WEEKEND MUSINGS THE GATHERING STORM OVER ALA-IGBO: THE NYSC KIDNAP MYSTERY, FULANI TERROR SUSPECTS AND THE DANGERS LURKING IN OUR FORESTS I do not intend to dabble in the raging controversy surrounding the circumstances of the rescue of the abducted NYSC corps members in Imo State, particularly as their parents and security agencies continue to trade words over the alleged payment of ransom, which the police insist was not paid. Both sides have maintained their respective positions, and this controversy may not end anytime soon. My intervention, therefore, is not to adjudicate on that dispute, but to draw attention to the more disturbing security implications of this incident. First, we must thank Almighty God for sparing the lives of these young graduates, whose only offence was travelling across the country to undertake their mandatory one-year national service. The NYSC scheme was primarily designed to promote national integration by exposing young Nigerians to different cultures, ethnicities and environments. This is why a graduate from Anambra may be posted to Maiduguri, another from Sokoto to Enugu, and vice versa. Beyond cultural exchange, the scheme has fostered lifelong friendships, permanent relocation and inter-ethnic marriages. It is therefore, a tragic irony that a scheme designed to unite should expose its young beneficiaries to the very dangers that threaten national cohesion. I also commend the security operatives who mobilised across Owerri and the surrounding forest areas during the operation. Whether the corps members were rescued through a direct assault or released following some form of understanding, their safe return deserves gratitude. We must, however, distinguish commendation from complacency: the circumstances of their release must be properly established, and the public deserves credible answers. My particular interest lies in the reported operation under the leadership of DSS Director-General- Mr. Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi and, especially, the apprehension of culprits now identified as Fulani jihadists. The arrest of these monsters in human form would represent a significant departure from the familiar pattern in which innocent youths and traders of Igbo extraction may, in similar circumstances, be randomly picked up, branded as criminals and paraded as security successes. That is no longer the case under the current leadership of the DSS. Recall that we have long raised the alarm about the infiltration of our forests by armed Fulani jihadists masquerading as herdsmen and called for serious security measures to contain them. Our warnings in this regard should now be taken seriously. The implications of these arrests are frightening. They mean that our forests are no longer merely expanses of vegetation; in areas where these armed jihadist groups establish operational bases beyond effective state control, the forests can become launching pads for kidnapping, terror and territorial intimidation. The reported abduction of road users on Igbo soil, with ransom allegedly demanded and paid, should therefore be treated as a grave warning, not another headline to be forgotten when the next political drama takes centre stage. Our leaders must understand that insecurity, when ignored, does not remain politely within the boundaries of a forest. Today, it may be travellers on our highways; tomorrow, it could be farmers driven from their ancestral lands, communities subjected to extortion, and families living under the perpetual threat of violence. Where such criminal expansion is allowed to flourish, the ultimate danger is the gradual erosion of local authority and the freedom of our people in their own homeland. This is not an imaginary threat. Reports of violent incursions and displacement by Fulani jihadist bandits in agrarian communities, including Ukpaka and Mbanano in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, under the watchful eyes of the Enugu state government, demand urgent and independent scrutiny. Allegations, supported by eyewitness accounts, that residents of these affected communities have been driven from their farms and that women and girls have suffered abuse must not be dismissed or buried under official silence. Such atrocities would represent a grave failure of the state’s primary responsibility to protect lives and property. My appeal to DSS Director-General , is simple: do not stop at arrests. Pursue credible intelligence, dismantle the operational networks, identify those financing and supplying these armed jihadist groups masquerading as Fulani herdsmen, and support lawful, coordinated efforts to secure our forests. Arresting the foot soldiers while leaving their bases, sponsors and supply chains intact is akin to cutting the branches of a poisonous tree while watering its roots. Every operation must be intelligence-led, lawful and sustained, with innocent residents protected from indiscriminate profiling. The anti-open-grazing laws enacted in parts of Ala-Igbo must also be enforced in accordance with the law. No individual or group should enjoy immunity from the law under the guise of cattle grazing, ethnic identity or political patronage. Equally, the criminality discussed in this text is not attributed to an entire ethnic group; culpability belongs to the perpetrators and their collaborators, not to people who share their ancestry. Ala-Igbo is sitting on a keg of gunpowder, and the fuse may already be burning. The experiences of communities in Benue, Plateau and parts of Uzo-Uwani LGA in Enugu State should serve as warnings, not spectacles we watch from a safe distance. A people who refuse to confront danger while it is still manageable may eventually discover that the price of delay is far greater than the cost of prevention. Once again, I commend the operatives involved in this reported breakthrough. Let the operation mark the beginning of a sustained campaign. The forests must be secured, vulnerable communities protected, and every criminal network dismantled through lawful and decisive action. The time for the total sanitisation and liberation of Ala-Igbo is NOW—not tomorrow, not when our communities have been overrun, and certainly not when our people become strangers in their ancestral homeland. When the roof is on fire, the responsible householder does not wait for the flames to reach the bedroom before raising the alarm. Signed: Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Esq. (KSC) Dunu-Ezeugosinachi October 24, 2026

