Sharia Islamic law on Muslims and non-Muslims. We can continue to paper this foreboding reality. We may continue to push back the lurking danger on the tenuous premise that Muslims and Christians are equally killed as if human life has become an easily expendable commodity.
Abdulrazaq has done his job by letting the public know that those killed were local Muslims for refusing extreme Islamic ideology. Kaduna state and its police command have equally discharged by initially playing down and denying the Kajuru abductions, only to make a U-turn in the face of suffocating evidence. But in these contrasting reactions can be found, why there may be no quick fixes to the cascading insecurity in the country.
