02/06/2024
ADOKA-APA-AGATU KILLINGS: IS THIS THE END OF IDOMA NATION?
Jamesleo Oche
Researcher of Defence and Security
Cranfield University
British Defence Academy
England
United Kingdom
Abstract
This is a quantitative research on the herdsmen killings of people living in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu region of Benue State, using a Causal-Comparative research method that involved primary data, secondary data, tertiary data, and a statistical inference analysis method to;
a. Investigate the hypothesis within some section of the Nigerian National Assembly that the current herdsmen attack in the Middle Belt is a resurgence of Dan Fodio’s Islamization principle and a coordinated attempt to potentially take over the oil-rich southern territories.
b. To know how many people have been killed by herdsmen in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu region of Benue State between 2019 and 2024
c. To understand the ground strategy of the attacking herdsmen.
d. To understand the defence strategy of the people living in the region.
e. To determine the solution to the herdsmen attack on people living in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu region.
Introduction
Is Apa no longer the ancestral root of the Idoma people? The root of anything is the life of the thing. If a man wants the end for a particular tree, he cuts it from the root. Every nation defends its root like a lioness defends its lionet. Sadly, this is not the case for the Idoma nation as Apa, widely considered the ancestral root of the Idoma nation is under decimation by herdsmen like lions preying on antelopes.
Nations subdued in time past are now champions of the game today. The Jewish nation is a good example. Between 1941 and 1945, N**i Germany massacred some six million Jews, combining mass shootings and poisoning gas in extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka in occupied Poland. Today, Israel is ranked 17 in world military power according to the annual Global Firepower review and one of the global best in surveillance – able to intercept and defend itself against some 500-barrage of missile strikes from Iran, HAMAS and their allies. The Idoma nation could learn the defence and security side of Israel and forget about their offensive side as peace-loving people.
Research Findings
1: The research found that the herdsmen who attack the people living in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu axis have largely replaced their typical knives previously used to protect their herds from rustlers and wild animals with AK-47 and other pump actions
2. The research found that 689 people mostly women and children have been killed by the herdsmen between 2019 and 2024. The findings show that 308 of the 689 victims fell to the herdsmen between 2022 and 2024. The research found that there is a 19.8 percent increase in herdsmen attack on this region between 2022 and 2024, and the increase has a significant relationship with the increase in the number of herdsmen living in the region.
3. The research findings however negated the hypothesis within some section of the Nigerian National Assembly that the current herdsmen attack in the Middle Belt is simply the resurgence of Dan Fodio’s Islamization principle and a coordinated effort to potentially capture the oil-rich southern territories. The increase in number and attack is therefore not linked to the Uthman Dan Fodio’s Islamic revolution and system of occupation of 1804 that lasted for 6 years. For the sake of history, in the 19th century, Uthman Dan Fodio recruited a massive body of Fulani nomads into a jihad that overthrew the Muslim Hausa Amirs of the Sahel, attacked the non-Muslim tribes of the region, and created a new kingdom called the Sokoto Caliphate that later fell to the British Power in 1903.
4. The research found that the herdsmen’s strategy is the primitive field tactics of concealment and surprise — the ambush and raid field tactics.
5. The research found that the people living in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu region have no coordinated defence and counter-attack system against the herdsmen – relying on cutlass and few shotguns pump action with semi-automatic rifles.
6. The research found that there is a 26.9 percent increase in the number of AK-47 among the people living in the Adoka-Apa-Agatu region between the last 15 months due to increased attacks and the defence effort of the locals.
Solution
The research found that;
1. The research found that one of the lasting solutions is the positioning of an Army Barrack in the axis. This could be achieved through legislative and multilateral bargaining, executive negotiation, statecraft, nationalism, diplomacy, and key players’ political will and acumen.
2. The research found that internal defence and security funding; and international security aids in form of finance for electrification, security alarm systems, strong internet for surveillance, and training of the locals is a lasting solution. This could be achieved through internal collaboration, diplomacy, and international security grant that is easily processible.
3. The research found that infrastructural development investment in that region is a lasting solution as it will light up the region and make it impossible for the herdsmen to succeed with their primitive field tactics. This could be achieved through collaboration between the local communities led by their leaders and patriotic Idoma investors.
4. The research found that quality education in the region for better future is a lasting solution as no truly educated nation falls. This could be achieved through a university, a polytechnic, a teacher training college strategically located within that axis to develop the region beyond the offensive capabilities of herdsmen.
Conclusion
As Idoma nation faces today what the Jewish nation faced from 1941 to 1945, two things that must be on our minds is that there is strength in number, and a rising tide lifts all boats. With some 175,000 people in Adoka, 150,000 in Apa, and 190,000 in Agatu, the region could take advantage of strength in number against some 7,000 herdsmen. If the rich, the powerful, and those in government realize that a rising tide lifts all boats, they only need to commit one tenth of their external investment home, and Idoma n
action like Israel becomes a security fortress.
Amb. Adeh Austin Usman
Informative and educative post that is capable of modelling the public.