MIDWEEK MUSINGS CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA: WHEN TERRORISM IS SANITISED, MASSACRES ARE REBRANDED, AND NATIONAL TRAGEDY IS REDUCED TO “FARMERS–HERDERS CLASHES. There is something profoundly disturbing about a nation that gradually becomes accustomed to the very atrocities that ought to provoke its collective conscience. Across several parts of Nigeria, the persistent menace of armed jihadist groups operating under the guise of herdsmen, alongside kidnappers and other jihadist extremists, has evolved into a grave national security crisis. The occupation of forested territories by armed jihadist bandits, their repeated assaults on rural settlements, and their capacity to strike with devastating impunity raise fundamental questions about the effectiveness of our security architecture and the willingness of the Nigerian state to confront this menace with the urgency it deserves. My gravest concern, however, is not merely the persistence of these atrocities, but the troubling language through which they are sometimes presented to the public. When an armed assault upon a vulnerable community is casually described as a “farmers–herders clash” without compelling evidence of a reciprocal confrontation, the terminology risks obscuring the distinction between organised violence and an ordinary communal disagreement. Language is never neutral in matters of this magnitude; it can illuminate the truth, or become an instrument through which the truth is progressively concealed. Many Nigerians continue to question why armed groups responsible for repeated atrocities appear capable of operating across extensive territories despite successive security operations. They question why communities devastated by mass violence are sometimes met with appeals for dialogue, while the perpetrators’ weapons, operational bases, sources of funding and networks of collaboration remain insufficiently disrupted. Yesterday’s reported attack on a community in Gwagwalada Area Council, Federal Capital Territory Abuja , with attendant casualties, is another reminder of the devastating human consequences of insecurity. If such an incident is reduced to a generic account of a “herders–farmers clash” without a transparent investigation into what actually occurred, the nation risks normalising a dangerous culture of euphemism. Similarly, the reported arraignment of suspects of Fulani extraction in connection with the kidnapping of NYSC members in the heartland of Igbo land, Imo State, raises an equally compelling question: beyond arresting individual suspects, how effectively are our security agencies tracing the wider criminal infrastructure that sustains these operations? Where do the suspects operate from? Which forests, camps or settlements serve as their bases? Who supplies their weapons, finances their activities or facilitates their movement? How were these individuals able to traverse such vast distances, infiltrate the heartland of Igbo land, establish themselves in its dense forests, and operate kidnapping enterprises from these secluded enclaves without timely detection by the relevant security agencies? These are not questions of ethnic hostility; they are elementary questions of criminal intelligence, national security and the enforcement of the law. Benue State, among other affected areas, has endured repeated attacks upon agrarian communities, orchestrated by these jihadist herdsmen , with devastating consequences for human life, agricultural production, ancestral inheritance and the right of citizens to remain in their homes. Only a few days ago, another heartbreaking tragedy struck Plateau State, as worshippers were brutally slaughtered in an attack attributed to jihadist Fulani herdsmen , on desperate expansionist agenda. The haunting sight of Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo sitting inside the grave of the victims of this preventable carnage is a profoundly sobering testament to the tragic consequences of the State’s failure to guarantee the safety of the very citizens entrusted to its protection. My position is straightforward: the Federal Government must abandon every appearance of political ambivalence and confront armed criminality with a coherent, intelligence-driven and constitutionally compliant security strategy. Every armed group responsible for terrorism, kidnapping or the massacre of civilians must be confronted with decisive and uncompromising action. As appears increasingly evident in the case of the rampaging Fulani jihadist bandits operating under the guise of herders, the Nigerian State must never surrender its sovereignty, territorial integrity, or constitutional authority to terrorist elements. No nation can negotiate away its sovereignty or mistake endless dialogue for decisive action against terror. Nigeria is playing a dangerous game with a combustible national crisis. We cannot continue to mistake the absence of nationwide collapse for the presence of enduring peace. Nor can we indefinitely suppress legitimate public anguish beneath politically convenient descriptions of bloodshed. The hour demands courage, candour and competent leadership. The lives of our people must no longer be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency, bureaucratic inertia or the normalisation of terror. Every Nigerian community, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or geographical location, deserves the protection of the law. A nation that learns to explain away the blood of its citizens may eventually discover that the very peace it took for granted has been mortgaged to the silence of the grave. Signed: Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Esq. (KSC) Dunu-Ezeugosinachi 21st October , 2026