Mangu LGA: People Were Roasted Inside Their Homes

Mostly for the wrong reasons, Plateau state has been in the news in recent times. In particular, a number of communities in several council areas, including Bokkos, Mangu, etc, have become killing fields. 

Whereas Farmers/Herders' clashes have been identified as the trigger, sources say there are more underlying factors. 

In this interview with a community leader in Mangu whose identity we cannot reveal for security reasons, FreshNews serves you, its highly esteemed readers, an indepth insight into the situation in the crisis-ridden communities. 

He told FreshNews that Most of Those Who Were Murdered Were Roasted Alive in Their Homes. 

Tell us about what happened on Tuesday

The whole thing actually started on Monday, 22nd January 2024. Monday evening. There is a military check point around Sabon Gari side and close to the check point, there are Fulanis that came in and attacked Mwaghavul indigenes, on their bike. They machetted one, and one escaped unhurt. They destroyed the motorcycle they were riding on it. So the people of the community, that is the Mwaghavul people, were apprehensive because one, they felt there is a military check point close to that place and there wasn’t any intervention from it. So the next morning, they regrouped and mobilized themselves, it was more of a reprisal thing. 

Some went and destroyed the check point because they felt there is no need for the check point if it cannot intervene in such a situation. Then others now moved because they knew the direction and where those people came and attacked them. They call it Deng Kong, under Mangu Ward 1. Some of them now advanced to that place and started dislodging the Fulanis because they felt they are a threat to them. People cannot access that road because it is a federal road particularly those on motor bikes. So they went for a reprisal in that community and started dislodging the Fulanis this time around. This is one angle of it.

Another of it is that they felt that if their people left the villages and they can come and stay comfortably in the town for safety, yet they are still launching attacks on them again, after dislodging them in their villages, so they are not suppose to be there as well. At a point, the indigenous Mwaghavul that are Muslims, alongside Pyem people under Mangu LGA who are also Muslims started burning the houses of people who are Christians but resident in their own dominated areas in Sabon Kasuwa and part of Deng Kong as well because there are other Christians who live in those areas. So they started attacking and burning their houses. That was how it started on Tuesday 23rd January 2024. 

At a point it was curtailed and then a 24-hour curfew was declared by the governor. So the next morning during the 24-hour curfew, what followed it became a surprising thing.

Meanwhile, on that fateful Tuesday evening, there were four simultaneous attacks in four different communities of Halle Ward, in mangu lga namely Kinat, Mairana, Sarbot. and Kwaghaslalek. That of Mairana and Sarbot were repelled, unfortunately they were able to succeed in Kinat, burning a house and a Sharon car. The first information I got was 15 people that were burnt in the house.

The impression we have is that 30 people were killed…

I am bringing you to that. It was the initial information that we got because they were burned and roasted in a room. Until when you take a head count and you know the people that were there before you will not be able to ascertain the number of people that were there. And then in Kinat the house was torched and a Sharon vehicle was burnt down but no life was lost there. It was just in Kwaghaslalek that those casualties were found. 

So after the other assessments, the executive governor of Plateau came for an on-the-spot assessment the day before yesterday (Friday) and from the figures he got, the number was not 30 but 27. So, I would stand on that assessment because on paper he is the Chief Security Officer of the state and then certainly security agencies briefed him properly. So by that assessment I stand on. It wasn’t 30 but 27 people lost their precious lives.

What we heard here is that the crisis is more of a herdsmen/farmers issue. Is that the case?

No. It is not. With all sense of responsibility, I don’t subscribe to that because for a very long time, I know that there was a former governor in Plateau state once said it is a farmer/herders clash but in the real sense it is not. It is just more of a political way of saying things in this country. The truth is, it is all about land grabbing. Why did I say it is about land grabbing? Plateau state or these local governments, Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, Bassa and part of Jos South, including Riyom as well, they are agrarian areas. These are fertile lands for farming. The reason why I said it is about land grabbing is that if they drive you away and for fear of people who can attack and the rest, of course you will leave that place. They will now have plane land for grazing. That is one aspect of it.

Another aspect of it is that Mangu, Barkin Ladi and Bokkos local government areas have rich mineral deposits of Tin. So seeing Tin in this country is more of illegal mining, not by government or any other person. It is a way of getting either money or mineral resources to sell. So it is another factor.

