Peaceful demonstrations recorded in three Northern States after reports on Iran Leader’s Killing

By: Zagazola Makama

Peaceful demonstrations were recorded in three northern states on Saturday as members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and other Shi’ite groups staged processions in reaction to recent developments in Iran.

Zagazola report that the marches took place in Kano, Kaduna and Katsina states, with no incidents of violence recorded.

In Kano State, participants converged at Fagge Friday Mosque in Fagge Local Government Area at about 3:00 p.m. and proceeded in a procession to Mambayyah House in Dala LGA.

Demonstrators carried placards expressing solidarity with Iran and condemning actions by the United States and Israel in the ongoing Middle East crisis.

Joint security presence was visible along the route to ensure traffic control and prevent a breakdown of law and order. The procession ended at about 5:00 p.m., with participants dispersing peacefully.

Similarly, in Kaduna State, Shi’ite members marched from Ahmadu Bello Way to Leventis Roundabout at about 11:30 a.m., before disengaging at Tudun Wada Junction around 2:00 p.m.

The protest was described as orderly, with security personnel deployed at strategic points to monitor activities and safeguard public spaces.

In Katsina State, members of the Islamic Shi’ite sect staged a brief procession from IBB Way near Green House to the Central Mosque, Katsina, at about 4:00 p.m. The activity was peaceful and closely monitored by intelligence and security teams.

Across the three states, authorities confirmed that no violence, vandalism or confrontation was reported, and normalcy returned shortly after the demonstrations ended.

Sources noted that while the protests remained calm, developments in the Middle East have triggered emotional reactions in several countries, sometimes resulting in attacks on diplomatic missions and other symbolic assets.

Sources further advised heightened vigilance around critical national infrastructure and diplomatic facilities, particularly embassies and foreign missions, to guard against potential spillover or opportunistic threats.

They stressed the need for proactive intelligence gathering, visible patrols and community engagement to ensure that lawful expressions of solidarity do not degenerate into security breaches.

So far, the peaceful conduct of the demonstrations in northern Nigeria has been viewed as a positive sign, reflecting effective monitoring and restraint by both organisers and security agencies.

Monitoring of the situation continues.

Peaceful demonstrations recorded in three Northern States after reports on Iran Leader’s Killing

Air component, ground forces degrade bandits in Benue

By: Zagazola Makama

The air component, in collaboration with ground tactical teams, has carried out a successful clearance operation in parts of Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue, significantly degrading the capacity of bandits operating along the axis.

Security sources told Zagazola Makama that the operation was conducted on March 1 at about 10:50 a.m. across three council wards of the local government area.

According to the sources, the coordinated aerial and ground offensive targeted identified criminal hideouts and flashpoints believed to be used by armed bandits to launch attacks on surrounding communities.

“The air component provided aerial surveillance and support, while tactical teams advanced on the ground to dislodge the bandits from their positions.

“The operation was successful, and it has considerably weakened their operational capacity in that axis,” the source said.

The teams were said to have returned to base in Makurdi at about 5:00 p.m. on the same day after completing the mission.

The sources said the Military reiterated their commitment to sustaining clearance operations across troubled areas of the state to ensure the safety of lives and property.

Air component, ground forces degrade bandits in Benue

Plateau steps back from the brink as Nigerian Armed Forces coordinated response halts escalation

By: Zagazola Makama

After days of tension, anxiety and painful losses, a cautious calm is returning to parts of Plateau State after a narrowly averted escalation.

The hostilities which recently escalated along the Barkin Ladi-Riyom–Jos corridor have significantly reduced in the past few days, averting what many feared could spiral into a broader ethno-religious crisis.

Multiple sources attribute the de-escalation to proactive and coordinated interventions of the Federal Government, which directed its armed forces, alongside the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS), to ensure that the situation was brought under control.

The synergy prevented Plateau from tipping into a full-blown crisis with possible regional contagion across other Northern states.

For decades, this axis has carried the weight of unresolved grievances land-use disputes, indigene-settler narratives, youth unemployment, and political rivalry. Each new killing risks reopening old wounds, and each reprisal threatens to widen the circle of suspicion.

The recent flare-ups, however, occurred within Plateau State, particularly in Barkin Ladi and Riyom, with anxiety spilling toward Jos North and Jos South. Yet, in the past few days, the feared urban ignition has not materialized.
Security presence has been reinforced along flashpoints, while high-level engagements with all warring communities have reportedly led to a cooling of ultimatums and counter-ultimatums that had earlier hardened positions.

Political, community and religious leaders in Jos, as well as elder statesmen in other parts of the country, have intensified peace engagements, urging restraint and rejecting inflammatory rhetoric capable of transforming localized disputes into full-scale ethno-religious confrontation.

Yet what unfolded in recent weeks does not fit the legal or factual threshold of genocide. Rather, it followed a tragic but familiar retaliatory pattern one group attacks, the other responds, and the cycle deepens unless decisively interrupted.

