Jos: Witnesses’ accounts of a decade of killings

December 31, 2011
Special Report

 

By Uduma Kalu

How my five friends were killed —Hausa/Fulani driver

At around 4 p.m. on our way to a wedding in Mangu, two of the cars took a wrong turn in Barkin Ladi local government area. The first car, a small Mazda, contained eight people. I was driving the second car. We were all Hausa-Fulani from Jos. The other car was ahead of us. I stopped to ask for directions. We were near Dorawa-Tsohuwa village, a Berom community. When I stopped, some people surrounded the car.

There were three people on a motorcycle behind us and four people came out of the bush, two on each side. I thought they would tell us the actual direction. We were talking with them in Hausa but they were conversing in Berom language. They said we should come down [from the car] and they were calling others on their phones. I realized that something was going to happen and slammed down the throttle.

The two in front of the car stepped aside and we escaped from the danger. I called Jamilu, who was in the first vehicle. Jamilu’s mother is the senior sister of the groom. He told me: ‘We have been surrounded by people.

They killed two of us. Me, I am running. They want to kill me.’ I heard the sound of something crash and the phone went off. I called him again but the phone was off. We went back to Mangu and informed the soldiers what happened. They sent a lieutenant and 10 soldiers in a Hilux [pickup truck] back to the village. They allowed me to come because I knew the exact place where we stopped. We went back but did not see any corpses.

The next day we went back again with the security. We entered Dorawa village but the people did not talk. Some of them ran and the soldiers caught two of them. One of them said he was coming back from Barkin Ladi and saw people burying something but he didn’t know what. The security went to the place and found a hole used to explore tin.

The security dug and found the corpses of five people. I saw the corpses. Jamilu was among them. They had cut the necks of three, one they broke his head, the other they cut his body and removed his penis. The soldiers took the corpses to the air force base. Up until now the three other corpses have not been found.

Hausa/Fulani beat and burnt people —Igbo technician

On the 8th of January, some minutes to 11 a.m., I was on my way in a taxi to Terminus Market on Bauchi Road. I saw people block the road. They were beating and burning people. I saw them burn two people. I opened the door of the vehicle to get out. I was wearing a suit. One Hausa man ran across the road and said, ‘Let us kill this unbeliever.’ There was nowhere I could go. They rushed me and beat me with machetes and cutlasses. I defended myself with my hands but I got weak and fell down.

After that they sliced my head and they used a dagger to stab me in the rectum. When they were satisfied with the bleeding they said I was dead. They then dragged me to the Bauchi Road bridge and threw me over it. There is no water there in the dry season and I landed on the ground. The Hausa came in groups and looked at my corpse.

When they would come I would seize my breath. They thought I was dead. I cried in my mind ‘Jesus, Jesus, save me.’ My body had no life but my mind was very strong. I did this for three hours. The soldiers came around 2 o’clock. I opened one of my eyes and said to them, ‘Kindly help me.’ The soldiers said, ‘This man is not dead.’ One of the young soldiers jumped down, picked me up and took me to hospital.

I was cut all over my body. My right hand was shattered. My head was cut around six places. They stabbed me in my


A cross-section of 163 alleged to have killed 25 in Barkin Ladi Local Government, Plateau State.
anus. My stomach was all scraped up. I went to theater [for surgery] four times. They operated on my hand, but I cannot use it for anything now.

40 Muslims killed eight men—Igbo shop owner

My shop is in Dilimi, a Muslim area. I deal in electrical parts. I was in my shop around 11 a.m.-12 p.m., when I saw about 40 Muslim youths coming with machetes, daggers, and firewood. There was a man in a Plateau State government vehicle with his son.

He was buying from the boys selling clothes in front of my shop. I don’t know whether he was Berom but he was a Plateau man. He looked back and saw them break the glass on the car. He said they should stop. He didn’t know there were so many of them. They hit him with a plank and then set him on fire. His son ran away.

I ran to my neighbour’s shop. He is a Hausa man, a Muslim. He protected me. I stayed in his shop one hour. I was seeing everything that was happening outside. They [the Muslim youth] were chasing everyone who was a Christian. I saw them dragging people. They were going with fuel and machetes. I didn’t see any guns. They blocked everywhere you could run. Some [of the Christians] had blood on their bodies and were running.

I saw them gather four people together and burn them. They smashed their legs and dropped them together, and then put them on fire in the street. I saw them kill two people inside a jeep. They didn’t allow the men to get out. They broke the glass and poured fuel on them. One was an Igbo man. I know his shop. They killed another man across the main road. I saw them roast the body. I saw eight people killed that day.

Around 1:30 p.m. the army come and rescued us. Others that hid themselves came out as well. There were almost 20 or 30 other Christians. The soldiers walked us to the boundary dividing the Muslim and Christian area.

Beroms killed Muslims in a bus – Muslim passenger

On January 8, around 2 p.m., I boarded a bus in Lafia, Nassarawa State. It was a Marcopolo bus carrying 64 passengers. At around 6 o’clock [that evening] we were stopped by a roadblock in Ratsat in Jos South [local government area]. The people put a tree and stones in the road. There were about 200 people – men, women, and children.

They were Berom. They told us to all come down from the bus and asked. Where are the Muslims?’ They identified four Muslims because they were wearing kaftans [traditional Muslim dress] and asked them where they were coming from. They said they were coming from Lagos. The crowd then started beating them.

The people on the bus were all crying that they should leave them. They first beat them with sticks, then used their daggers and machetes and killed them. They threw their bodies in the bushes. The driver told us to enter the bus and that we should go, so we left the corpses there. Four of us Muslims survived – two men and two women. We didn’t identity ourselves as Muslims.

I was afraid but the Christians on the bus told us not to be afraid and advised us not to talk. They told us we should identify ourselves as Christians. From there, there were heavy [military] checkpoints on the way. At one point, we didn’t move for almost three hours. The driver tried to tell the military what had happened but the soldiers told the driver to ‘go, go, go.’ They didn’t want to hear anything.

Around 11 p.m., we reached the bus terminus at Gada Biu in Jos. As we came down from the bus, a group of people surrounded us. They said, ‘Where are you coming from?’ They divided the Muslim passengers from the Christian passengers based on the mode of dress. I was wearing jeans and t-shirt. They asked me my name. I said my name was Daniel. They asked me to pray in Christian and I prayed.

I had attended mission school so I knew how to pray. I said, ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ They then said I should tell them the story of John the Baptist. I said I know the story but that I didn’t remember it. I told them I could tell them the story of Jesus Christ. They said okay and said I should step aside. That is how I escaped.

The group that surrounded us took the two Muslim passengers wearing kaftans to one side. They were a Fulani man and woman on their way to Gombe [State]. The other Muslim woman on the bus was wearing a jacket because it was cold and they didn’t confirm she was Muslim. I just kept quiet and was watching them. The men then hit the two Muslims with machetes, cutlasses, and daggers. They killed them there in the terminus. The other passengers were running. After they were finished, the soldiers came in their vehicle and the group ran away.

Armed men, soldiers killed 15 of my villagers— A Berom man

At around 11:30 p.m., I heard shooting of guns. I didn’t know what to do. The attackers were many. They were speaking Fulani. They came to my house and broke the door.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/12/jos-witnesses-accounts-of-a-decade-of-killings/

These are sad tales of misery and death.