The recent arrest of Fulgence Kayishema in South Africa near- ly 30 years after the Rwandan Genocide is an indi- cation that there will always be a last day for the criminal, no matter how long it takes for justice to be served. Kayishema, a law enforcement agent, broke the law when he partook in the murder of about 2000 Tutsi refugees inside the Roman Catholic Notre Dame de la Visitation Church, Kirumu in the Kibuye Prefecture of Rwanda on April 15, 1994. The fugitive showed signs of bestiality when after try- ing to set the church ablaze without success, he mounted a bulldozer to crush and bury men, women and children. Kayishema was declared wanted in 2001. He will be extradited to Rwanda.

For Nigerians who went through eight years of organised mass killings between 2015 and 2023, this development should be of interest. All parts of the country were terrorised by a formation of the Fulani, hitherto unknown to mil- lions of Fulani, and not a single one of them has been apprehended. All those who played prominent roles in the Rwandan Genocide have not known peace and one after the other are being picked in their different places of hid- ing, even with falsification of identity. Kayishema lived in South Africa, as Domatien Nibashumba before his arrest at a grape farm in Paarl, Western Cape Province.

The Federal Government must begin the process of hounding all those who turned Nigeria to Golgotha and get them to pay for their actions. The International Criminal Court (ICC) needs to beam its searchlight fully by establishing an Inter- national Criminal Tribunal for Nigeria (ICTN). Kayish- ema was a Police Inspector.

There could be some law enforcement agents who collided with terrorists to kill thousands of Nigerians and moderate non-Fulani. They must be fished out and dealt with in accordance with the law. It is instructive that be- cause the genocide committed majorly in the Middle Belt and minority north was waved aside by the immediate past government, the last Presidential elections was filled with hate speech in the Lagos area.

Felicien Kabuga was one of the wealthy men in Kigali before the Rwandan Geno- cide. He went on air, calling the Tutsi cockroaches and asked for their elimination. He escaped but was arrested in France 24 years later. He had adopted a fake name. Kabuga was arraigned at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in 2021.

The Kabuga scenario must not be allowed to play out in Nigeria subsequently. All those who used different medium to spew out damag- ing condemnations of cer- tain ethnic groups deserve a place in confinement to serve as deterrent to others. Punish- ment is timeless. That people who are well known for igniting or carrying out geno

cide walk free or have carved out Jungle Republics in our forests have not been apprehended does not absolve them of the crime. Government only needs the political will to prove a point. Gaspard Kanyarukiga also took part in the Rwandan Genocide.

In the church massacre, one woman lost five children. He fled but not forever. He was caught in South Africa in 2004 and flown back to Rwanda. From there, the criminal was taken to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. The priest in charge of Notre Dame de la Visita- tion, Athanase Seromba was not spared.

He bagged a life sentence in 2008. About 800, 000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were butchered in the 1994 Genocide. Their spirit con- tinues to haunt perpetrators of the crime. Something has to be done about genocide in Nigeria. Some of those who committed it during the Civil War are still moving around freely. Those who continued with it in the last eight years are living in our bushes, collecting ransom and throwing parties to celebrate their latest money haul.

Freedom may last but it will end someday. Those who organized the Holocaust are still paying for their deeds even close to their grave. One of the top henchmen of Nazi Germany, Adolf Eichmann went hiding in Argentina as Ricardo Clement after the Second World War. In 1962, he was abducted by the Israeli secret service, flown to Tel Aviv and hanged for his role in the murder of millions of Jews. Another Nazi Germany figure, Josef Mengele, became Wolfgang Gerhard, continued to dodge, from Germany to Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil until he got drowned in 1979. Klaus Barbie was picked up in Bolivia. In 1983 he was extradited to France, jailed in 1987 and died in prison in 1991. We are eagerly waiting for the trial of all those who turned Nigeria to Carnage Country for eight years. They must pay for their deadly deeds. It is neither too early nor politically incorrect to implement this. And they must not go scot- free forever.