This time, it was interrupted. Security deployments were reinforced. Intelligence coordination improved. Youth leaders were engaged. Religious figures amplified calls for restraint. Political actors, mindful of the state’s fragile equilibrium, moved to cool tempers rather than inflame them, while those who inflamed the situation were cautioned.

But beyond the immediate violence, another battle was playing out the battle of narratives.

Nigeria remains vulnerable to destabilization efforts by internal conflict entrepreneurs and, potentially, external actors who exploit local grievances for strategic advantage, just as what is currently playing out in Plateau and Benue. External security elements, sometimes operating under the guise of NGOs, are also fueling resentment and making inflammatory statements that could further ignite chaos in the country.

It has been noted that these elements make exaggerated claims, use inflammatory framing, and deploy emotionally charged labels that covertly transform localized disputes into perceived existential wars.

A recurring theme among peace advocates is the danger of waiting for external rescue or framing domestic challenges as externally solvable crises. Nigerian politicians have also failed to fully discharge their responsibilities by investigating the crises and implementing concrete policies and programs that would further prevent recurrence.

Top government officials often hesitate to speak against prevailing narratives. We even saw that those who opposed certain framings, like Rabiu Kwankwaso, were tagged as supporters of the persecution of Christians.

The Nigerian media has largely refused to give the Plateau crisis balanced and sustained attention. Coverage has often focused in one direction, hardly depicting the perspectives of both sides of the conflict. Few media outlets have carried out fact-based, thorough research to unravel the real causes of the crisis in Plateau with a view to fostering peace and development in the state.

History offers sobering lessons. The insurgency of Boko Haram or the IPOB Biafra agitation began with local grievances that metastasized into protracted conflicts, partly sustained by narratives of persecution and apocalyptic struggle. Bandit networks similarly capitalized on identity-based fear, at times spreading claims of collective extinction to recruit and radicalize Fulani youths into their violent campaigns.

In parts of the Sahel, groups such as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) have demonstrated how porous borders and grievance politics can intersect, expanding insecurity beyond its point of origin. This is what is already playing out — Nigerian bandits inviting other terrorist groups from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to operate in Nigeria’s Kwara, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi corridors.

Today, Plateau was at risk of becoming an ignition point of a wider Nigerian Muslim–Christian crisis, a “soft ground” where localized clashes could be amplified into national rupture. Had urban centers been drawn in, especially after the killing of five Plateau North indigenes, the ripple effects might have extended far beyond the state’s borders.

Some will tell you that Christians are being targeted by jihadists with the aim of eliminating every Christian household in Nigeria. But how could that narrative stand when a significant percentage of households in Northern Nigeria are bound by intermarriages between Muslims and Christians? There are families where Muslims and pastors coexist within the same lineage.

Those who lived through the Boko Haram conflict know that such sweeping narratives were deeply misleading. Yet religion remains the easiest weapon for those who seek chaos.

Therefore, the suggestion that any side faces inevitable annihilation is both historically inaccurate and operationally dangerous. Such framing fuels fear, and fear fuels mobilization. Both Fulani communities and local groups in Plateau have, at different times, amplified such narratives.

Nigeria’s problems are largely local in origin. And sustainable solutions must be local. Government must take ownership of the entire situation. Outsiders do not carry our wounds, and they cannot heal them for us. History shows that external actors often pursue their own interests, not necessarily the interests of the affected country.

The darker scenario one in which reprisals escalate, youth radicalize, security forces are perceived as partisan, and politicians exploit division is not hypothetical. It is a pattern Nigeria has seen before. What prevented that pattern from fully unfolding in Plateau was early containment.

Troops of Operation Safe Haven maintained forward presence in flashpoints. Police units increased patrols. DSS monitoring curtailed incendiary mobilization. Traditional rulers convened urgent meetings. Interfaith leaders urged restraint from pulpits and podiums.

Collectively, these actions slowed the spiral.
However, calm does not mean closure. The structural drivers land administration ambiguities, grazing corridor disputes, unemployment, and political instrumentalization of identity. remain unresolved. Without deliberate reform, cycles can re-emerge.

Rejecting violence therefore requires rejecting simplistic narratives. There is no moral victory in framing complex disputes as civilizational wars. There is no strategic gain in exaggerating communal fear. And there is no national future in allowing grievance merchants to profit from division whether they are pastors, imams, community leaders or youth leaders.

Nigeria’s common enemies are those who weaponize difference for power insurgent groups, bandit networks, militias, separatist agitators, or self-serving politicians.

For now, Plateau has stepped back from the brink. The question that remains is whether Nigeria, as a whole, will use this moment not merely to breathe, but to reflect, reform and recommit to coexistence.

Because in the end, no external power will determine Nigeria’s stability.

Plateau steps back from the brink as Nigerian Armed Forces coordinated response halts escalation