Killing Of 43 Rice Farmers And Suspected Militia Killings: Why The Military Must Act Before Anger Boils Over
The Oasis Reporters
November 30, 2020
Modupe Oyetoso is a young Nigerian lady who narrated her bitter ordeal as a farmer in Lanlate, Oyo State not too long ago. Both she and her fiance who is a graduate like herself chose life away from the klieglights of Lagos city to stay in Oyo interior, Oke-Ogun province and live their dream as career farmers where they owned vast acres of land. They had dreams.
Until one fateful day when they had closed from the farm and were going home only to be confronted by Fulani kidnappers whose only attempt to stop the moving car was by firing rifle shots to kill the driver instantly, thereby halting the car and dragging the traumatized lady into the bush, swiftly with a rope tied to her body, the way they tie cows. Her bleeding boyfriend was abandoned to die in a pool of his own blood. And die the man did.
The Fulani kidnap gang carried out the ransom negotiation in Yoruba language. Millions changed hands before the lady was set free. It was a huge loss. Not only did she lose the man she had invested her emotional feelings on leading to a planned marriage in the works, her family sourced for funds within a short period of time.
That the kidnappers spoke Yoruba shows that they are sons of Fulani long term settlers in the region.
[Copy and paste in another browser to watch video: https://www.facebook.com/eobilo/videos/595199881160640/]
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And in the reported narrative of the kidnappers, they are Fulani without cows, which is a conscience tugging emotional blackmail story, aimed at gaining some understanding as to the raison d’etre for going into the enterprise of kidnapping.
The question is how much more money do they need from kidnapping before they can say it is enough to restock cattle and stop killing the indigenes and free them from the suffocating fear that currently exists amidst the impunity and boldness of these kidnappers causing destruction and deaths to satisfy their craze?
Truth be told, if this situation continues like this, it may boil over, and those that would be badly affected would be peace loving Fulani who go about their businesses without hurting anyone. The bad eggs amongst them would one day rouse the vengeance of the people who would one day say that enough is enough, demanding an #Endkidnapping agitation, and then it would have been too late..
Harry, a social media user had also reported on what he calls, a #BlackSaturday.
Read on:
There is something about the current insecurity in the North and Nigeria that doesn’t seem right, indicative of something deeper or more sinister. It is not about the fact that about 90% of heads of security agencies in Nigeria are from the North yet the region is the hotbed of mass insecurity.
It is not about the fact that despite glaring under performance or poor outcomes of current security strategies, the services chiefs are still being retained, even when they should have long retired, which has not only disrupted the normal civil service flow but professional attainment, capable of reducing morale in the service.
It is not the fact that the Commander in Chief has shown little commitment to tackle this, head-on or lead from the front as he had promised.
Neither is it the fact that those who have been vocal against insecurity in the past are now quiet or given to make excuses.
It is the audacity of the perpetrators.
It is the fact that they continue to escalate the factors that make insecurity thrive. They continue to make the already poor and stressed citizens poorer. They deny them good life, education and now even food. They are creating an atmosphere where the people will be subservient to them. In Borno, Zamfara and Katsina, they are already collecting taxes from villagers as a precondition to enable them farm or trade.
Nigeria is gradually being overrun village by village and the people left poorer and defeated, yet those whose primary responsibility is to secure lives and property are unconcerned, or perhaps not doing their best.
It just doesn’t make sense.
The justice system is also skewed against the people. For example, while victims languish in IDP centers, perpetrators of mass killings, rape and destruction are rehabilitated and compensated in the name of amnesty and these strategies seem not to reduce the menace.
The survival of the North and Nigeria in the current insecurity saga in the land is in the hands of the Nigerian people. We are all victims one way or the other. Enough is enough. If the government cannot secure the people, there is no shame in admitting that fact. Let the people take their destinies into their own hands. It is unnatural and unjust to just be sitting by, waiting to be slaughtered.
We don’t need condemnation and rhetoric. We need action and justice.
According to Channels Television @channelstv in another development, quotes the UN as saying that “At Least 110 Were Killed In Borno, Demands Immediate Release Of Kidnapped Victims
This is how Nigerians who were working in their farms were beheaded by Bokoharam in Borno State. These Nigerians yielded to @MBuhari's advice: that they should adopt farming as a lifestyle. Soon, these same terrorists will be treated like Kings as repented Boko Haram insurgents. pic.twitter.com/9LsnJv4W0o
— Engr Ibinabo (@EngrIbinabo) November 29, 2020
And this gory tweet from Aljazeera comes, as if it were not horrifying enough :
A 'gruesome' massacre against farmers in northeastern Nigeria killed at least 110 people. https://t.co/d0umuoLBJw
— Al Jazeera News (@AJENews) November 29, 2020
Read tweets by Reno Omokri on the massacre of farmers in Borno state :
The President, Senate President, Chief Justice, Defence Minister, NSA, Chief of Army Staff, @PoliceNG IG, DG DSS and heads of NAF, DMI, NIA are all Northerners, yet the North is insecure.
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) November 29, 2020
Can those who blamed @GEJonathan for Northern insecurity now apologise?#ZabarmariMassacre
I condemn the killing of 43 farmers by Boko Haram. Killing them serves no purpose. Insecurity in Nigeria has reached breaking point. Nigeria is drifting. Our people cant continue like this. Something must give. Something must give#LekkiMassacre #EndSARShttps://t.co/LTfA6kU9gX
— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) November 28, 2020
The security of the people must be tackled with sincerity of purpose and utmost commitment , without caring whose ox is gored, without sentiments and favoritism. Insecurity has to be stamped out. It is a duty.
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