As of April 1, 2025, there are no publicly available statements from General Cecil Esekhaigbe regarding the tragic incident in Edo State involving the killing of northern hunters. However, several notable figures and organizations have addressed the event:
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President Bola Tinubu expressed shock over the killings and directed security agencies to conduct thorough investigations to apprehend and punish the perpetrators. He emphasized that jungle justice has no place in Nigeria and affirmed the right of all Nigerians to move freely within the country.
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General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, condemned the mob action and assured that those responsible would be brought to justice. He urged citizens to avoid taking the law into their own hands and to rely on security agencies for conflict resolution. Channels Television+3Daily Post
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The Obidient Movement, a sociopolitical group, also condemned the killings, describing them as an attempt to sow division in Nigeria. They called for unity against senseless violence and emphasized the need to value human life and dignity
In as much as I’m against extrajudicial killings as witnessed yesterday in Uromi, Edo State, which I condemned in the strongest possible term, the whole story must be told holistically.
Retired General Cecil Esekhaigbe on Channel Television station this evening corroborated what an eyewitnesses account said of the incident yesterday.
The General said based on an intel that seasoned kidnappers are being haul back to the north, the vigilante mounted the road, searching all northern bounds vehicles for which Dangote trucks were some of them.
In an attempt to search this particular truck, one of the Fulani chap, obviously a radical Fulani terrorist drew a knife and stabbed one of the vigilante. Seeing him in his pool of blood, the rest and the youths descended of them and the rest is history.
What General Esekhaigbe didn’t say was the bundles of raw cash running into several millions of naira found on them, suspected to be cash from ransom collections from their victims, apart from dangerous weapons, including assault riffles and AK47.
The consciousness of the vigilante group stems from the fact that Edo State has been under siege in the last few months, having recorded over 200 deaths araising from Fulani terrorist attacks across the state.
I read comments from people like @Auwal H. Mohammad, threatening northern revenge for the killings of these terrorists in Edo who he described as hunters. He also said southerners are doing businesses in the north, unchallenged.
Obviously, Auwal knows better the mission of Fulani herders/terrorists in southern Nigeria. It certainly can’t be hunting as he claimed. He also knows that southerners in the north are not into hunting in the north. If the Fulani invasion it’s purely for hunting, then they should be restricted to the northern bushes like sambisa forest and other parts of the northern region.
Auwal is one of the pretentious northerners who often mount the press that the killers herders are not Nigerian Fulani, but when one of them falls victim of their own crime, they’ll rush to their defense.
Early last month, my dearly beloved friend, Mr. Peter Ogedengbe was slaughtered on his farmland in Erha, Owan West Local Government of Edo State, after harvesting his cassava and feeding them to their cattle.
There are other several incidence(s) in Ovia-North East and South West, Etsako East, Akoko-edo, and the two Owan local government areas, where Fulani herders/terrorists Slaughtered mothers and children in numbers and no one shouted revenge in the manner in which Auwal is screaming blue murder.
In Edo State more than 25 communities have been sacked by Fulani terrorists who daily graze their cattle over people’s crops and whoever challenged such brazen act impulsively meets his untimely death on the spot.
Nigeria’s security woes speaks to the heart of the issues I have relentlessly interrogated over the last few years: the total collapse of security architecture is at the heart of it, coupled with government’s romanticization with terrorism.
Until President Bola Ahmed Tinubu act fast, the disintegration of Nigeria will be quickened by the counter attacks in response to terrorists attacks in southern Nigeria.
CREDIT: GEN. CECIL ESEKHAIGBE (RTD)
