Daily Trust Editorial Published on Tuesday, 25 June 2013 These killers must be punished It may be only in Nigeria that nearly two months after the brutal killing of several dozens of the country’s security officers, by suspected members of a militia, everyone else seem to have forgotten about that frontal and grievous challenge to our nationhood. So far, apart from 2 policemen accused of divulging intelligence to those who ambushed the security officials,not even a single person has been arrested, talkless of being on trial for the heinous crime. In fact it is only today, 50 days after the event, that the Nassarawa state government is inaugurating a judicial commission of inquiry into that horrendous incident. This newspaper is impressed by the caliber of people nominated into the commission of inquiry and believe that they are likely to give the assignment their best shot. However if past record on these kinds of inquiries is any guide, the work of this new commission may simply join many others left to gather dust in some public office. Indeed the same Nasarawa government is yet to implement the recommendations of similar investigations of some of the communal violence that took place earlier. This particular one is even more problematic given the political undertone of the Ombatse cult issue. Governor Tanko Almakura admitted as much while shedding light on the inquiry which he referred to as “a judicial commission of inquiry to unearth, right from the beginning, all that has to do with this irresponsible way by some people of the state who want to cajole and terrorize people to come to power,” We hope the governor will have the courage to do the right thing. Deep shock enveloped the country when news filtered out of Nasarawa in the first week of May that an operation to arrest the spiritual head of a militia group that was terrorizing people in the area has gone terribly wrong with about 60 policemen and officials of the Department of State Security losing their lives. As details of the willful slaughter of the security forces and the burning of their bodies as well as the vehicles that took them to the Alakyo community outside Lafia, the state capital, emerged, it became clear that a new low has been plumbed in the way symbols of Nigerian state are becoming fair game to all manner of disgruntled elements in the country. In the immediate days after the unprecedented killing of the security officials, many people held their breath, fearful that the security services may once again discard their own rules of engagement and visit the community where it happened with even more disproportionate force,continuing with the circle of impunity as happened so recently in Baga,Borno state and earlier in Zaki Biam and Odi in Benue and Bayelsa states respectively. It is to the credit of both the police and the State Security Service that no such thing happened. What is worrying now is the impression being created that those 60 odd lives have been lost in vain. This assumption was strengthened by the unwise remark of the Director General of the Security Services during a candlelit memorial of 10 of his men who lost their lives in the Nassarawa incident. The DG’s remark gave the impression that his organization has forgiven the killers, something that did not sit well with many Nigerians including prominent ones like one of the country’s respected securocrats, General Abdullahi Mohammed and former military ruler, General Muhammadu Buhari. Clearly the two generals captured the mood of many Nigerians who felt that the killers of the about 60 security officials must be found and punished according to the law and it is not in the place of any official to speak in the way the SSS chief did. With the commendable way in which the two services have not gone on mindless revenge over the matter, they and other authorities must ensure that the cold blooded killers of Alakyo did not go free. As a country, Nigeria and its citizens must ensure that those responsible for taking so many lives in one fell swoop are found and tried according to the law of the land. As it is, the Alakyo incident is a big dent on the morale of the security services and will continue to eat away at their commitment to duty for as long as they perceive that their bosses and Nigerians at large consider them as expendable. Furthermore, the mindless slaughter of law enforcement officials who daily stand between ordinary citizens and anarchy is a culture that must be discouraged by all. One way to do that is by ensuring that no matter how long it takes, no one can harm law enforcement officers and gloat over it as the chief priest of the Ombatse cult seem to have done when he told journalists that “When they (security operatives) came, because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way,”
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 06:28:46 +0000
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