Mistaken identity: First, it was Uromi, now Mangun…where next?

In March this year, it was in Uromi, Esan North Local Government of Edo State, when a mob allegedly attacked and killed about 16 hunters of northern descent who were travelling from Elele, Rivers State. The date was March 27, 2025.

Last Friday, it was in Mangun District, Mangun Local Government Area of Plateau State, when eight people travelling for a wedding were killed in a mob attack still on mistaken identity. Date was June 20, 2025.

Tomorrow is pregnant. Nobody knows where next such unfortunate incident will happen.

Barbaric actions are being taken across the country by citizens who are desperately looking for avenues to protect themselves, even though self-defence has no real place in the Nigerian legal lexicons.

Read also: Taraba CAN condemns Benue killings, urges FG to act decisively

Nigerians have become so helpless in the face of increasing carnage across the country, to the point that they have now resorted to self-help. The government has done little to show that protection of lives and property is of any importance to it.

Many Nigerians seem to have lost faith in the government and security agencies. The reasons are obvious. Since the Muhammadu Buhari administration to this point, thousands of citizens have lost their lives while sleeping or just sitting in their houses. Hundreds have been killed in on their farms. Unprovoked attacks by elements suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have continued unchecked.

Observers accuse the government of lacking the political will to resolve the problem despite uncountable number of summits, reconciliatory meetings and high powered-security meetings.

They also noted that the government has continued to look the other way because of political and religious sentiments. Many Nigerians are wondering why the current administration has not been able to rein in the monsters terrorizing the people.

Buhari’s refusal to act decisively was well understood by many Nigerians who read his body language each time the killings occurred. What may have left many people tongue-tied in the current dispensation is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have sustained the mere verbal threats that featured in the Buhari era. Could it be that there are certain elements that are “putting sand in his garri” in this circumstance? But are they more powerful than the Federal Government?

The Uromi episode was a mistaken identity just like the Plateau incident last weekend. The local vigilantes who carried out the barbaric killing of the 16 travelling hunters in the Uromi community strongly believed that the hunters were indeed, of the stock of the killer herdsmen.

They drew their conclusion when they saw some dangerous objects, such as cutlasses, with the travellers. Not convinced that hunters could be travelling from Rivers State to Kano armed, they thought that the hunters were out for some mischief, hence the attack.

Read also: How wrong diagnosis of insecurity fuels killings in Benue, Plateau

Although their action drew wild and wide condemnation, nobody interrogated the reason behind such dastardly act. The reason the local vigilantes took the law into their own hands was also the reason why the unfortunate episode in Mangun District, Mangun Local Government Area of Plateau State, happened last Friday.

The Mangun victims were reportedly journeying from Zaria in Kaduna State to Quan’pan LGA in Plateau, but lost their way and entered a tense community grappling with prolonged terrorist violence. The villagers were probably afraid that their attackers had come again to kill them.

Beyond the condemnation of the attack and the call to bring the perpetrators to justice, what should be a major focus is how to end the orgy of senseless massacres by the herdsmen, who have turned the country into bloody scene.

Like in the case of Uromi when Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State quickly raced to Kano to meet with Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf to douse tension and prevent reprisal attacks, Governor Caleb Mutfwang has since reached out to his Kaduna State counterpart over the Mangun killings.

While it is normal to ask that those who carried out the killings be brought to book, it is disheartening that nobody, not even one person is standing trial for the thousands of Nigerians that have been killed across the country. The President noted this during his recent visit to Benue State.

With the way things are going, Uromi and Mangun may still happen again in other parts of the country despite the deluge of condemnation.

The reasons are obvious. Beyond Edo, and Plateau, Nigerians are being fed daily with the atrocious deeds of Fulani herdsmen, with little respite from the federal government.

Farmers across the country are under siege and many of them have even abandoned their farm lands in Benue, Ekiti, Ondo, Plateau, Nasarawa, Ogun, and many other states.

In many parts of the North, farmers are paying tribute to Islamic terrorists. Fulani herdsmen, with a sense of gross entitlement, encroach on farmlands and kill farmers for preventing them from violating their means of livelihoods. Massacres, arson, rape, and killings have become the norm for these violent Fulani herdsmen.

In 2014, the Global Terrorism Index listed Fulani herdsmen among the four most dangerous terrorist groups in the world because of their killing sprees in Nigeria. But, in Nigeria, the group has not been so declared by the government, despite the fact that the list of their dastardly acts is endless.

A country that tolerates such monsters and vampires cannot be said to be alive to its cardinal responsibility of protecting lives and property.

Read also: Unmasking the silent rise of ritual killings in Nigeria

Nigerians heard President Tinubu loud and clear when he charged the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Gwabin Musa to take charge of the situation. He also rattled the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun to wake his men from slumber (as it were).

But it is a known fact that the Defence Headquarters cannot carry out an operation that is not sanctioned by the Commander-in-Chief.

Then, the question to ask is, who is Nigeria’s nemesis?