AkpanMr. President, did I hear you well when you said your administration would crush oil and gas pipeline vandals, hereinafter referred to as OGPVs the same way the Nigerian Army has dealt with the Boko Haram terrorists, hereinafter referred to as BH?
If you really mean it you have my full support. OGPVs are largely behind the darkness that has enveloped the country for a long time because they disrupt gas supply to many of the nation’s gas-powered electricity plants. They also contribute, partially, to acute shortage of petrol that has plagued the country in recent months.
Mr. Akpan wrore his opinion article on his Facebook page.
But Mr. President, there is a group of terrorists you have not thought of decimating. The Fulani herdsmen hereinafter referred to as FH. The herds destroy farmlands and crops in Nasarawa, Taraba, Benue, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Plateau and Akwa Ibom states, etc while the men raze villages, kill, maim and rape. Olu Falae’s farm in Ondo State has been turned to a football field by the FH; they have wiped Agatu off the map. Now a book ‘There was Agatu’ is in the works; Dori and Mesuma villages in Gashaka local government area of Taraba State are lying in ruins.
Mr. President, tension is building up in the communities where the FH operate. The new thinking is ‘balance of terror.’ Last week, there were reports of skirmishing in Edo State between the FH and host communities. The new thinking has led to the resuscitation of the armed wing of OPC; Egbesu has been revived, Bakassi Boys is back, IPOB and MOSSOP are closing ranks to ward off the FH threat, Ekpe Ikpa Ukot, the equivalent of Kenya’s pre-independence guerrilla movement, Mau-Mau is being reworked. So many other ethnic militia groups are coming back to defend their enclaves against the AK 47 and hand grenade-wielding terror nomads.
Mr. President Sir, anarchy brews in the land. Mr. President, if the BH has been defeated and degraded and you are about to do the same to OGPVs, I am of the opinion that what is sauce for BH and OGPVs is also sauce for the FH. Terror is terror no matter who perpetrates it. Confront the FH headlong.