The tragedy of the March 7 massacre of hundreds of people in
Dogo Nahawa village in the outskirts of Jos was exacerbated by the fact that
most of the victims were children, women and the old who were killed in the
dawn raid.
It is suspected that it
was an act of reprisal allegedly carried out by Fulani herdsmen who had lost
many of their own in earlier attacks carried out by suspected Christian mob in
Kuru Karama and other conflicts in the city. The whole world has risen in
unison to condemn the barbarism that has made Nigeria another name for tragedy.
Jos has thus become one of the most dangerous places to live in the country.
On Monday last week, the spokesman of the Force Headquarters
Emmanuel Ojukwu said, “Forty-one of the suspects are to be charged with terrorism
and culpable homicide, which are punishable by death.”
The arrests have continued and more suspects are still being
apprehended. Some of those who have been arrested have been paraded By the
Plateau State Command of the Nigeria Police in Josand made to answer questions.
A few days after the riots some of the suspects were said to have confessed
that they were sponsored. The names of their sponsors are yet to be made public
by the police. But as these things go that may be the last we hear of it.
Most of the suspects may never be brought to any courtroom and
the case may just be kept under wraps until tension cools down.
It is our view that these confessions should not be hushed up.
The truth or otherwise must be unravelled. The cycle of bloodletting under the
cloak of religion or ethnicity that has swept through the city of Jos in the
last ten years must be brought to an end.
The March massacres occurred while the panel raised by the
federal government to probe the December 2008 riots headed by a retired Army
General, Emmanuel Abisoye was still sitting. Another panel raised by the state
government on the same matter and headed by Bola Ajibola a former minister of
justice had submitted its report late last year and the white paper by the
state government was being awaited.
What this adds up to is two years, two panels, amid a continuing
cycle of violence and no white paper to indicate government’s preparedness at
state or federal level to get a handle on things.
The fact that this happened should have shown the governments
concerned -federal and state – that the era of solving problems by raising
panels of enquiries is past. What, to our mind, seems to be going on in Jos
calls to mind the situation that was dramatised by the late playwright Ola
Rotimi in his play titled Holding Talks.
In that play, at a
barber’s shop a man fell down and while he was dying and in need of urgent
medical attention, useless arguments ensued as to whether his hand was shaking
before he fell down or not.
The case in Jos could be likened to this, while the federal and
state governments continued to raise panels to probe the killings the culprits
are allowed to go scot free and retreat after every attack to regroup and plan
more deadly onslaughts.
The 162 suspects who are soon to be arraigned in court as
disclosed by Mr. Ojukwu should not be allowed to go free if they are confirmed
to have participated in the senseless mayhem. Similar arrests in the past have
not resulted in conclusive prosecutions either because the alleged culprits were
sponsored by well connected individuals or groups or because there was no
follow through with prosecution.
In fact, a few days before the Dogo Nahawa massacre, the Plateau
State Governor, Jonah Jang had complained that all those arrested during the
November riots and taken to Abuja had been released quietly. No one has so far
contradicted the governor’s claim.
Let us state here and now that the new suspects must not be
allowed to go the same way because if criminals go unpunished the society is
the loser.
The only way to put a final stop to this murderous cycle is to
allow those found guilty to face the full wrath of the law, or else….
No, Nigeria cannot afford to go the other way.
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