RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who is Fuelling the Killing Fields?

Miyetti   Allah has moved fast to neutralize this particular incident of ethnic triumphalism on account of the scope of outrage such displays from them are attracting.

 

Why did they not do the same in connection with an even more brazen declaration by Miyetti Allah in connection with the Agatu massacre?

 

That declaration that the massacre of hundreds was in revenge or the killing of a massive no of cows, allegations with no evidence since there were no cows to be seen anywhere within the small compass of Agatu,  was allowed to stand.

 

As outrage grew, the Miyetti Allah propagandists added to it the claim that the massacre was in revenge for the killing of a Fulani man.

 

The highly erudite, articulate  and media sensitive Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, head of Miyetti Allah and ex-central bank governor let these celebrations of inhumanity pass, and today some today are trying to sell the story that such a barbaric culture is not the stock in trade of Miyetti Allah and the  ethnic supremacist class to which Sansui belongs.

 

When Benue state instituted an anti-open grazing law, Miyetti Allah vowed to challenge the law and called upon nomadic Fulani across the nation to converge in Benue in defiance of that law. When they struck with another massacre in Benue, not only did Sanusi not deny that the massacre was committed by the troops of which his organization is the spokesperson, he challenged the outrage agst their killings by pointing to a questionable claim of an anti-Fulani massacre in Taraba, thereby framing a culture of self created bloody justice which is the self serving narrative that Miyetti Allah wants us to buy as their logic for this river of Nigerians' blood they are drinking almost daily.

 

In a context in which a pressure group has constituted itself into a law above the law, running its own military, its own propaganda outfit and led by some of the most prominent members of a particular ethnic group in collaboration with members of the same ethnicity in a country's govt, are we to take seriously claims that the comparatively less brazen declaration in connection with the Plateau massacre does not represent the mindset of Miyetti Allah?

 

With Miyetti Allah's level of propaganda activity, they should not expect us to buy stories of their being misrepresented.

 

Perhaps they now wish to fall back to the old strategy in which their actions will be shrouded under the cover of faceless 'criminals' since it is now clear their brazen ethnic triumphalism is backfiring.

 

On their own, they should stop harassing and attacking Nigerians. They should stop cattle nomadism in the way they go about it at present. They should prevail on their compatriots in govt to stop trying to arrogate Nigeria's land and resources to them.  If any 'criminals' commit crimes wrongly attributed to them, they should use their considerable military resources to find these criminals and bring them to justice and make sure such criminals don't trouble anyone again.

 

We know they have a deadly army and that no one is going to disarm that army.

 

Other Nigerians should also build their own armies and work at reworking the character of the nation bcs the current beast/prey arrangement is not tenable.

 

toyin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: Jibrin Ibrahim
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2018 3:13 PM
To: 'chidi opara reports' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who is Fuelling the Killing Fields?

 

See below Premium Times admitting the story they attributed to Miyetti Allah was fabricated. Toyin and Toyin, as I have said previously, the herdsmen story is not being told so people are responding to fake news being propagated to support a conspiracy story. 

An internal investigation by PREMIUM TIMES found that there was no recording of any interview in which Mr Ciroma made the statement, neither was any statement signed or circulated by him that contained the quotes.

The error was traced to our outstation reporter based in Jos, whose failure to properly attribute the source of the purported statement by Mr Ciroma misled the editors into believing that it was e-mailed to the reporter.

The reporter filed the story on Monday morning based on 'a statement' from Mr Ciroma. But checks by PREMIUM TIMES following Mr Ciroma's protest on Wednesday afternoon showed that the quotes were lifted from The Nation Newspapers.

The Nation's reporter in Plateau State also circulated the quotes in the WhatsApp group of reporters on the government house beat in Jos, telling his colleagues they were the full transcription of his interview with Mr Ciroma.

The reporter later admitted to PREMIUM TIMES that he did not have a recording of his call with Mr Ciroma, but said the quotes mirrored the Miyetti Allah leader's position on the latest killings in Plateau State.

The Nation published the purported quotes by Mr Ciroma hours before our reporter in Jos lifted it without attribution, thus misleading his editors in Abuja.

PREMIUM TIMES management has initiated an ethics and professional review of the reporter's work; how it came to be that his sourcing for the story fell below house standards, and how his documentation fails to measure up to expected standards for verification and accuracy.

