TheCable

BY ABIODUN ISRAEL

A few days ago, the Nigerian Army headquarters raised the alarm that there was sustained efforts of some foreign agencies like to destroy its reputation. It said an international organization was planning to release a damning report on the army. And Amnesty International (AI) did just that.

A statement by the Acting Director Army Public Relations,  Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman disclosed the intention of AI to soon release a report with contents that label Nigerian soldiers as mass murderers of  defenceless IPOB/MASSOB protesters in the South-eastern part of the country.

That was not the first report that AI will release about the military in recent times. For example, mid this year, a report by the organisation accused soldiers of abuse or violations of human rights in its detention facilities in the northeast.

We find it necessary to restate that Nigerians cannot quantify the relief gotten for the country by the Nigerian Army through its successful suppression of insurrections. Those who have devoted time to closely monitor happenings in Nigeria would have no difficulty understanding the recklessness with which some aggrieved groups take to the streets to violently vent their anger.

The involvement of the Nigerian army in violent internal crises through its constitutional mandates of observing its Military Aid to Civil Authority (MACA) and Military Aid to Civil Powers (MACP) has saved Nigeria a lot of troubles, to describe it mildly. No one is in doubt about the fact that dissidents groups all over the country are armed to the teeth and that people delight more in violence than peaceful or amicable resolution of differences.

There are not just many, but frequent instances where whole communities or regions are held to ransom by armed criminal gangs within Nigeria. These gangs often display weapons and the sophistry most times make mockery of civil-orientated security agents like the police that has core mandate to tame such uprisings. It necessitates government’s deployment of soldiers.

At this point, it means the protesters, criminal gangs, separatists or dissident groups have launched a mini-war on peaceful citizens and the country. This scenario does not beg for levity in its handling by soldiers.

We refer and draw attention to the sophistication of weapons in the possession of Boko Haram Terrorists, in the Northeast or armed bandits and cattle rustlers in the Northwest, Niger Delta militants in the South -South and secession agitators such as IPOB  in the Southeast. These AI’s civil protestors or rebels freely use these weapons even against security agents in the guise of protests or rebellion to draw attention to their perceived grievances.

We hasten to say, Nigeria has experienced unjustified deaths of its security personnel in the hands of these hoodlums who personify violence not just to the security agents, but also to the communities where they operate.  We are therefore saddened by the continuous and consistent vilification of the Nigerian Army by AI.

Consequently, the alarm by the Nigerian Army headquarters about AI’s release of a report on alleged mass killings of MASSOB/IPOB  defenseless protesters by “the military between August 2015 and August 2016,”. How the AI arrived at its casualty figures and the conclusion that IPOB members were defenceless is what beats the imagination.

It is logical that a civil protest which does not become uncontrollably violent does require the intervention of soldiers, but left to the Nigeria Police, the Civil Defence Corps and other arms of civil security.  In the IPOB incident, AI has purportedly prepared its tainted report, this sect of secession agitators are famed for their cruelty and acts of violence in a manner that threatens or poses grave danger to Nigeria’s internal security.  No part of the Southeast has not tasted their bitter pill and in agonizing doses.

The army submitted that “Security agencies are always targeted for attack by the MASSOB/IPOB instruments of barbarism and cruelty. For instance, in the protests of 30 – 31 May 2016, more than 5 personnel of the Nigeria Police were killed, while several soldiers were wounded, Nigeria Police vehicles were burnt down same as several others of the Nigerian Army that were vandalized.”

Can the world be told how a group capable of summary execution of armed security agents on lawful duty, commit acts of arson on security vehicles would be unarmed or performed such acts with bare hands?

The tendency of violent protesters to kill and burn people from the settler communities, who are from other parts of  Nigeria is widespread and disarmingly consistent.

“Such reign of hate, terror and ethno-religious controversies that portend grave consequences for national security have been averted severally through the responsiveness of the Nigerian Army and members of the security agencies,” the Army had noted.

It is in this light that we identify with the submissions of the Nigerian Army in sighting more the sinister motive of AI in dabbling into Nigeria’s internal affairs for reasons for ruination of the country rather than attempts to right perceived wrongs.