By Farooq Kperogi
THE kidnapping of schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State is horrifying enough by itself. It does not need the embellishment of lies, half-truths, conjectures and opportunistic propaganda to make it more horrifying than it already is.
But that is precisely what appears to be happening with the viral, social-media-amplified list of “demands” allegedly made by the terrorist bandits who kidnapped schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State. According to the social media version of the story, the bandits have demanded four things as preconditions for releasing the innocent people in their captivity: one billion naira to be paid into an account in the Republic of Benin, the release of bandits supposedly being held in Agodi and Abolongo prisons, two Hilux vehicles and the amendment of Oyo State laws to introduce Sharia.
This list has travelled far and wide because it has all the elements that make rumors combustible in Nigeria. It involves money, foreign conspiracy, terrorism, prisons, Sharia and the implicit insinuation that some local Muslims must know more than they are saying. It is almost a perfect specimen of panic engineering.
The problem is that it has no firm evidentiary foundation. The abduction is, of course, real. So are the communal grief and the horrors people in Oyo and the Southwest are contending with now. But the four-point demand list that is now being hawked across social media as fact is not supported by any credible reporting.
The source of the social media-fueled four-point demand list appears to be a vague statement attributed to the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Debo Ogundoyin. He was reported to have asked whether anyone would negotiate with terrorists if they asked for weapons, money or concessions on future laws of the land as part of their ransom.
That is a general, hypothetical-sounding formulation. But some people somewhere with a predetermined agenda sat down and chose to stretch this conjectural formulation from the Speaker as evidence of disclosure of a precise list of specific demands.
There is a world of difference between saying terrorists asked for “weapons, money or concessions on future laws” and saying they demanded “one billion naira into a Benin Republic account, two Hilux vehicles, release of detainees in Agodi and Abolongo prisons and the introduction of Sharia in Oyo State.” One is vague, perhaps even rhetorical. The other is specific, explosive and politically loaded. You cannot responsibly move from the first to the second without foolproof evidence.
Even the few newspaper reports that published the more sensational version were cautious and guarded in their language. They said, “reports indicate,” “reportedly attributed” and “according to the report” without once mentioning any “report.” That is lazy journalism’s way of saying, “We have no facts for this story.”
But certain people on social media have laundered the uncertainty into certainty, the allegation into fact, the list as a means to attract and monetize eyeballs, and the rumor into a psychological weapon.
The Sharia claim is the most suspicious part of the whole thing. Where will the Sharia be implemented? In the classrooms from which the children were abducted? In the Old Oyo National Park where the homicidal, blood-stained criminals are believed to be hiding? In the kidnappers’ forest camps? Or across Oyo State through a ransom note from bandits? The absurdity should detain us before outrage overtakes our capacity for critical thought.
The demand is also historically and empirically incoherent.
Bandits and terrorists (who, in my dictionary, are indistinct) have murdered Muslims in states where Sharia already exists.
They have attacked mosques. They have killed imams while they are leading prayers in mosques during Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month. They have kidnapped Muslim women, Muslim children, Muslim clerics and Muslim farmers.
They have devastated Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna and other Muslim-majority communities such as Kwara North. Just last week, these insensate beasts abducted the wives and children of the Emir of Yasikiru in my natal local government of Baruten. Not done, they also burned the emir’s palace. This happened only a few months after murdering nearly 300 people and abducting nearly 300 women and children, most of whom are Muslims, in neighboring Kaiama Local Government.
To suddenly believe that the same species of criminals has discovered the virtues of Sharia and are championing its enshrinement in Oyo State’s laws is to suspend judgment in the service of prejudice.
The Benin Republic bank account story is also suspicious. Of course, no banking system is immune to criminal manipulation.
Criminals use “mule accounts,” stolen identities and corrupt intermediaries everywhere. So, the existence of KYC and anti-money-laundering rules does not make the claim impossible.
But it does make it evidentially demanding. If anyone claims that kidnappers asked for one billion naira to be paid into a named or unnamed Benin Republic account, the burden of proof should be higher than “according to reports.”
The danger of this rumor is not merely that it is false or unverified. It is that it has already acquired a social function. It is being used to suggest that Yoruba Muslims, especially those who have advocated the introduction of the civil aspects of Sharia to adjudicate issues like marriage and inheritance among Muslims, are somehow complicit in the crimes of these bandits.
