Killing of Uromi 16: what is happening here? By Ikeddy Isiguzo

Every life matters. Every life should count. It is in this sense that I see the death of Uromi 16, hunters who were killed in Uromi, in the state of Edo, on their road to Kano to celebrate the Sallah. My condolences go to their families.

They may have the sacrifices that have made the turning point for lives, every life, to import.

The concerns that most of the policies showed in this question on the border with a new height of hypocrisy. They politicized the question, ethnics of it, brought religion and in the end they showed themselves for what they are – opportunists.

Didn’t they prove to be unworthy of unworthy again through their dangerous rhetoric? People ask for a peaceful and lawful resolution of the matter. But politicians are jumping everywhere as if they had made only one decision in years to improve people’s lives.

The threat of reprisals. It is positive that many are causing peace. I hope we are reasonable to overcome this Bump on our journey to build a better Nigeria.

One of the main shocks, for me, is the intensity of the requests of justice for Uromi 16 and the intentionality of those called.

What is going on here? I still have no explanation for the national question that the death of Uromi 16 has become.
Some questions:

● Could it be because those killed came from the state of Kano?
● Is the number 16 special?
● Has the murder violated 16?
● Maybe the period of the year in which the accident happened is a factor?

● If they had been killed in a place other than Uromi, would the reactions have been different?

Let’s take a break to take some daily stories from different parts of Nigeria. The concentration should be north, the center of protests on those killed in Uromi.
Some deaths, murders, in the recent past:

Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least 10 farmers on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the state of the Niger, the residents said. – Reuters, 22 August 2024

“About 150 suspected terrorists of Boko Haram armed with rifles and role -playing games (propulsion pistols) attacked Mafa,” said Abdulkarim Dungus, spokesman for the Yobe State Police. Bulama Jalauddeen, a local official, added: “It has been established that at least 81 people were killed in the attack”. – The Guardian of London, 23 September 2024.

Fifty -five people died on a day of renewed violence in the state of the plateau in which the clashes between Muslim pastors and Christian agricultural communities broke out, according to the leaders of the community and a relationship of the Red Cross on Thursday. – Voa, 25 January 2024

In mid -February, the health authorities in the state of the plateau reported 865 people killed, including 160 children. -UNicef, Nigeria-Polatoau-Crisis-Resta-Report-March-2024. – Anadolu Turkish News Agency, 11 January 2025.
At least 22 Nigerian soldiers were killed and many other injured by suspicious terrorists in a remote city in the state of Borno said the military. – Xinhua, Chinese news agency, January 27, 2025

About 50 Christians were killed, dozens of kidnapped and houses destroyed since the end of January in several attacks that crossed the South towards northern Nigeria, said groups of guard of Christian persecution. – Baptist Press, February 14, 2025

The resolution of the European Parliament of February 8, 2024 on recent attacks on Christmas Eve of 2023 in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Magu (local government) of the State of the Plateau, reported deaths of over 335 people.

The suspicious shepherds kill 19 in fresh attack benue – The Punch, February 18, 2025

Stupid killings: anger for the mortal attacks of the shepherds in Ondo, Benue, Nasarawa, 30 killed – The Punch, 12 March 2025

Only in 2016, at least 800 people were killed in the south of Kaduna and 1,269 in Benue’s state, where the shepherds invaded at least 14 of the 23 areas of the local government. – Relief Web International, 21 May 2021.

19 killed in another bloody attack by the armed men in Benue – This day 19 February 2025
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria recorded 614,937 deaths in attack between May 2023 and April 2024. The report showed that the North West devastated by Banditi had the highest figure with 206,030 killings.
On Friday evening, April 4, reports reported that at least 53 had been killed in Bokkos, in the state of the plateau. Would there be noisy reactions to the killing of the plateau?

On August 21 24, the bandits killed Gatawa’s district head, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa, 74 years old, on the unpaid redemption. The bandits held him from 27 July 2024. There were only warm reactions, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the “wild attack” will not go without a “decisive response”.

The killing of Bawa who was kidnapped on his way by an official event in Sokoto, did not generate further response.

In the same north -western region, the leaders of well -known bandits are in all communities, killing, mutizing and burning entire villages, destroying the farms. Northern leaders are not in the battle mood that followed Uromi’s killing.

A group of tiv farmers in January 2025 asked for the release of 394 corpses of relatives presumably killed in the state of Nasarawa for a period of six months from June 2024.

The murders in the South -est do not count for any action. Governors face invasions and killings from shepherds with words. The shepherds have immunity rings around them and act above the law.

Why do politicians gather around the nomine 16 as if the murder is more important than the others whose lives now appear irrelevant? Are the Uromi 16 more “north” than the other northern?

What is the reason for this unusual outburst of emotions in Kano? Do the northerns have to be of Kano to be recognized as human beings? And aren’t the care and worries available for the other northern other?

Is it also the rule to support the northern that kill the Nordist? When people from the south of Kaduna, Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa complain that they are not counted as part of a north, they are right.

The silences on what the bandits are doing in all parts of the north make the scarfa in Kano more nausea.

Even when the North is quiet for the killings in other parts of the country, it encourages the bandits and shepherds, they live above the law.

We cannot successfully manage a country where laws are applied differently for different people. North governors negotiate with the bandits. The security agents discuss with terrorists who threaten the Nigerians in the North and perform their threats, knowing that there would be no consequences.

Uromi 16 is a great opportunity to examine the ways of using the law effectively to end the bandits and the illegality that shepherds are authorized to commit and free. Our laws should fight criminals without thinking about their religion or region. Our leaders should avoid the temptation to diminish the law for political earnings or others.

We cannot build a country “where no man is opposite” when the search for our injustice leaders brought Nigeria to where lives are not always important. Or where some lives are counted but they don’t count.

Finally…

President Tinubu is necessary again in Nigeria. If he wants to be Nigeria’s ambassador to France, he should name himself. The Senate would have raised him quickly.

■ Isiguzo is an important commentator on minor issues.

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