Monday, December 1, 2008

The Nigerian Army on Sunday took over security in Jos, the Plateau State capital, two days after riots broke out in the city.
Chief of Army Staff, General Abdulrahman Dambazza, on Sunday personally led fully armed troops to take over security in the Plataeu State capital where hundreds have lost their lives since riots broke out in the city on Friday.

The police had earlier dispatched an Assistant Inspector General of Police, Mr. Richard Chime, to assist in quelling the riots, but when security reports became alarming, Dambazzau had to be moved to Jos.

The announcement last Friday of the results of the local council polls result, which sparked the riots did not help matters as tempers rose to the highest level and the situation would have gone out of hand, but for the intervention of the soldiers.

Dambazza arrived the tin city on Saturday and personally supervised the deployment of soldiers to hot spots around the state early Sunday morning, amidst sounds of sporadic gunshots. He also led his men in patrolling the streets of the troubled state capital. He also visited displaced persons and assured them of relief materials.

Soldiers mounted checkpoints in parts of the city and patrolled the streets in jeeps and on foot. Passers-by were ordered to raise up their hands while passing even as the soldiers continued to enforce the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on the city by the state government.
Army spokesman, Brig. General Emeka Onwamaegbu told AFP on Sunday that the crisis was gradually abating.

"The situation is gradually returning to normal. There’s not been any cases this morning," he said.
About 400 people are believed to have lost their lives in the mayhem, even as property worth hundreds of millions has been razed.
Plateau State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Nuhu Gagara, told journalists on Sunday that hoodlums from neighbouring states unleashed fresh mayhem on the city at the weekend after Friday’s carnage had been successfully curtailed. He maintained that the riots and the subsequent destruction were pre planned as the elections had been concluded before some hoodlums decided to unleash mayhem on the state.

He expressed the state government’s regrets on the crisis and said a search and rescue committee put in place by the government was already working to locate the dead and the injured.
Contrary to reports that nearly 400 souls might have perished in the crisis, the commissioner said about 200 people died.

At the town’s Central Mosque, the Aid Group of the Ja’amatu Nasril Islam was preparing mass burial for the victims whose identities could not be ascertained.
Murtala Sani Hashim, who registered the dead as they were brought to the mosque, told Reuters on Sunday that 367 bodies had been brought in so far.
The Red Cross said about 7,000 people have fled their homes and had taken refuge in government buildings, army barracks and religious homes.

A spokesman for the Imam at the Jos Central Mosque, Samaila Abdullahi Mohammed, accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state of fuelling the crisis.
"The PDP provided an all Christian ticket. They started the trouble because they couldn’t win," he observed. He accused policemen and troops deployed to quell the riots of "heavy-handed tactics." "As far as we are concerned, we have stopped the violence, but the police have not," he further said.
Meanwhile, the Abia State government has been appealing to people in the state to remain calm following the destruction in Jos. In a message continuously run on electronic media in the state since the Jos crisis commenced, the government urged the people not to embark on reprisal killings following the situation in the Plateau State capital.

Also in Anambra State, the situation remained calm on Sunday even as the government appealed to the people not to embark on violent attacks over the Jos crisis.
At the Vatican on Sunday, Catholic Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, prayed for the victims of the Jos mayhem. He urged the world to express horror and disapproval at the senseless violence.
Executive Director of the Christian Foundation for Social Justice and Equity, (CFSJES), Mr. Joseph Sangosanya, described the situation as "genocide."

The CFSJES director said the state government mismanaged the whole situation because it allegedly ignored security reports about in-flow of people into Jos.
Sangosanya dismissed as untrue, the assertion by the commissioner for information that there was no security reports, stressing that "the letters written by the civil society to the security agencies that they should beef up security in Jos and its environs were ignored by the government.
"The information system by all the government agencies was not properly managed. Late deployment of soldiers contributed to the mass killings, which we see as genocide and the process of the election itself, which was not credible, led to the mayhem.

"And we see the aggressors as the few individuals who want to perpetuate their expansionist tendencies and we ask that the government should immediately set up a judicial commission of inquiry to unravel the immediate and remote cause(s) of the carnage and those arrested should be charged to court immediately.

