FLASHBACK: How Soldiers Avenging Death Of Colleagues Destroyed Benue Communities 20 years Ago

French writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, was the one who said the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The above saying fittingly captures what is happening in Benue State at the moment.

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At the last count, many houses have been reduced to rubbles while more than 70 innocent persons have been gunned down, according to stakeholders in affected communities.

Trouble started after a militia ambushed soldiers deployed to restore peace in a warring community were ambushed and killed in Konshisha Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue.

The military had descended on the community to avenge the deaths of the slain officers and that was exactly how it happened two decades ago.

Back in 2001, troops had invaded Benue over the murder of 19 soldiers. On 10 October 2001, a militia ambushed 19 soldiers in a town called Vaase. Two days later, the mutilated bodies of the soldiers were discovered near a primary school in the nearby town of Zaki-Biam.

In annoyance, troops wreaked havoc across villages including Gbeji, Vaase, Anyiin, Iorja, Ugba, Tse-Adoor, Sankera, Kyado and Zaki-Biam. Many families were affected by the tragedy and the government of ex-President Olusegun had initially denied knowing about the incident.

Gen Victor Samuel Malu, who retired as Chief of Army Staff shortly before the incident, lost three relatives in the attack. His uncle, Pev Adoor, a blind octogenarian, and his two wives, Kutser Pev and Rebecca Doom Pev, were murdered.

Malu’s mother was also tortured. According to a columnist with the then National Accord Newspaper, Emmanuel Yawe, who met Malu’s mother before her death, soldiers told her they were sent to kill her and her son but she told them that she was the mother of all Nigerian soldiers and would be glad to die in the hands of her children.

Commenting on the military’s denial of involvement in the attack during an interview with New York Times, Malu said: “There is no other organization in the country that could have done this. Only the army has the tanks, the armored vehicles and the arms to do this. I cannot believe it was spontaneous. It must have been very carefully planned. How can you kill innocent civilians, farmers carrying yam on their heads? Can you mistake a yam tuber for a missile?”

Ironically, Malu was in charge of the army when former President Olusegun Obasanjo ordered hundreds of troops to Odi, a town in Bayelsa State, after 12 police officers were killed. The soldiers flattened Odi and killed many civilians.

The current happenings in Benue is a sad reminder of how civilians were killed for an act perpetrated by a ragtag army. This has raised concerns about human rights abuse under President Muhammadu Buhari and Obasanjo, who go into history as the only retired military officers who were elected Presidents of Nigeria.