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The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, popularly known as the Oputa Panel, remains one of the most significant yet controversial attempts at transitional justice in Nigeria's history.
Nigeria's army has been described as mighty on paper many of its soldiers 'ghosts' who exist only on the payroll, much of its equipment stolen and sold to insurgents."The Economist, October 2021
In the southern forests, priests and priestesses of the goddesses in the rivers that run through them, are known to demand bottles of Fanta to open consultations or before any water infrastructure project commences. In the northern forests, gangs of bandits - usually ethnic Fulani - who use them as operational bases, crave bottles of Fanta as well.
The uncomfortable reality is that kidnapping in Nigeria increasingly resembles a functioning market. In this market, fear is the currency, human beings are the commodities, and safety has become a product available only to those who can afford to buy it.
Despite Nigeria's assessment, the emerging consensus was that Lakurawa was not a unified entity but rather an umbrella term, and that attacks attributed to the group were likely perpetrated by a mix of Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP). JNIM, bandits. and potentially a separate new group operating under the label without claiming responsibility.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 