By Mike Ekuase/Ojieva Erasmus
Following increased tensions in Nigeria exacerbated by terrorism, mass murder, displacement and kidnapping for ransom, life in the country can best be described as a living hell.
From the fardest ends of the vast Borno desert, through the arid but mountainous Adamawa state, to the southern rain forest zone of the Nigerian State, issues of safety and security of lives and property dominate public discourse following the mass disruption of the nation’s socio-economic and social psyche.
Several communities have been sacked by some terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, Fulani herders and ISWAP operating in most parts of the country with states like Edo, Ondo and Delta in the South being the most hit.
Other states equally affected even at a larger scale of devastation include Benue, plateau, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Kwara, Niger and Borno where families have lost loved ones and communities, generations to violent attacks by the marauding bandits.
What started like mere disputes between crop farmers and Fulani pastoralists some years back, have now degenerated to a swart national security emergency where no one feels safe any longer.
Kidnapping for ransom has become a huge economy in Nigeria with travellers’ vehicles randomly seized on the highway by armed men with everyone onboard taken hostage. Rail transportation has not been spared also with citizens living in perpetual fear.
The security situation has began to assume a worsening dimension with the open attacks on religious worship centres, particularly churches across Nigeria where many worshippers had been attacked with many losing their lives in the process.
The attack on an Ilorin Kwara State Church recently and the attack on some young evangelists in Emuado, Ekpoma Edo State are cases in point.
While the Ilorin attack was brutal, the Edo incident was highly disturbing because Edo had before now been perceived as a liberal religious enclave where the religious rights of everyone is protected.
The beating up of Mr Etinosa Dickson Iyekeoretin and his group of preachers by suspected Islamic fundamentalits in the predominantly Christian environment had been most confounding.
The young preachers were said to have been attacked in the Emuado area of Ekpoma, Edo State at about 4.30am, on November 10, 2024 by some hooded islamists who reportedly warned them against further “disturbance” of the tranquility of the place with their gospel preachings after flogging them mercilessly.
News of the presence of some strange persons in the town has caused severe panic as attempts by local vigilance group to unmask the marauders was met with stiff resistance, causing fear and panic in the metropolis with many people relocating to save their lives.
Iyekeoretin was said to have been warned seriously during the attack to stop his early morning street preaching failing which he would be killed.
According to our crime reporters, Evangelist Iyekoretin Dickson broke down in tears when our team visited the area to obtain first hand information regarding the security situation. The young preacher revealed that he had suffered similar attack in the hands of herdsmen who invaded his cassava farm in Eruku town in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara state on September 9, 2023.
The Emuado Edo State incident social scientists believe is part of a broader plan by Islamic terrorists to forcibly make the people to accept the practice of Islamic religion.
They asserted that the pervasive occupation of the nation’s vast forest lands by the Fulani terrorist, kidnappers and herders are pointers to this grand subversion plot.
They therefore called on the government to upscale security surveillance in our forests and free them of all criminals elements.
