‘Move quickly to forestall US intervention’ – Int’l lawyer Ogebe tells new service chiefs
By Jeffrey Agbo
International lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe has urged Nigeria’s newly appointed service chiefs to act immediately to halt a recent wave of brutal attacks across the country, warning that failure to respond could invite foreign intervention.
Ogebe’s appeal follows “overnight” simultaneous deadly assaults in Benue State — in Ohimini, Utonkon and Takum — and a weekend attack in Plateau State, incidents he says have pushed the death toll in the Middle Belt to more than 40 in the first five days of November 2025. A Catholic church was also set ablaze during the attacks, he said.
The lawyer also cited a separate ambush on the Lumma–Babanna road in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State that targeted the convoy of a lawmaker and left a soldier dead, bringing the total number of attacks in the Middle Belt to seven as of November 4.
Ogebe said the ambush on the Muslim lawmaker’s convoy was carried out by armed bandits linked to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM, unlike the other recent strikes that he described as the work of suspected Fulani militias.
“What is most painful is that we received real-time updates on these attacks and monitored them overnight from the U.S. and yet there was no known military response on ground,” Ogebe said, arguing that the lack of visible military action undermines confidence in Nigeria’s security apparatus.
He pointed to further violence in the northeast, noting that a newly opened EYN church had its fence demolished in November — an incident he said underscores the targeting of Christian communities and places of worship shortly after “President Trump’s expression of concern.”
Ogebe challenged the new service chiefs to demonstrate competence and abandon propaganda, saying professional military “should be unseen and unheard and let peace and security speak for them.” He called for decisive operations to crush the attackers in Riyom, Ohimini, Utonkon and Takum.
“A ragtag bunch of terrorists and herdsmen militia cannot outwit and hold at bay Nigeria’s military that restored peace in Liberia and Sierra Leone but not at home,” he wrote, noting with alarm that Boko Haram will reach 22 years of violent activity next month. He highlighted a widely cited military aphorism to press his point: “A General once apocryphally said if an insurgency lasts beyond 24 hours, then the government is involved. Boko Haram’s violence has now lasted 22 years!”
Ogebe urged the military leadership to act with urgency and professionalism, adding that a nation where “heavily armed thugs meet openly with government officials and return unscathed is not a truly independent nation.”
