By Samson Ezea
The recent fatal
herdsmen’s attacks on the Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Council Area of Enugu
State has once more brought to the fore the urgent need for a permanent
solution to the recurring menace of herdsmen/host communities clashes across
the country. Obviously, the clashes have assumed a more sinister dimension in
recent times. Not helping matters in forestalling, precluding or quelling these
clashes are the various security agencies that have always appeared unprepared,
incapacitated or compromised in dealing with the situation as appropriate.
Unlike some attacks
across the country where security agencies were taken unawares, that of Nimbo
calls for introspection, investigation, punitive measures, and outright
overhauling of the security agencies in the State for better performance. There
is no doubt that the attack has raised more questions than answers, following
the events that preceded the attack, explanations of the Enugu State governor,
Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and the roles of the security chiefs in the saga.
While governor
Ugwuanyi’s efforts and quick intervention as the Chief Security Officer of the
State to prevent the attack is quite commendable, the role of the security
chiefs in the saga is questionable, conspiratorial, shocking, and disturbing.
Is it not obvious that if governor Ugwuanyi had not summoned the emergency
security meeting and indigenes of Nimbo got hint of the impending attack and
moved out, the killings would have been more disastrous? Quite surprising is
the fact that none of the state security chiefs has refuted or countered
governor Ugwuanyi’s explanations since then. There is every need for them to
quickly explain to Nigerians why they decided to act otherwise after the
meeting with the governor prior to the attack. This is despite the fact that
the governor provided them with the intelligence report and other logistics
required of them to carry out their duties. The State security chiefs’ studied
silence signifies their admittance of failure to carry out their constitutional
responsibilities of securing lives and property.
Professionally and
constitutionally such suspected dereliction of duty and the conspiracy of
silence, as perpetrated by the State security chiefs in the attack, attract
severe punishment. Nigerians, especially the people of Nimbo are eagerly
waiting to see the appropriate security authorities meting out appropriate
punishments to the security chiefs in the State for neglecting their duties
when it mattered most. Anything contrary to this will confirm the insinuations
and fears in some quarters that the country’s security hierarchy is covertly
backing the activities of the herdsmen in the country.
The recent redeployment
of the Enugu State Police Commissioner, Nwodibo Ekechukwu is not enough
punishment to deter other security chiefs from neglecting their duties. This is
because security compromise is the greatest threat any country can face
especially when security personnel are involved. Nigerians witnessed it at the peak of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast
zone and the country paid dearly for it.
Apart from Ekechukwu,
police authorities should keep the public informed of their findings and the
whereabouts of one Police Corporal, Chukwu that allegedly led the attackers
into the Nimbo community. Ekechukwu should explain to Nigerians how and where
he got the information that the attackers were hoodlums not herdsmen as he
stated after the attack. He should also tell the world the security personnel
that were on ground in Nimbo when the attack took place.
This will go a long
way in assisting the police authority and the Panel of Inquiry set up by the Enugu State
government to unravel what happened, how and why it happened. Redeploying
Ekechukwu and retaining other security chiefs that were allegedly culpable in
the whole saga is a dangerous development capable of threatening the security
of the State. This is because there is already a breach of trust between the
security chiefs and residents of the State because of the failed role of the
former in the Nimbo attack. In order to restore the confidence and trust of the
people in the security agencies, there is urgent need for the removal of all
the State security chiefs that failed to perform their duties in the Nimbo
attack.
*Ezea writes fromLagos .
*Ezea writes from
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