By Masara Kim
(Jos) He has consoled over corpses of thousands whose lives could have been saved by timely arrival of authorities, but he’s not taking the pacifistic route anymore.
These days, Plateau State’s white-haired graveside prophet doesn’t leave home without his Bible and his gun.
Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo has buried more than 3,000 of his members, which led him to take up a black combat uniform with a priestly collar, he tells TruthNigeria. As he “brings the Word” to packed churches 30 miles south of Jos, he sees the hollow eyes of boys and girls whose hopes were deferred by bullets and machetes. Their houses are gone, and for too many, their parents were buried after midnight massacres.
Some 30 years ago, he dropped his gun for the gospel, abandoning his previous life as a drug addict and armed robber. But the ongoing violence against Christians in Plateau State has forced the regional Chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi to flip the script on the aggressors.
Dachomo is not afraid to be martyred with the rest of the Christian community in Nigeria, he tells TruthNigeria. However, he says he won’t surrender like a coward to be slaughtered, or watch his members perish without trying to save them.
The Nigerian military stands accused of ignoring attacks or arriving late to attack scenes, raising suspicions of complicity. Dame Caroline Cox, a member of the UK House of Lords has undertaken fact-finding visitations to Nigeria told TruthNigeria “many villagers in Nigeria are fast losing hope in the army or the police to provide any security.”
“The State’s failure to protect its citizens is not due to a lack of resources in the Middle Belt but a lack of willingness to engage,” wrote Cox in an email.
“In the areas of all the attack sites we visited in Plateau and Kaduna states, the army presence was visible,” Cox wrote. “On the main roads to and from each community, we encountered multiple manned checkpoints and armed vehicles, and sometimes full army bases,” wrote Cox. “Yet we consistently heard that, even though villagers called the army for help during attacks, soldiers arrived only after the attack was complete,” she wrote.
The escalating situation compelled Dachomo to join a volunteer civilian-watch organization called the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services (NHFSS).
The government-certified unit with partner units across Nigeria has 16,000 members in Plateau State alone, according to its leader, Mr. Dabat Nienmuop. It was formed to train its members in combat defense, as well as to protect them from stifling gun-control laws, said Nienmuop.
“We are in this work because of self-defense,” said Nienmuop in his office in Jos. “They are killing and killing our people, and if you come out with your homemade gun to defend, soldiers will arrest you. Police will arrest you,” said Nienmuop, the Plateau State Commander of the NHFSS.
As TruthNigeria has reported, the Nigerian army has faced charges of extrajudicial killings of civilian defenders. Village volunteers were arrested while under fire from invading terrorists. The Army however, called the defenders “illegal militias,” at multiple village invasions in the Bokkos area of Plateau state in April. When villagers attempt to repel marauders storming into a village at midnight, the army calls it a “clash.”
“So, the way out was to create something like this organization, register it and seek the Senate’s approval, so that all our members will be allowed to bear firearms,” Nienmuop said. To its credit, the group has snagged permission to carry pump-action shotguns and related semi-automatic rifles. Its missions include protecting the country’s forests from terrorists building bases in them.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang recently acknowledged the role of the organization in protecting civilian communities in Plateau State.
“We are continuing to initiate strategies to contain and forestall the recent threats because we know that those who have been unleashing these attacks will not stop,” said Mutfwang on May 31 during a press briefing at the Plateau state government house in Jos.
“We have rejigged the Operation Rainbow,” said Mutfwang, referring to a local paramilitary group owned by the state. “We met it virtually on its knees and have recruited about 600 personnel so far in addition to those who were on ground,” he said. “We are also working with the hunters as part of efforts to encourage communities to survive in the face of armed attacks,” he said.
A serving military official told TruthNigeria on background that joining government licensed self-defense groups is the only way to stop military harassments of volunteers.
“Even if there’s no salary, with the Legal ID cards and their uniforms, nobody can stop them,” wrote the military official.
Dachomo is among dozens of pastors who recently signed up with the Hunters unit in Plateau State. Nienmuop is encouraging his 10,000 -plus members to push back armed invasions by bandit-terrorists aiming to grab land and impose an Islamic state in Africa’s most populous country, according to lawmakers speaking to TruthNigeria.
“We will hunt the Fulani terrorists by the power of Jesus Christ,” said Dachomo to a group of 20 volunteers he has recruited in his Church. “It is not enough to shout and call for help,” said Dachomo. “We must be involved practically to stop it,” Dachomo said.
“Our aim is never to kill a Fulani man or destroy his property. Our aim is to stop him from killing us,” he said.
Dachomo’s membership has revolutionized the way people see self-defense in the area dominated by the Berom ethnicity, said Barrister Solomon Dalyop, a local tribal leader.
Dachomo told TruthNigeria his decision is Biblical and is fully guided by the Holy Spirit, hence his appearance in a recent photo holding the Bible with one hand, and his rifle with the other hand.
“The Bible is our guide — thou shall not kill whether human beings or cows or crops. If you’re destroying crops, you are destroying humanity. Because that’s where the food that gives us strength comes from. If you are killing cattle, or innocent civilians, that is against the commands of God and our duty is to stop you ,” he said.
Masara Kim is a conflict reporter in Jos and the senior editor of TruthNigeria