Even if Mr Ciroma made the purported statement, newsroom managers agreed yesterday, the expectations would be to report it with proper recording or digital footprints, for the simple reason that ethical journalism places the onus on the reporter to document proof of sources' contribution to a story.

When one of the editors on duty called our reporter to find out how the story was sourced shortly before passing it on Monday morning, he said it was personally sent out by Mr Ciroma. This turned out to be the WhatsApp group broadcast by The Nation reporter, which several other Jos-based print and electronic correspondents sent to their respective media organisations throughout Monday.

Accountability And Remediation

This again brings to fore the limits of a common culture in Nigerian beat reporting where correspondents share stories amongst themselves in the manner of pool reporting. While journalists cannot be at two or more events simultaneously, standards in ethical reporting require reporters to ensure thorough verification of any second-hand information.

PREMIUM TIMES publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi, admitted in a meeting with newsroom senior editors yesterday that the paper was substantially in error with respect to its reporting on Mr. Ciroma's role in the conflict in Jos. "This is very much below the standards of verification we strive to maintain and for which we have come to earn the trust of our readers. As a first step, we are sending an apology letter to Mr. Ciroma regretting the mischaracterisation of his role, and assuring him that a disciplinary process is currently apace to ensure accountability for the breakdown in our editorial procedures."

The controversial attribution to Miyetti Allah comes as the media were facing allegations of bias in its coverage of the ongoing killings in the country.

In February, presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu disparaged the media for its coverage of the killings. PREMIUM TIMES largely restrains from using potentially harmful stereotypes or slurs save for where authoritative references have linked an incident to a group pattern.

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

 

On 29 June 2018 at 12:30, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

What about Miyetti Allah? They are not faceless.

 

From Agatu to Benue, they have openly admitted to massacres in pursuit of their mission. The Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano are their apex leaders.

 

The standard response of apologists for Fulani herdsmen terrorism is that the massacres they engage in are reprisal attacks for unreported crimes agst them yet the same Fulani herdsmen have a very media conscious propaganda outfit and public advocacy strategy through which they publicly justify the massacres they commit, with no less a one than than ex-central bank governor , Islamic scholar, Emir of Kano  and Miyetti Allah head Sanusi Lamido Sanusi speaking on their behalf,  yet they are mute on crimes committed agst them until faced with outrage agst massacres they commit?

 

Haba!

 

FUNAM is simply a more brazen version of Miyetti Allah. There is no fundamental difference between them. 

 

Toyin

 

On Fri, 29 Jun 2018 at 11:09, Jibrin Ibrahim <jibrinibrahim891@gmail.com> wrote:

Who is Fuelling the Killing Fields?

 

Jibrin Ibrahim, Friday Column, Daily Trust, 29^thJune 2018

 

Yesterday, Amnesty International released a distressing report on the senseless killings currently going on in Nigeria. By their research and assessment, at least 1813 people were killed from January to date, across 17 states in the country. This death toll almost doubles that of the entire 2017 count. The people were killed as a result farmers-herders conflict, communal clashes, Boko Haram insurgent attacks and banditry. They concluded correctly that: "By failing to hold murderers to account, Nigerian authorities are encouraging impunity that is fuelling rising insecurity across the country." The Nigerian State is clearly failing in meeting its constitutional obligations of security provisioning for citizens. I believe that there is a consensus that things cannot continue like this and government must address the security situation with the objective of securing significant improvement. 

This week, the issue on the front burner is the latest incidence in Plateau state, where armed gunmen attacked 11 villages on 23 June for at least seven hours and killed at least 200 villagers without intervention from security forces. The security agencies should have been able to prevent the massacre because the violence in Plateau started after an initial attack, which was followed by reprisal attacks from Thursday 21 so the security agencies should have been there to ensure that the escalation that happened would have been nipped in the bud. The Chief of Army Staff recently indicated that the Nigerian Armed Forces are deployed in active operations in 32 states of the Federation. Why then does large-scale killings of Nigerians continue in spite of the large-scale deployment of security personnel? Why are the perpetrators of these atrocities not held accountable? These are the questions pushing many Nigerians to interrogate whether there is indeed a plan to continue to escalate mass killings.

