By Safwan Umar Yahaya
Digital Journalist | Media Analyst | Researcher | Peace Advocate.
The aggressive media campaign launched by Berom political figures, youth groups, and the office of Senator Pam Mwadkon Dachungyang demanding the resignation or retraction of statements by the Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Professor Ayo Omotayo, is a dangerous exercise in tribal deflection.
When Professor Omotayo appeared on Arise News and blew the whistle on the presence of local militia elements threatening the security of Nigeria's premier policy institute in Kuru, he was doing his constitutional duty. He is a neutral, non-indigenous academic administrator. He is not a Muslim, he is not a Fulani, and he is not a Hausa man. He has no tribal lineage to protect and no local votes to canvas for. He spoke strictly on the strength of state intelligence. Yet, because the truth is politically inconvenient, the Berom leadership has chosen to launch a coordinated attack against his person rather than addressing the armed actors within their own domain.
As a professional media analyst and an advocate for the unity of this nation, I refuse to watch the truth be buried under ethnic sentiments. It is time to tell the Berom leadership the unvarnished truth.
1. THE BROKEN SHIELD OF "HOSPITALITY" AND THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE..
Let us speak plainly: hiding behind "historical hospitality" to deny the existence of armed youth, road blockades, and targeted violence in these axes is a disservice to peace. For over a decade, the Kuru-Riyom-Barkin Ladi axis has earned a grim reputation as a volatile zone where innocent travelers are routinely blocked, profiled, and attacked whenever there is a minor skirmish on the Plateau.
We have not forgotten 2018, when a national hero, Major General I.M. Alkali, was brutally slain in the Dura-Du axis of Jos South, his body hidden, and his vehicle pushed into a mining pond in a coordinated effort to bury evidence. While the individual culprits stood trial, the broader infrastructure of local armed militancy and cattle rustling in these communities has continuously been shielded by an institutional wall of tribal denial. When community elites and youth leaders immediately rush to issue press releases defending the "tribe" instead of demanding an internal purge of criminal actors, they become complicit in the cycle of lawlessness.
2. THE FORENSIC FACTS.. THE RECENT NIPSS AMBUSHES.
The claim that Professor Omotayo is "blackmailing" his host community collapses completely under the weight of recent, bloody events. In mid-June 2026, a heavily armed gang launched an assault on the NIPSS perimeter in Kuru, triggering a fierce gun battle that claimed the lives of two soldiers and one policeman. The gravity of this breach was so severe that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to intervene directly, ordering an immediate and permanent security reinforcement of the facility.
More damning still are the intelligence reports from subsequent encounters. In a recent counter-operation around the Kuru-Vom perimeters, an AK-pattern service rifle (CO-3175) was recovered from a neutralized gunman. Forensic tracking revealed that this weapon belonged to a Nigerian soldier who had been killed by local gunmen during a previous attack in Vom on April 11, 2026. When individuals operating around a national asset are found carrying the stolen weapons of slain security operatives, it is no longer an innocent land dispute. It is an active security threat.
3. The Danger of Shifting Federal Assets Away
Plateau State cannot survive as an island of hostility. In states across Northern Nigeria and the wider federation, diverse ethnic groups including Plateau indigenes live, own property, and do business peacefully without systematic friction. Why must federal institutions in Plateau State constantly walk on eggshells?
The continuous hostility toward Professor Omotayo has already provoked national security analysts to make a serious case for the total relocation of NIPSS to the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) in Abuja. If the toxic mix of local extortion, land compensation disputes, and armed intimidation forces the Federal Government to withdraw NIPSS from Kuru, the Berom community and Plateau State will lose a historic legacy, economic vitality, and global prestige.
CONFRONT THE MIRROR, STOP FIGHTING THE TRUTH.
The Berom political class, traditional rulers, and youth influencers must step out of the theater of denial. You cannot claim to want peace while aggressively shielding the very elements that break it. Bullying a neutral federal DG into silence or demanding his exit will not erase the bullet holes on the gates of NIPSS, nor will it return the service rifles stolen from dead soldiers.
Professor Ayo Omotayo spoke the absolute truth based on verified security realities. Defending him is an act of national patriotism. If local leadership genuinely cares about the reputation of their community, they must stop fighting the mirror for showing them an uncomfortable reflection. They must stop weaponizing ethnicity and actively cooperate with law enforcement to flush out the criminal militias destroying the peace of Kuru from within.
For a deeper understanding of the specific security crisis that led to federal intervention, you can view the media coverage on NIPSS Attack Leaves Three Security Personnel Dead in Plateau, which documents the tragic June assault that the local political leadership is attempting to downplay.
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