Another factor is that if they drive you away from the area during dry season there are a lot of water along that area particularly that Barkin Ladi, and Bokkos. They are close neighbours to Mangu and there are mining ponds that were mined, should I say, 50-60, if not more than that, years ago, that during dry season you have a lot of water there. They are more like dams. The indigenous people use those places to do irrigation farming-dry season farming. So by the time they drive them away from those places, those who drove the indigenes away will have water for their cattle and then if for any reason they want to do irrigation farming, they themselves can use them too. You know once there is water, there are grasses there, naturally they spring up as if it is raining season because there is always water there. They have that for their cattle. Though it might not be in large quantity, they still have grasses around the areas close to the water. So these are the basic things that constituted this thing but if it is farmers/herders directly, it is not because there are other factors. Yet, that could be the trigger but the real thing is that it is far beyond what is being said in the media. 

Is there also a political angle to it?

Sure. Of course there is. There is political angle to it. There are eye witnesses accounts that have it that some people, that is the last one before this one. There was an attempt of killing people sometime last year. The eye witnesses account was that since you said you are doing PDP gida, gida, we are going to kill you gida, gida. That is to say, since you said you are voting for PDP, house to house, we are going to kill you house to house. That tells you there is political angle to it. But that is one angle to it. There are some unguarded utterances by some people. May be after this conversation I will send that to you. One of them termed himself as a die-hard supporter of Dr Nentawe in Mangu. It might interest you to note that Dr Nentawe is the APC gubernatorial candidate in Plateau state. What he wrote On Facebook was in Hausa but let me try and paraphrase it. He said if PDP members insisted they are voting for PDP. OK. With all the loss of life in Mangu, they should go and carry the corpses so they would eat it. That again tells you that there is a political coloration to it. 

And of course it might interest you, the security agencies, since some of us work with the security agencies within, we have sent the statement to them. All what our people over here are saying is that since it is a Facebook account, it is traceable. That person is supposed to be called for questioning and be picked up because he knows more than us. If somebody can say something he knows is traceable, things like Facebook and you put such comments, then you are supposed to be treated as a criminal and you know much more than, may be, we didn’t know. So to confirm what you said, it has a political undertone. 

In the face of all the disclosures you have made here, where are the security agencies and what have they been doing to prevent re-occurences knowing full well that these areas are very volatile and that the killings will keep happening?

To be very frank, most atimes, it is very unfortunate that government agencies are not that active in doing things. One thing that the constitution spells out is that security is the paramount thing for the government. The first thing that is in the constitution is the protection of lives and property. But mostatimes, this is not what is obtainable. Mangu is the headquarters of the local government. Most of the security agencies are right inside the town. If you go to the villages that are prone to these attacks, you hardly see any security presence there. That is one. And then the terrains too is another challenge because there are terrains that if you leave Mangu the local government headquarters, if they say there is a problem in Chakfem, a district under Mangu local government, from Mangu to Mangun, the road is very good and clear but it will take you about 30 to 35 minutes on a normal day for you to get there. For you now to go to Chakfem since the terrain is not good, it will take you more than two hours. Come to think of it, suppose there is an attack in that community, will there be anything security agencies will be able to do there? 

Most of the security agencies are inside Mangu town, that is the headquarter. Like for instance, Fungzai, that is where, last year about 40 people were buried. Then 32 were killed and buried in Kantoma as well. Kantoma borders Mangu, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi. So at least, if there is a base there for the military or whichever security apparatus they want to put, there should be since it is a boundary. But there is none. And other places too, like Kwaghaslalek. They are all boundary areas and it might interest you to know that the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Plateau state is just a stone throw, to Kwaghaslalek. Most of the terrorists that come out penetrate through these borders that are porous. Inside the towns, you hardly have these issues. If the borders are fortified, all these things wouldn’t be happening. Since the borders are porous and there are no security presence there, that is why all these things are happening. The DSS are inside the town, the FOB is inside Mangu town. The Police is inside Mangu town. The Civil Defence headquarters is inside Mangu town. All the security agencies are in Mangu town. But all the villages don’t have those things. If all the flash points areas would have a mini base, then I am sure most of these issues will stop and if there is political will on the part of the government to do that, deal with them as criminals, deal decisively, then all these madness will stop.

If the security agencies are not located in the affected areas for reason you enumerated above, what happens to intelligence gathering? If there are enough intelligence, all these things not be curtailed?