One of the markers of the escalation and spread of the killing fields is the rise of reprisal attacks as a group seeks to avenge some earlier attacks, which in turn results in further retaliation causing a chain of attacks that raises the number of victims thereby creating a self-generating process of expansion of atrocities. Premium Times (25^thJune) outlined the time line of earlier attacks that led to the Saturday massacre of mainly Christian mourners in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State. In most cases however, the incidents that lead to the attacks by herdsmen are never reported because they do not support the thesis that the "established truth" is that Fulani, Muslim herdsmen are engaged in a premeditated, planned, President Buhari supported plot to kill all Middle Belt Christians and take their land.

Such one-sided reporting is usually justified by statements purporting to come from the Fulani herdsmen claiming that they had indeed carried out the massacre because some of their cattle have been killed. The problem is that in many cases, such statements are fabricated by certain elements who are determined to escalate the killings and enflame passions for their political purposes. One such example is the so-called Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM), which I first noticed following the Benue mass killings of January this year. Following the latest Plateau attacks, the Movement purportedly issued a press release on 25^thJune stating: "The killings in Barkin Ladi was motivated by previous killings of FULANI men and women by Birom youths in collaboration with certain minority ethnic groups in PLATEAU. We hereby justify this retaliatory attack and warn that we shall continue to defend ourselves and uphold the FULANI heritage now and in the future. Let it be known that the Fulani Special Force coordinated the attacks." The statement then added that: "For the avoidance of doubt, our heritage is that ANY ATTACK ON A SINGLE FULANI IS AN ATTACK ON ALL. ANY OF SUCH ATTACKS MUST BE COUNTERED WITH TRIPLE MEASURE".

To further enflame passions, the statement continues:  "That we have said it several times that Plateau is an indigenous territory of the FULANI people. We are the first to settle in Plateau-Benue axis thousands of years ago. We shall take and possess every inch of this land; A conscious attempt to rewrite history and distort, manipulate or destroy our past will be resisted with all the might at our disposal." Since that day, this statement has been trending on social media and massively circulated on WhatsApp. Since January when I first noticed statements by FUNAM, I have made enquiries about them among researchers and stakeholders and no one knows the group. The so-called leaders and signatories of the group, Badu Salisu Ahmadu and Umar Amir Shehuhave not appeared in any press conference or interview, the messages are simply sent out on the internet.   

It is well known that one of the techniques of hate crime is mirror imaging what you imagine to be the intention of the enemy by writing up and articulating it in their name and distributing it to mobilise and rally your partisans pushing them to attack the other. This technique was used effectively in January this year over the Benue massacre. The same FUNAM was said to have distributed a press release on 13^thJanuary 2018 stating: "That the killings in Benue of Tiv is well deserved. It was a revenge attack on the series of onslaught on the Fulani which was most horrendous on November 17 2017 when 30 Fulani men and women were killed in Nasarawa State. We notice the recalcitrant culture of the Tiv people as demonstrated even during the 1804 Jihad when they obstructed our ordained conquest of Nigeria."The statement then added: "That we have asked all Fulani across West Africa to raise money and arms to prosecute the oncoming war. We call on all Fulanis to prepare for this Holy War. There is no going back. All over the world, Nigeria is the only country given to Fulani by God." The conclusion was along the same vein "That the Cattle Colony is the only solution to the crisis. Whether the Federal Government or State Governments accept or not, we have asked all Fulani herdmen all over West Africa to move to Nigeria and penetrate every corner for the upcoming Jihad. We have asked them to be armed since it seems it is the only language Nigeria understands. The Nigerian Government has failed to protect us." Intellectuals then take such statements and cite them as evidence that there is indeed a conspiracy to wipe out their group. It was not possible for a pastoralist group to issue such incendiary statements that are bound to lead to further attacks on them. To reinforce the arguments that the statements come from them, similar statements are then issued purporting to come from Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, which has come out on several occasions to say fake statements are issued in their name. 

 

What we are witnessing is therefore a situation in which criminality and mass killings are occurring and to further escalate the killings incendiary statements are attributed to groups that did not make such statements to encourage even more mass killings. I do not think such actors are doing any good to their cause because killings and atrocities do harm to all parties. Fuelling mass killings is the greatest disservice we can do to our people. Let us not forget that Cambridge Analytica was paid to come to Nigeria in 2015 to promote such discord using exactly the same techniques. What is most worrying for me is the way so many Nigerians, including intellectuals are losing their capacity for critical thinking and believe every conspiracy theory they see on the social media and WhatsApp, which has the capacity to spread fake news very widely in just a few minutes. 

 

 

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

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