Firm figures are not available, but accounts vary wildly on the level of casualties. The Nasarawa State police command said it could ‘confirm’ two deaths; reports put the death toll at between 17 and 30 in two days of clashes that the police said they were able to bring under control on Monday.
Also not clear is what led to the latest flare-up of hostilities. One account traced the problem to a dispute between a group of Fulani who herded their cattle to graze on farmlands, and some Eggon natives that own them, at Alingani in Assakio, headquarters of Lafia East Development Area of Nasarawa State.
The ensuing altercation resulted in deployment of weapons and the destruction of several houses.
The frequent eruption of crisis among communities has become so endemic that it would require a more robust action by both the state and federal governments to find a permanent solution before it gets out of hand. The federal government’s involvement in finding that solution has added imperative because Nasarawa State borders the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Many people who work and conduct businesses in Abuja live in Nasarawa State towns that are close to Abuja.
In March, a Judicial Commission of Inquiry that the state government set up to look into a previous crisis reported that more than 534 people were killed in communal clashes in the ten months from December 2012 to September 2013.
In that period, one of the most horrendous acts of premeditated killings was the ambush and murders of scores of security personnel, including police officers and men of the Department of State Security Services (SSS) in May.
Since that report was submitted in June this year, several more of such ethnic clashes have occurred.
The hopes, expressed then by Nasarawa State governor, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura, that punishing the perpetrators of the crisis would deter others, appear to have been dashed by last weekend’s outbreak.
No stone, the governor assured, would be left unturned in the implementation of the commission’s recommendations.
Despite the heavy told on the federal security personnel, it was something of a surprise and a disappointment that the federal government did not take active part in the work of the Commission, or set up its own.
The atmosphere is made murkier by political considerations. Indeed, the incident in which the security personnel were killed stemmed from the action of a cult group known as ‘Ombatse’, whose members believe that their community has been marginalised for too long, and vow that the next election in the state must produce the state governor from their ethnic stock.
What all these point to therefore is that the Nasarawa State government should match its words with action and ensure that those who spearhead inter-ethnic division are dealt with in accordance with the law.
The state will certainly need the support and cooperation of the government in seeing that this goal is achieved. In extending such assistance, the parties must eschew politicisation of the security situation, which would only aggravate the matter further.
Those responsible for the latest mayhem must not be allowed to escape the law. It is the serial failure to punish perpetrators of previous crises that provides the impetus for fresh ones to occur.
The Nasarawa State government should also go beyond the assurances of the governor on the recommendations of the judicial panel and activate the process to bring those named as being responsible to book.
