This post has already been read at least 118 times!

….Says Tinubu’s Bold Question Rattled Service Chiefs

…Blasts “Diversionary Tactics” by Military

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a leading Nigerian civil rights and security advocacy group, has expressed rare commendation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu following his pointed and unsparing question to Nigeria’s Service Chiefs over the ongoing mass killings of Christians in Benue State.

During his recent visit to Benue on June 18, President Tinubu had publicly challenged his top security and intelligence officials with what Intersociety has described as a “million dollar unanswered question”: “Why have no arrests been made?” This was in the aftermath of the latest massacre that left over 220 Christian residents dead within days—adding to an estimated 1,000 victims killed across Benue since January 2025 alone.

Tinubu’s Bold Question Rattled Service Chiefs – Intersociety

Intersociety’s leadership, in a jointly signed statement by its principal officers led by Criminologist Emeka Umeagbalasi, described Tinubu’s public rebuke as a watershed moment, revealing deep failures within Nigeria’s security architecture.

“The President’s million dollar question, unanswered by his appointed security and intelligence chiefs till date, has gladdened our heart for the first time since his emergence as the sixth civilian president of Nigeria following the 2023 armada of electoral fraud that brought him into office,” the statement read.

According to the group, Tinubu’s direct questioning left key security heads visibly unsettled, including Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa Gwabin. “General Musa appeared rattled and seemed to have rushed to his computer to dust up stored information of ‘number of terrorists killed (neutralized) and arrested’ in Nigeria’s six geopolitical regions ‘in the past two years,’” the organization observed.

Intersociety Blasts “Diversionary Tactics” by Military

Intersociety further condemned what it described as the military’s habitual resort to “diversionary narratives and marketization of operational failures.”

The group strongly criticized the military’s recent claim that Benue locals had been “sheltering their attackers, giving them food and women,” calling it a “despicable and reckless attempt to shift blame onto the victims.”

“A competent, unbiased and operationally efficient military chief should not have resorted to such vexatious and psychologically brainwashing diversionary narratives,” the organization stated. “Such an egg-head military chief should have swung into operational action; more so when the marauders are not far from his operational grips as they are very easy to apprehend and bring to justice.”

Intersociety raised further concerns over what it called a possible pretext for targeting innocent civilians: “Is it not correct to say that this is another diversionary tactic aimed at hunting down the defenseless victims of the serial massacres and hound them into indefinite detention through indiscriminate and arbitrary arrests, from where they will end up being falsely labeled as attackers and their attackers as victims?”

Intersociety’s Second “Million Dollar Question”: Who Is Really In Charge?

Building on Tinubu’s challenge, Intersociety unveiled what it called its “second million dollar question” directed at Nigeria’s security and intelligence chiefs:
“Whose C-in-C Operational Code on Fulani Jihadist Terrorism in Nigeria is in use— that of C-in-C Tinubu or Former C-in-C Buhari?”

The rights group argued that this question is rooted in years of field research and investigative reports, including its 282-page special report titled “Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in the East” released in December 2024.

“Our research and investigative findings between 2017 and before June 2023 found that one of the greatest security threats facing Nigeria is gross partisanship of the Nigerian security forces, particularly the military,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, Intersociety’s Lead Researcher and Head of Operations.

“Some friendly top security officers who pleaded anonymity had shared such fears with our leadership and field researchers,” he added.

According to Intersociety, there is growing evidence that a secretive operational directive issued during President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure still guides military responses—or lack thereof—to Fulani-linked violence.

“We had been told during field investigations in places like Taraba, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and parts of the South-East and South-South that there exists a C-in-C operational code handed down by President Buhari to security chiefs. This code, we were told, specifically directed them to protect and not to touch or arrest members of the criminal Fulani population, including jihadists among them,” Umeagbalasi said.

Local Officials Also Frustrated

Intersociety’s statement also referenced a recent social media outcry by a serving Local Government Chairman in Benue State. According to the group, the Chairman “narrated how he confronted security chiefs over killings by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their allies in his Local Government, only to be brazenly told that ‘Abuja has not given them order to deal with killer herdsmen.’”

Concluding Demands: Time for Real Action, Not Statistics

Concluding its statement, Intersociety called on President Tinubu to “go beyond rhetoric” and “dismantle any lingering operational codes or security doctrines that obstruct justice and shield terrorist elements.”

The organization urged the Nigerian public to remain vigilant and demanded that security chiefs be held accountable for their inaction. “The bloodbath in Benue and other parts of Nigeria cannot continue unchecked. President Tinubu has opened the first crack in the wall of silence; it’s time to break it down completely,” Intersociety declared.

StreetReporters.ng

This post has already been read at least 118 times!