Recently, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) disclosed that foreigner herders were responsible for the spate of terror attacks in Benue, Plateau and other parts of the country. These herders were said to have infiltrated the country through our porous borders. The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Markus Kangye, revealed that “linguistic and physical evidence suggest that many of the attackers are not Nigerian nationals.” Kangye also revealed during a press briefing in Abuja that the identities and languages of the assailants have helped security forces confirm that many of the attackers are not Nigerians.
“When you hear them speak, you can often tell they are not from here. For example, the Hausa spoken in Nigeria differs from that spoken in Mali, the Central African Republic, or Guinea,” Kangye said. Having acknowledged that the killer herdsmen terrorizing the citizens of Benue, Plateau and other parts of the country are not Nigerians, the military should henceforth go after them ruthlessly. The war should be taken to the door-steps of the killer herdsmen and decimate them once and for all. The fact that they are foreigners is the more reason the troops should attack and defeat them forthwith. They should no longer be handled with kid gloves or be treated as if they are our nationals. There is even no need for non-kinetic measures in handling them since we are dealing with foreign infiltrators who are hell-bent in killing our citizens and farmers.
No matter where the killer herdsmen come from, the military should get rid of them and free the country of unwanted killer herdsmen. What is of interest to Nigerians is to defeat all terrorists and bandits across the country. Nigerians are worried over their heinous and barbaric killing of innocent Nigerians on their farms, homes and on the road.
There is insecurity in almost all parts of the country. It has become intractable, defying all efforts and remedies by the federal and state governments. It has affected agriculture and food production because farmers cannot freely go to their farms and harvest their crops for fear of being killed by rampaging killer herdsmen. It is high time the military high command crushed the foreign killer herdsmen.
Even if they speak local, foreign, or indigenous language, it matters nothing, and the Nigerian military should be aware of this simple fact. Nigerians will only celebrate the total defeat of the scoundrels.
The federal government should muster the political will to deal fiercely with these foreign troublesome herdsmen and their local collaborators. We say this because foreign herdsmen can hardly operate in Nigeria with careless abandon without local collaborators and backers. Let the security agencies go after their local backers and financiers with a view to bringing them to justice. It is sad that some of these herdsmen operate for hours in some parts of the country without adequate swift responses from our security agencies. Unfortunately, the killer herdsmen are boldly spreading their murderous campaigns across the country. They are also reportedly involved in kidnapping, armed robbery and terrorism in some parts of the country.
If the killer herdsmen are not stopped and quickly too, their activities may snowball into something more terrible. It is the primary responsibility of the government to ensure the security and welfare of the people.
The budgetary allocation for security should be judiciously used to ensure that the right equipment to fight terrorism is procured. Also, soldiers fighting terrorism should be properly remunerated to motivate them for the task ahead. The family of any soldier slain in the line of duty should be adequately compensated.
The government should stop paying lip service to the fight against terrorism. There are reports that these terrorists are in control of some parts of Nigeria, where they also collect taxes and levies from the local people. The president should immediately rise to the occasion and recapture any part of the country in the hands of terrorists. Nigeria should not suffer the scourge of terrorism forever.
That the killer herdsmen are foreigners is all the more reason the military high command should rise to the occasion, because the military has the primary responsibility to protect the country from foreign invasion. If foreigners have invaded the country, killing citizens at will, the military should stop them.
Nigerians do not want excuses anymore. No stone should be left unturned in the fight against terrorism. If the activities of these terrorists are not checked now, the country stands threatened.