By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian human rights lawyer living in the United States, has expressed sadness at the abduction and execution of Christian officers at the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna, expressing shock at the brazenness.
Fulani terrorists invaded NDA officers’ quarters on Tuesday, killed two and abducted one whom they took away. Chief of Defence Staff, General Luck Irabor, described it as an “inside job” and vowed the military would fish out the murderers.
But Ogebe insisted in a statement that the “abduction and execution of Christian officers of Southern and Middle Belt background from Nigeria’s premier defense academy smacks of a targeted elimination and not kidnap for ransom.”
He wondered what the world thinks of how the NDA was breached and officers summarily murdered, a security failure as stark as the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“Bust sadly this is not the first time. The Command and Staff College was breached by Boko Haram who carried out targeted killings of Christian officers at CSC’s chapel during service some years ago.
“Now it is so-called bandits not terrorists who have desecrated the highest military institution in the most militarized town in northern Nigeria.
“Terrorist groups have ironically multiplied or even quadrupled under the current regime headed by a major general. What a disgrace to Nigeria’s military commercial complex.
“Even the Army University built in the former army chief’s Biu hometown in the North East terror theater has not been desecrated in this manner.
Litany of incidents
“Most disturbing of all is that this is a continuation of a pattern of insider jobs eliminating select officers of the Nigerian army. We are aware of numerous incidents:
· “An officer from Plateau state who died mysteriously in the Maiduguri barracks a day before his return home on holiday after years at the war front. His death was alleged to be suicide.
· “An officer from Benue who had recently moved into the barracks in Abuja when his laptop with sensitive intelligence was stolen before he was killed in a suspect accident days later.
· “A valiant officer from southeast Nigeria who successfully suppressed Boko Haram in Niger state but was transferred to Maiduguri where he was mysteriously shot in the head after going on operation with a faulty radio.
· “The star female Airforce pilot who was killed also on the base in Kaduna while she was visiting in a bizarre car accident.
· “A gallant officer from the North East who was brought in to suppress Boko Haram operations in Gwoza who mysteriously died while pursuing them on Gwoza mountain.
Ogebe said the instances are too many to recount but the pattern is clear.
To him, the latest NDA massacre is particularly worrisome as it reminiscent of the targeted killings of Northern and Yoruba officers in Nigeria’s first military coup in 1966 which spiral led into a horrendous pogrom and the Biafran Civil War.
“It was a similar killing of a Sudanese Christian officer that led to the genocidal war that split that country into two.
Buhari cosies up with Fulani herdsmen
“The [Muhammadu] Buhari maladministration, which did not deem it fit to pay respects to the Chief of Army Staff who tragically died in a suspect plane crash in Kaduna this year, but flooded Kano with private jets for his son’s extravagant wedding days before, is not expected to do any better.
“In Nigeria, all deaths are equal and some are less equal than others.
“Buhari, who never met any victim of the 80 people massacred in Plateau State suddenly hosted the sheikh of the purported Ondo-bound 25 Fulani herdsmen.
“As one whose late brother attended the NDA then went on to serve gallantly in global peacekeeping in Sierra Leone and Burma, it should sadden and outrage every officer’s family and all sensible citizens that NDA was breached.
“Like Afghanistan, the honest truth is that some parts of Nigeria are already in the hands of our own Taliban – many LGs in the North West, North East and North Central, the forests of the South West and the South East, and of course infiltrated the federal government and states like Plateau.
“Only the creeks of the South South haven’t been taken but the oil blocs have and they are gunning for waterways and grazing routes too. Practically nothing is left of or safe in Nigeria.
“May God have mercy on Nigeria and deliver us from all evil and may the souls of the departed Rest In Peace and their killers know known.
Nigeria will survive Buhari
“Last week was 25 years since I was released from Abacha’s prison. I turned 50 this week – I have officially spent over half my life fighting for Nigeria at great personal risk, cost and my family’s expense.
“But it was God who granted the extra 25 years and delivered me from the expectations of men and kings’ wrath.
“Nigeria today is now worse than I have ever seen or imagined in my lifetime.
“Is Nigeria a lost cause? God never fails. This too shall pass.
“I had already elected not to celebrate my birthday with fanfare out of respect for the mood of the nation not knowing that even worse was yet to come.
“We survived Abacha and by the special grace of God Nigeria will survive Buhari.”