By Ojoajogwu Ochada
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In October 2021, I accompanied my sick mother to a medicine home located in Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi state. As we drove through Ankpa town to Unyilogu-Ogoba we needed no soothsayer to tell us that the town was hot. A stench of blood dangled in the air.
There was a popular killer squad, allegedly approved by the state government to curb the menace of cultism, kidnapping and other varying forms of criminalities at that time. The focus was on Kogi East however the so-called squad in conjunction with local vigilantes had the backup of the then local government chairman.
Today, all is now history but so many young men met their waterloo in the hands of this squad popularly known as “ATAKPO“. I am not too sure of the spelling.
I recall taking a stroll to Ankpa town after some days in the village. My visit was orchestrated to kill boredom but my host was against any hangout. He said “guy, Ankpa no dey like before ooo, abeg no lose guard. Any small case of mistaken identity you don go down oo”.
Mistaken identity abutaaa?
My complexion alone makes me look suspicious. I hurriedly left the bank where I met him and returned to the village to cater for my mum. Mama will not survive the news of me being felled by any killer squad empowered by the government.
Prior to this time, in April 2017, I was in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state on the entourage of the Global Amnesty Watch (GAW) as a Defence Correspondent. In the course of our tour, we visited some military detention facilities where I had a first time encounter with some detained Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) who could not communicate in the English language aside their local dialect – Hausa. My investigation was stalled due to language barriers. I am not fluent in Hausa.
Tragically, few years after my encounter, some of these terrorists were branded and christened Repentant Boko Haram Fighters. They were pardoned, polished and enlisted into the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is still difficult for me to fathom the rationale behind this act but President Muhammadu Buhari did not set the pace, it was the late President Umar Yar’adua who first gave Amnesty to Niger-Delta Militants. Did it end militancy in that region? No!
President Buhari is supposed to take a clue from Yar’adua’s Amnesty Program. Again, as a retired Army General, he understands the intricacies of military warfare. There is nothing like a repentant enemy, rather, if you permit your enemy to know your secrets it will be used against you sooner or later. How can you recruit a terrorist to fight terrorism? Is terrorism now the game of football where you can hire a player to play against his former club side and expect him to score hat trick? It is impossible.
The Amnesty granted to former militants yielded considerable results compared to the mistakes of absorbing former terrorists into the Armed Forces. It is a lucid case of misplacement of priorities, sheer wickedness and leniency to future criminals. The government is indirectly encouraging terrorists to engage in nefarious activities then surrender at will in order to join the armed forces.
As I put this together, I am boiling in anger because I made frantic attempts to enlist into the Nigeria Armed Forces immediately I graduated from the University in 2011. I applied to join the Nigeria Army and the Nigerian Air Force consistently for three years. The Army never shortlisted me. It was the Air Force that shortlisted my name in 2013 yet screened me out after the drills, medicals and written examination. We sat under the scorching sun from morning till night because we wanted to contribute our quota to national security and sovereignty.
As a law abiding Nigerian, I was denied enlistment into the military but the government is busy recruiting terrorists. This is not just an eyesore. It is mentally exhausting. It does not make any sense to a sane mind rather it encourages protests and revolution because for how long are we going to continue like this? You expect me to salute a former Boko Haram Commander in military uniform simply because he is now an officer in the Army? If I had been given the opportunity to enlist in 2013, we won’t be of the same rank. This is just my story. We have so many Nigerians aggressively armed with tales of bitter experience.
What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. While the ATAKPO killer squad were busy killing suspected criminals in Kogi East, Boko Haram Terrorists were being absorbed into the Army. What prevented the government from circulating same gesture? It is a crime to be a cultist but it is not a crime to be a terrorist in Nigeria. The government is creating or have created an existing imbalance. It is a breach of citizenship trust, national alignments and patriotism if the government continues to toil with the collective emotions of Nigerians.
In the Eastern part of Nigeria, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) was proscribed and tagged a Terrorist Group due to some deadly activities traced to them. I am yet to see any IPOB fighter that was pardoned and granted automatic employment into the military. Is Boko Haram no longer a terrorist group? Why are the members of the dreaded Boko Haram group enjoying government benefits, salary and stipends? Let us not shy away from the truth because the imbalance is obvious even to the blind.
Now that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has sounded an alarm, the hullabaloo across the 36 states of Nigeria is pitiably funny. Everybody is crying “genocide”. How many of you complained before now? Why are you complaining now? All of a sudden the beneficiaries of insurgency, banditry and kidnappings are crying more than the victims because of the threatened military action. The West cannot allege without due diligence. Those who are guilty as charged should strive immensely to make amends because it is not going to be business as usual.
Shamefully, we have continued to wash our dirty linen in the public space to an extent the international community is finding it very difficult to take us seriously. I am a card carrying member of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) and should be able to tell Nigerians the truth. The present quagmire is not about the incumbent leadership of Nigeria but a national embarrassment that has lingered overtime. If it is not corrected now, we shall continue to be a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
May the toils of our heroes past never be in vain. God bless NIGERIA!
