This led to violence and the death of some persons. On Friday March 28, 2025, hunters returning from their hunting expedition were ambushed by vigilantes in Uromi, Edo State and they were brutally murdered by a mob of local vigilantes in an extra judicial and reckless display of intolerance. It has taken the good intervention of elders and leaders across Nigeria to avert a reprisal attack.

It is gratifying that some of the perpetrators have been apprehended and they are to face the consequences of their brutality. The hunters were said to have been taken as suspected kidnappers. Earlier on March 19, 2025 in neighboring Ondo State, five farmers were shot dead by suspected herdsmen in Aba Oyinbo in Akure North Local Government area of the state.

This came after about fourteen persons were reportedly murdered by gunmen in Ademekun, Aba Sunday, Aba Pastor and Alajido in the same local government area. No one has been apprehended and there is mortal fear across the state concerning these unfortunate developments.

A joint security task force comprising all security agencies in the state has been inaugurated by the government hoping that it will stem the ugly tide of violence in a state generally known to be peaceful.

In Borno State, insurgents attacked the military base in an attempt to dislodge the security mounted against their criminal operations but they were repelled by gallant soldiers who fought for their fatherland. This is the case with most states in the North East where the economy has been grounded and people are forced to pay levies imposed by bandits and insurgents in order to continue their farming and other activities.

The South East zone is gripped with mindless orgy of violence being perpetrated by indigenous militants in the name of the struggle for self determination, which in itself is a laudable enterprise but for the corruption that has attended its implementation. Good enough, some of the governors have risen to the occasion by frontally confronting the criminal elements who front as Biafra agitators.

In the South West, cases of cultism, armed robbery, ritualism and internet fraud have been on the increase, although huge resources are deployed to manage the media such that not much is heard of these in the public domain. In the Middle Belt zone, Benue State has witnessed unprecedented attacks on farmers by herdsmen, leading to the death of thousands of people. Beyond these attacks, the Governor of Benue State is pursuing a needless war of attrition against the Chief Judge of the State, through the House of Assembly of the State. In Plateau State, the story is not so different with the mass invasion of communities by herdsmen and criminal bandits.

Urgent security summit or resignation
The issues surrounding and affecting the security architecture in Nigeria are rendered opaque by those who are in charge for very obvious reasons. The funding itself is mind boggling to the extent that security has become big business. The situations of emergency outlined in section 305 of the Constitution currently permeate the length and breadth of Nigeria, thus necessitating the need for an urgent summit of all stakeholders to develop critical solutions for immediate implementation.

When people find it difficult to move about at will, when the least engagement outside one’s zone requires armed escorts and people cannot farm, fish, trade or travel safely, then a state of emergency is already upon us all. It is not to isolate Rivers State and other areas of immediate impact. We pretend about it at our collective peril. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the President is directly in charge of security in the country and he takes all the blame for the collapse of security across the land.

The President seemed overwhelmed or at least unprepared for the task of securing the land and the people. Next month, it will be two years since the President took his oath of office, with no improvement in the security situation. The time to act is now and where there seems to be no solution in sight, the appropriate thing to do by the President is to vacate his office.

Concluded.

Adegboruwa is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).