Ikonso’s Death: Exposing the Cash & Carry side to the War against Insecurity -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

As the mixed reactions gradually fizzled out following the successful take out on Ikonso – ESN’s de facto commander and vice-president to the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – by personnel of the Nigerian Army on April 24, 2021; the question on the lips of many close observers and analysts are Why is it taking so long to take out Shekau and those behind the spilling of innocent blood in the north as it is done to Ikonso?

These questions came to bear on the discussions on how the war against insecurity fared in view of the fact that it looked too easy and took no time at all in neutralizing Ikonso (in the southern end of Nigeria) even if it avenged the death of the soldiers who allegedly died while in action against ESN as against the protracted action with bandits in the north which had not really yielded results even though it’d consumed more personnel.

Ikonso with Nnamdi Kanu

Therefore to underrate these concerns as illegitimate is to betray the century-long maxim that what is good for the geese is equally good for the gander. To recognize these concerns as legitimate leads one into the realm of intrigues and selfish gambling with innocent Nigerian lives and unto the discovery of the cash and carry politics that has now characterized what and how the fight to restore peace and order in the land is pursued.

It is not idle talk to say that there is two sides to the easy score against the ESN’s Ikonso and, by this I mean to explain the fact that what the men and personnel of the Nigerian army did by neutralizing Ikonso was to let Nigerians know that it was actually very easy to achieve these things were it not for the fact of the intrigues and selfish gambling with innocent Nigerian lives that the war against insecurity had assumed.

Apart from the vicious bid to subjugate (which is no longer a subtle effort by the Fulani and the Tuareg tribes from Nigeria and Niger respectively) using the Nigerian Army; the army has equally lent itself as a conduit by which tax payer’s monies are siphoned from the federation into the pockets of the top brass of the army and the political leaders respectively. There are instances to substantiate this assertion some of which dated back to the previous administrations.

During the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, erstwhile national security adviser – Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtrd) got an allocation of $2.2billion for the purposes of procurement of up-to-date firearms to be used to prosecute the war against Boko Haram. Testimonies of his trial (a few years later in 2015) showed proof of how the money ended in the pockets of the top echelon of the army as well as those of the politicians.

Former army chief Alexander Badeh (now of blessed memory) equally showed proof of a grand design for distributing monies meant for the provision of security to the Nigerian people into the pockets of only a few elites. AVM Adesola Amosu while standing trial agreed to return the sum of 2.6 billion naira to the government in 2016. Recently, current NSA Mohammed Monguno raised the alarm on funds misappropriation under Buratai.

Monguno’s revelations are notwithstanding the fact that only recently one of his own aides Brigadier-General Jafaaru Mohammed (Director, Finance and Accounts; ONSA) was arrested by the EFCC on the charges of corruptly enriching himself. This is but one side of the intrigues and selfish gambling that is going on in the way the insecurity war is handled. How does this relate to the killing of Ikonso with ease? I’ll explain shortly.

Another side of this intrigue involved the governors of the 36 states of the federation and their greedy lust for security votes. It is no news that monies set aside as security vote for the governors currently runs into several billions of naira on a monthly basis. It is a fact also that one-third of those monies are hardly spent on security beyond the provision of patrol vans, motorbikes and communication gadgets to the police, civil defense and the army.

Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

The common concern that States should set up structures for community policing are only re-echoed by these governors in pretense (because they privately resent the idea) who use their false empathy with the masses to blackmail the federal government into increasing the security vote. To understand the desperation of these governors, let’s look at the intrigues that led to the killing of the Benue-born renegade – Gana – last year.

Gana was a young man who lent himself to protect the Gwer territories in the Benue but was set up by officials of the state government to be killed by the Nigerian army. From my findings, I understood that from the onset there used to be a rosy relationship between Gana and the Benue government until the death of a close aide to Governor Ortom was blamed on Gana. Thereafter, both Governor Ortom and Gana turned vicious enemies.

Analysts (including myself) have faulted Governor Ortom’s idea of whipping up sympathy in his very recent appearance on Channels TV on the 27^th April 2021. He had amongst other things confirmed the fact that the late Gana – who defended and sometimes terrorized the Gwer province – spoke the truth that were it not for his presence the killer herdsmen would daily invade the IDP camps in the area.

Then, why was Gana killed and just a year later, 7 persons are killed in the IDP camp? To understand the intrigue, we need to realize that Governor Ortom’s disagreement with Gana was not because of the Benue people but because of a private difference and, so it did not matter if taking out Gana would worsen the security situation in Gwer territories. And when the worse happened, how did he handle it? He goes after the federal government!

We heard him clearly say that the Fulani’s had sacked settlers of the Gwer territories from their ancestral settlements into the IDP camps and thereafter attacked them in the IDP camps. We heard him blame the president. We heard him blame the army. But we did not hear him cuss himself for allowing animosity and greed to have pushed him into taking out Gana; knowing that the Gwer areas came under fierce attacks since Gana’s demise.

Back to Ikonso’s death, the real reasons why it took no time to neutralize Ikonso was because of the way that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had not allowed Governor Hope Uzodinma nor governors of the geopolitical zone to play politics at the expense of innocent lives like their counterpart in the northwest are doing. In the wake of calls for accountability, you wouldn’t believe that the killings provided an excuse that justified the validity of security votes for these governors.

You would not believe that it has become an excuse also to railroad the federal government into prioritizing the affected states just like Kano state desperately sought to be prioritized during the Covid-19 lockdown like Lagos state. MNK’s agitation was more of protecting the people and covering the gap that is created to be explored for material gains by these governors and, so imagine why he’s having a running battle with them governors.

In summary, I conclude by saying that the army is well-equipped to neutralize every threat to national peace and security. They have also a very effective intelligence gathering network. So, why they pampered the bandits in the north but opened fire on those from the other region tells a story of the greed, corruption, money, politics and power that is at work in the prosecution of the war against insecurity.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh; political counselor & advocate for attitudinal change write from Abuja. Catch me on www.DiscourseNigeria.com