Years ago, no news bulletin from international or local news media organizations would not talk about war or insecurity in countries like Somalia, Pakistani tribal areas, Peru, and many others. In the nineties, news about the crisis between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland was so disturbing that one wondered whether there was something the world did not know about those societies. We could only imagine how life was in those areas compared then to our own peaceful spaces. I am not sure some of us ever thought our own beloved country and, even now, our native lands would someday bear the semblance of such places and even worse. Since the return to democracy in 1999, the struggle to win elections at all costs has quickly moved the Sankera axis of Benue State to a level comparable to such war-torn areas and crisis-stricken countries. The only difference so far is that there are neither humanitarian agencies nor the presence of the UN on the ground to help victims or restore peace.
Ever since, names like Gana, Orjondu, Full-Fire, Chen, and many others have become notorious and prominent in breaking the peace in the area. A simple Google search will inundate one with information about these individuals and the heinous crimes they have committed against their people. They have killed many, others rendered homeless and sent into exile, and some are currently paying various levies to bandits to spare their lives and homes.
In early 2015, I accompanied one of my cousins to the official residence of the Ukum Local Government Chairman, and we exchanged greetings with some persons we met at the compound generally. When we left the compound and sat somewhere at Channel 2 just a few meters away from the chairman’s residence, someone among the people we had exchanged greetings with at the chairman’s residence came to where we were seated, and somehow, we got talking. After a while, he left, and then people who saw us talking started asking one after another what I was discussing with the man. I could not remember discussing anything serious with him and told them these were only friendly banters. But I think it was about government because I am fond of talking about government, particularly its obligation to the citizens.
I then asked them who this man was, and they said he was Osama. I used to hear of that name as one of the band kingpins operating in Ukum, my local government area, and fear gripped me. As I continuously pondered whether I had leaked too much, I felt an uncomfortable nudge to develop wings and flee from the area. I kept wondering what his reaction would have been if I had said something that could have made him angry. Something that could have made him come back for my head. I asked myself over and over again, but I could not recall. After a while, I told my cousin I was no longer comfortable in the village and suggested we immediately head back to Makurdi that day. But people around me told me that the man certainly did not pick any offence with my conversation because if he did, it would not take him that much time to react. That was my first time coming close to the situation surrounding my people at home.
The second time was when they kidnapped somebody a few meters away from where I was sitting sometime in April 2023. On that day, I visited home and, along with three cousins, sat under a mango tree near our family compound while we parked a Toyota Hilux van beside us. One of my cousins received a call at about 9:30 pm informing him that someone (Tersee Tarwen) had been kidnapped just a few meters away from where we were seated. We immediately left the place even though we were sure we were not their target because they could have come for us if we were.
The following day, I asked many questions about the modus operandi of the bandits and was told that their operations were mostly based on their informants’ information. They target those who have harvested farm produce and kept it in the store, and sometimes, they pick at random when they miss their targets during hunting. They can call you and ask you to share your salary with them or give them the proceeds of sales from your farm produce or any business you do. Since then, I have avoided traveling to my hometown; I only travel when there is an occasion, mostly for burials. I also return when everyone leaves at the end of the ceremony.
Security agencies have been deployed in the area since the government began to lose control of the area almost a decade and a half ago. However, they are not able to bring back the security of the area under government control despite successes in their operations, such as the killing of Gana (Terwase Agaza), Orjondu, Osama, etc. The people of the Sankera axis, constituting three local governments that comprise the Katsina-Ala/Logo/Ukum federal constituency, have not known peace to date. The three local governments put together are bigger than those in Imo State. At times, it seems like the area is too vast for security agencies to police and take care of adequately.
The bandits operate freely, with occasional military or police operations disrupting their activities, but they have far more successes than the security agencies. The bandits have succeeded in chasing people away from their places of abode who are now refugees residing in IDP camps or with relations and friends elsewhere.
Most communities in the interior parts of the area are now deserted and taken over by bandits. For the communities that still have people living in them, what they face is constant raids by the bandits, during which people are kidnapped, and unlucky ones lose their lives without any provocation. For instance, in Ayati town in Borikyo Ward of Ukum Local Government Area, there has been an incessant attack every two to three weeks, which leaves scores dead. I am told that nearly a hundred people have been killed in and around Ayati town in the past 12 months.
Worried by these attacks, some community volunteers worked with security agencies by providing intelligence and other support for a raid on the bandit’s camp near Ayati. The operation was partially successful as the kingpins and many other bandits escaped alive while a few were killed, and a cache of weapons, a car, two tricycles, and other items were recovered from the camp.
As is characteristic of the security operations in the area, the security operatives left the area without leaving the people of the area with any form of protection. Hence, the bandits returned to pay the people of Ayati town another visit the following week. I understand that community volunteers were on guard, but the attackers cleverly avoided shooting at their victims with their guns to avoid disrupting the peace of the place; they instead used machetes to kill their victims.
They killed up to six people, including a couple related to me. When the volunteers made a move on them, they fled. No one knew this attack would change the course of things in Ukum, as it drew so much anger in the people who took the corpse and demanded to see the government with the evidence of their complaint. Early in the morning following the night of the killings, young men and women took the dead bodies in a protest procession to the local government headquarters. They demanded to see the local government chairman, who could not address their concerns.
