The Senator Dantong Dalyop Mystery By Garba Deen Muhammad

On Thursday July 19, 2012
the Senate, the nation and
the family of Senator
Dantong Dalyop bid the late
senator farewell. The Senate
thereafter went back to it’s
business while his family
went home to continue
grieving. It is not that the life
of Dalyop was more
important than the life of any
of the 140 people that lost
their lives in the petrol tanker
explosion in Rivers state two
weeks ago, or any of the 23
people that were killed by
gunmen believed to be
armed robbers in Zamfara
last month, or any of the
four people that died as a
result of flooding in Ibadan
last week, or any of the
estimated 1000 people
believed to have died from
bomb blasts across the
country in the last one year.
But until his death, Dalyop
was one of only 109
Nigerians, out of 160 million,
that are privileged to be
elevated to the exalted
position of the nation’s
highest legislative body, the
Senate. Those 109, if they
are so inclined, can change
the country from the way it is
(dangerous, backward,
nasty), to the way it should
be (safe, progressive, among
the 20 leading economies of
the world). If they are so
inclined, INCLINED being the
operative word. So being so
favoured, even if he died in
his sleep, Dr. Dalyop’s
sudden departure would still
be a national loss and should
attract national attention.
In this context, I would like
to join other Nigerians in
praying for God to give late
Dalyop’s family, and indeed
the families of all those that
have lost loved ones in our
numerous tragedies, the
strength to bear their
unexpected departures. Only
the fool and the ignorant
gloat over death. We know
that we live by the Grace of
God, but none of us can
explain why we are still alive
while the deceased are not.
Many eminent Nigerians have
expressed the hope that
Dalyop’s death would in
some way be a catalyst for
peace in Plateau State. Well, I
don’t know the source or
reason for that optimism. My
own pessimism stems from
the so many questions that
surround the death of
Senator Dalyop and
Honourable Gyang Fulani
who died with him in
circumstances that have
hitherto remained shrouded
in mystery. It is only in
Nigeria that a man of
Dalyop’s political importance
would die and more than a
week after his death, nobody
can say how he died. Even
more frustratingly bizarre, is
the contradictory positions
adopted by the family of the
deceased, the authorities and
the media.
First the Plateau state
government announced that
both Senator Dalyop and
Honourable Fulani were killed
by Fulani herdsmen during
the burial of people killed by
Fulani invaders the previous
day. But the family of Dalyop
contradicted the plateau state
government and said he died
of heart attack caused by
fright when Fulani herdsmen
opened fire at the burial
ground. On its part, the
leadership of the Fulani
herdsmen, the Miyetti Allah
organization, immediately
refuted both claims, saying
that the Fulani herdsmen
neither killed those that
Dalyop went to bury nor
launched any attacks during
the burial. It said instead,
that its members were in fact
the victims of those attacks.
In the mix of all this
confusion, someone claiming
to be a spokesperson of what
is popularly called Boko
Haram sent messages to
some media houses claiming
responsibility for the killings
(this claim itself was to be
contradicted by no less a
person than President
Goodluck Jonathan himself,
who said “Boko Haram had
nothing to do with Plateau
violence”, which could be
right because the corpses of
the deceased bore no
gunshot wounds). Meanwhile
what may be rightly regarded
as the authentic voice in the
Plateau violence, the Special
Task Force (STF) which is in
charge of the security in the
state issued a statement that
repudiated all other claims. It
said that Dalyop, Fulani and
Hon. Simon Davou
Mwadkwon, a member of the
federal House of
Representatives, collapsed
due to exhaustion when they
took to their heels after
hearing gunshots from the
nearby mountings; and that
while Rep. Davou was revived
in a hospital, both Dalyop
and Fulani could not be
revived. The survivor, Davou,
corroborated this version of
the cause of death of the
other two lawmakers.
Ordinarily, this should be
satisfactory enough. But this
is not an ordinary situation
by any stretch of the
imagination. Not least
because of the extraordinary
bizarreness of the entire
tragic saga.
First, when a fatal
coincidence is too precise, it
deserves automatic
investigation to ensure that
there was no foul play. In this
case, it beggars belief that
among the hundreds of
people present at the burial,
exhaustion should zero-in on
the three prominent
politicians and eventually kill
two of them. Even if those
two gentlemen were
members of the village
council, it would be
incumbent upon the state to
investigate such a rare
coincidence. In the case of
Dalyop and Fulani, there is no
report that even an inquest
was held, to say nothing of a
high level investigation.
Second, the behavior of the
STF raises more questions
without answering a single
one. If the STF does believe
the Fulani herdsmen
leadership that the Fulani
herdsmen have nothing to do
with neither the attack that
killed the people Daltong
went to bury, nor the
subsequent attack that
caused the stampede from
which Dalyop died, then on
which theory is the STF
acting? Why ask the Fulani to
vacate their villages because
the STF wanted to “flush out
terrorists?”. Isn’t it
reasonable to assume that
whoever the terrorists are,
they would be moving out
with the Fulani herdsmen?
Are those the STF believes to
be terrorists so dumb that
after the clear warning of the
STF, they would wait to be
flushed out?
Third, why is it that none of
the powerful institutions that
those affected by this tragedy
belonged to, namely, the
Nigerian Senate, the Plateau
State House of Assembly and
the Federal House of
Representatives, has shown
any inclination (remember
inclination?) towards an
investigation into the causes
of the death of it’s members;
why are all of them so eager
to accept the puzzling
explanation that only the
lawmakers were susceptible
to exhaustion, as if Death is a
member of a political party?
Lastly, what happened to
Daltong’s police orderly? Or
did Daltong go to the burial
without any kind of security
cover? Surely there must’ve
been security men at such an
event? Did they also take to
their heels? If they did, why
is the police high command
silent about the recent
declaration by the IGP that
any policeman that runs
away from “Boko Haram”
should consider themselves
dismissed from the Force?
For now we don’t have the
answers, and we may never
have them. But then again,
truth has a way of asserting
itself, and with time whatever
the death of the two
lawmakers is supposed to
hide may reveal itself. In the
meantime, we are
condemned to continue to
live with the agony of living in
a country where human life,
including that of it’s most
important citizens, has no
value. We can continue to
live in denial, in the self
delusion that we care. But
the stark reality is that no
society has ever made
progress, or even survived,
where human life is treated
with such callousness as
obtains in our country. The
Senate can hold a thousand
valedictory sessions, Mr.
President may continue to
condemn “this violence” and
order an “investigation”; and
the rest of us may continue
to trade blames and
accusations. The bottom-line
is that in our country, life,
the most precious gift of all,
is worthless.
Nothing can be more
wretched than having to live
with this.

deengarba@yahoo.com

#CONSENSUS 2015