There is palpable fear in Benue State presently as a result of suspected political killings. No one appears to be safe any longer as the perpetrators of the acts have become very brazen in their acts. Things came to a head recently in the state with the assassination, in broad daylight, of a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Katsina-Ala town in the state. Before then, a couple and a mayor of the town had also been killed. This is in addition to several others before and shortly after the general elections.
While politicians in the state have engaged themselves in accusations and name calling, many are worried at the resurgence of such killings, most of which incidentally, are localised to that particular town.
While some have attributed the killings to arms procured by politicians and given to youths during the electioneering which are still in their hands, others say the killings are not a coincidence but carefully masterminded by politicians to do away with opponents.
Political killings are not new in Nigeria. What is of concern is that the killings have remained unresolved. The outcome of investigations into some of the deaths has never been made public by law enforcement agencies and even where arrests were made, some of the cases never saw the light of day in the law courts for want of diligent prosecution.
In Benue State, political killings have been happening since the first Republic, but what is disturbing is the current intensity, which has almost become a norm since electioneering ahead of the 2015 general elections to this moment.
That there is a proliferation of small arms across the country is a well-known fact even to security agencies, but regrettably, efforts at mopping up small arms in circulation by government, as is currently being done by the government of Benue state have proven not to be successful as the killings have continued unabated.
Human life is the most precious thing and the police have been saddled with the mandate of protecting and securing same and it is therefore not acceptable that people are killed and those responsible continue to walk freely.
Families of victims of some of the killings have often accused the police of complicity in some of the cases and laxity in the handling of some of the murder cases, resulting in why the killers are seldom ever found, just as the police sometimes do not follow leads given them by families of victims even when suspects are mentioned, often times because of the positions of such suspects in the society. The blame is not all on the police alone as families of victims are also sometimes uncooperative.
We, therefore, challenge the police to live up to its mandate by investigating these killings with the aim of finding and bringing the perpetrators to book regardless of their position in the society.