Things degenerated swiftly, and the rest of the story could only be told by the people on the ground and the security agencies deployed to the area. By the end of the day, there was arson and even death. The local government secretariat was burned down, and the residence of the Council Chairman was also burned down.
Virtually every government facility within and around Sankera and Zaki-Biam was torched except the general hospital, where the staff convinced the arsonists that a victim of the bandit’s attack was receiving medical treatment and that if anything should happen to any of them, the hospital the place where they would be treated. Two other individuals also suffered collateral damage.
The District Head of Borikyo, Tyoor Myaga, who himself escaped from the angry youths, lost one of his two wives and two children who were burned alive in one of his houses. The wife and children had taken refuge in one of the bathrooms of the house, where they eventually lost their lives in the inferno.
For the Chief of Staff to the Benue State governor, Hon. Paul Biam, it was as if those youths were waiting for such an opportunity to get to his properties. His house, school, and hotel were burned down completely. Before the end of the day, the statement government announced a curfew in the area and restricted movement for 24 hours the first day and subsequently from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am.
Meanwhile, the burial of my aunt, who passed away in Kaduna three weeks ago, was scheduled to take place on the 6th of July, while the crisis had erupted on the 2nd. With the curfew in place, the burial had to be postponed. Later, permission was sought and obtained from the police to carry out the burial. So my aunt’s body arrived from Kaduna on the 8th of July for an all-night wake and the burial to take place the following day.
Because bandits had overrun my aunt’s husband’s village, all the people of the area were taking refuge in and around Zaki-Biam. The people who had gathered for the wake were kept in Zaki-Biam, where the wake took place with their pastor. While we were at the wake, a message came at about 4:00 am that the bandits said security personnel, especially soldiers, should not accompany us to the burial site, which was some kilometers away in the interior of Ukum.
My late aunt’s husband is a relative of one of the band leaders called Chen, and the burial house was a few meters away from that of Chen in their ancestral home. I was made to understand that the bandits do not like the presence of security personnel in their strongholds because other bandits will see that as a sign of weakness. The pastor who received the message said nobody disobeys the bandits and goes free; therefore, the soldiers should not come with us to that village; if not, he will not come there to perform the final Christian burial rights. Negotiations began, and we told the pastor to send a message across to the bandits that the late woman had two of her daughters married to military officers; one is retired, but the other is still in service; therefore, it will be impossible for them to come to the burial site without security.
Eventually, the bandits gave us clearance to come with security, and then the next thing was that the young Naval officer son-in-law with the soldiers said they could not share space with bandits bearing arms; therefore, the bandits should stay clear of the burial site. This led to arguments upon arguments because if you show the bandits that they do not matter because of the security you are carrying, once you finish the burial and the security personnel have finished their work and are gone, they will come and remove the dead body and expose it for vultures to feed on it or fine you or both.
The ambulance driver had already taken off with the belief that the army was coming behind him, Like many others. But when the last two vehicles were to take off, orders came from above that the soldiers be redeployed to Katsina/Ala immediately because of a security situation in that location. So the soldiers abandoned us to our fate, and the military officer quietly came down from the vehicle, along with so many others, including some family members. My late aunt’s niece left a message about her deceased mother’s estate in New York before we took off. She gave instructions on how it would be shared among her children. For the rest of us, we looked unto God and proceeded. On arrival there, we did not meet anybody. We had already left the locals who had become refugees in Zaki-Biam, and the bandits, too, did not show up, probably feeling that soldiers were to accompany the mourners.
The situation on the Sankera axis has defied all the solutions applied so far. There are periods when five, ten or more of the bandits would be killed daily by the security agencies during raids on their camps and in operations. There was a time when the government banned motorcycles and the type of Toyota vehicle known as First-lady because bandits used them for their operations. However, that measure did not achieve more significant results. The situation seems to worsen, as the areas that were safe two or three years ago are no longer safe. In fact, in Ukum mainly, the safest corridor is the Zaki-Biam-Sakera corridor. Even there, people can still be taken hostage. Last year, the Honourable Commissioner for Information was kidnapped in his home in Zaki-Biam, and until a ransom was paid for his release. Similarly, the Local Government Council Chairman was also kidnapped on Saturday, the 13th of January 2024, on the road when he set out for a journey.
When I travelled for that burial, I saw that accessing the interior spaces was difficult. It was obvious that the security operatives would need help accessing those areas because their roads are bush parts, and even the villagers find it difficult to access other communities during the rainy season.
The area’s security can improve with the re-dedication of the security agencies on the ground, and if the government improves on road infrastructure, construction of coverts on those roads that leads to the areas where those bandits are clearly in charge and government and security agencies are not able to access them. More resources are needed to be dedicated to helping the security personnel get access to those areas and reclaim them for the government. Humanitarian agencies must be invited to help those currently taking refuge with good-spirited families. It would also be nice if the government could construct camps for the military to vacate the occupied school classrooms. Having troops in battle mood share the same space with primary school pupils is not even good.