Of course. You see, Nigeria, to some extent, in terms of intelligence, Nigeria is trying, we wont shy away from that. The issue is if the intelligence is being passed, do we actually act on it? Do we work on it? These are personal questions we need to ask ourselves because in as much as we are doing it, we still have saboteurs among us. That is what I told you initially-political will. Because when the former Communications Minister, Pantami was there, they said we should register our sim card. It was more of a compulsory thing to register sim cards. The reason he gave then was that so that we will be able to track kidnappers. But if I may ask you a question, up till this moment, do we still track kidnappers in this country. Up till this moment, there are pre-registered Sim Cards that if you do True Caller, you will see the identity, not the person that has the sim. What are they doing to clean up all those things? It still boils down to the issue of political will because I know if absolutely you want to do the right thing in this country, you can track calls anywhere. Our conversation now can be tracked. But do we actually do that in this country? All these kidnappers and people that launch attacks, they make phone calls with themselves, they communicate with each other. So why cant they track them? Is it that in this country we don’t have codes? One of the unfortunate thing again, I can call you now, like the way we are communicating now and I can threaten you on phone. The most unfortunate thing is that if you call your service provider, they will tell you that they cannot disclose the information to you. What a shame! The only thing that they tell you is to go through the police. And then we have opened to the Police to extort money from people. I expect in this country that if I can prove beyond reasonable doubt, the way I am speaking with you right now, my phone is on automatic recording. If I can bring that and prove to you or play it to you that somebody threatened me, then I should be able to have the identity of the person so that I will go direct myself and prosecute my case in court. The will tell you it is not like that, you must follow Police, you must do this, you must do that. Then if that is the way we will do things in this country, how can you get justice? A lot of people don’t go to either court or other places because you don’t have the resources. Is it that you will look for what you will eat now or go and prosecute cases in the court? A lot of things are going under the carpet or under the water. If there is political will in this country, most of these things will stop. 

Where is the hope for your people in the face of all these challenges?

Well, the hope of our people and by extension, any other Nigerian in this country, is like we always say. One reporter or journalist with the Voice of America, Shaka Sali, normally says, “lets keep hope alive.” 

We will certainly be doing that because we hope and pray that Nigeria will change someday, one day. But at the moment, that is why when I hear government say people should not take laws into their hands, people should not be keeping or piling arms, they are only saying it. That will never ever happen. People will continue to pile up arms for themselves because if the government that people feel are suppose to protect them are not there to protect them like this that I mentioned earlier, at Kwaghaslalek, Fungzai and other places were people were burnt or killed inside their houses and then you expect that tomorrow somebody will just fold his arms again? For a very long time and in different places, people will be cut like rams, like cows in their houses and you say people should not take laws into their hands? People will certainly want to defend themselves because even the Bible says that you will not just sit like a fool for somebody to just kill you like that. Even God himself will not forgive you for doing that. Except you try your own possible best but they overpower you. That’s a different thing altogether but you cannot just fold your arms like that because life is sacrosanct. It is something that God bestowed in you. So you can just fold your arms for somebody to just come and kill you just like that. You have to defend it until it passes your own strength. that’s a different thing altogether.

So the fate of my people and any other Nigerian now is he will begin to defend himself. But we hope it will not get to the point it will escalate and pass what we are thinking because with the arms that people are piling up now, like I always say someday, one day when we now get to why I said we now keep hope alive. When that hope eventually comes up and people pile up arms, how can they do with the arms? You cant go back and retrieve the arms that you’ve given someone, armed him with. That is the post conflict era. How now do you deal with the arms people have piled? Will you go and collect it? God helps you you meet with someone that knows you.

What is your last word for government? What I will tel government is one, there should be sincerity of purpose in the sense that if a criminal is a criminal, he should be treated as such without any sacred cow because there are a lot of dimensions that are coming into play-the political angle is there, the religious angle is there, the ethnicity aspect is there. So if you are treating a criminal and then you take side with him, certainly, justice will not prevail. Justice will not be served. And one, justice delayed, they say, is justice denied. If people don’t have justice, like in the Western world, they do crimes as well. Even if it is going to take them one, two, three or more years, at the end of it all, justice must be served. If justice will be served, people will not have problems. It might interest you to know that people will come and tell you the people that either came to burn their houses or kill their loved ones are people they know. Tomorrow you will still see those people walking around the street without anything being done about them. So if you see such a person, if I will forgive him, do you think other will forgive him? Somebody might not. But if they are being punished and the law takes its course, at least somebody will see that at the end of it all, justice was served to me or justice was served to my brother or justice was served to father. Then there will be some sigh of relief. Until government begins to do that, we won’t forge ahead and we won’t get to where we want to be. 

The government too should be decisive in some of their actions because I don’t see the reason why up to this moment, I stand to be corrected, I don’t see the reason why up to this moment, they are telling us bandits, they are telling us herders, are they not terrorists? If somebody would have AK47, some of the security agencies don’t have those things. So where do they get their own? It might interest you to note that yesterday (Saturday) there was almost an attack in my community. When we were going to those places, a sniper passed us. They shot a sniper. If an individual can get a sniper, then what are we talking about? People are shooting G3 and its not a government, the military are using AK but an individual will have a G3. So what are we talking of? Are they not supposed to be termed and labelled as terrorists? Up till this moment, that has not been done.