The CFSJES director called on the government to, as a matter of urgency, release all the past reports of all the commissions of inquiry into the Jos crises.
He urged the state government to arrest those indicted by those past reports no matter how highly placed so that it could serve as a deterrent.







http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2008/dec/01/national-01-12-2008-01.htm

Niogeria is up in flames yet Yardy sleeps on. May God deliver us from reluctant leaders

My bros no go serve there

JOS MAYHEM

Shoot on sight, Jang orders troops

• 1500 Mercenaries nabbed

• Utomi, AC condemn riots
By Sun News Publishing
Saturday, November 29, 2008

Violence, rather than abate, escalated early yesterday in Jos, as the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) declared Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairmanship candidates winners in 17 of the 18 Local Government Areas just 48 hours after the poll.

Following the announcement by PLASIEC Chairman, Engineer Gabriel Zi, there was spontaneous protest by those who felt that the results did not reflect the true political situation.




Thus, hell was let loose as hoodlums hijacked the process and unleashed mayhem. Soon, the protest took a different coloration, bringing back sad memories of the 2001 religious riots.

In the process, several people were reportedly killed, places of religious worship torched, residential buildings destroyed. Not even vehicles were spared in what many described as vengeful act.

The areas worst hit by the mayhem include Bauchi Road, Angwa Rukuba, University of Jos neighbourhoods, Masalaci Juma (Central Mosque), Gangere, Nasarawa Gwom and Rikkos.

After the early morning visit to the affected areas, the state governor, Jonah Jang ordered a 24-hour surveillance of the “flash points”. He also ordered the military personnel to shoot identified rioters on sight.

As at yesterday, several combined military patrol teams had been raised to quell the protests. The result, by last night was that relative calm was returning. But the police had arrested no fewer than 1, 500 persons described as mercenaries in connection with the violence. Police authorities confirmed the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are completed regarding their involvements in the mayhem.

Commander of the patrol team deployed to maintain the peace, said those arrested came from neighbouring Bauchi, Gombe and Kano states.

According to him, the mercenaries have confessed to being a re-enforcementù brought into Plateau state to fight a political battle.

Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in the state has condemned the recent violence in no unmistakable terms.

Youth leader of the Christian body, Pastor Bala Adamu described the riot as “a well orchestrated plan by the Muslims to bring about the Hausa-Fulani hegemony.”

According to Adamu, “Hausas think they are born to rule and they (Christians) born to follow.”

At a press briefing yesterday, the CAN body, through its state Chairman, Most Rev Dr. Ignatius Kaigama expressed pain over the situation. Said he: “We are greatly pained and saddened by the events that took place and we deeply sympathise with all those who have been affected directly or indirectly in the crisis.

“We were greatly taken aback by the turn of events in Jos. We thought it was a political issue, but from all indications, it is not so. We were surprised at the way some of our churches and property were attacked and some of our faithful and clergy killed.

“The attacks were carefully planned and executed. The question that bog our minds are; why were churches and clergy attacked and killed? Why were politicians and political party offices not attacked if it was a political conflict? Why were the business premises and property of innocent civilians destroyed? We strongly feel that it was not political but a pre meditated acts under the guise of elections.”

Reacting to the totality of the situation in Jos, the Action Congress (AC) yesterday called for the cancellation of the Plateau council polls, “considering that the perceived rigging of the elections is the main cause of the violence that has now left over 50 people dead and hundreds wounded or displaced in the Jos North Local Government Area.

In a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also condemned “the government’s gross insensitivity in going ahead to release the results of the elections, especially that of the Jos North that precipitated the crisis, even as the smoke was yet to clear from the ruins of the violence.

“This action of the state government is incredibly provocative, and we condemn it in unequivocal terms. It shows that the action that triggered the violence was pre-meditated by the state government.

“The strategy of the PDP in precipitating the violence is simple: Let us rig the elections, the people will protest, we will mow them down and arrest as many as we like through the help of the security forces and the results of the rigged elections will still stand,” it said.

The AC further said the deployment of troops and the imposition of a dusk-to-dawn curfew were mere palliatives that could at best only stop the violence for a moment, saying the lasting solution is for the government to cancel the elections and organise a fresh one under an atmosphere that will foster a free and fair elections.

In the same vein, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in the 2007 general election, Professor Pat Utomi condemned in strong terms the outbreak of violence in Plateau State following the local government elections held on Thursday.

Utomi in a statement yesterday called on the authorities to denounce such conduct and ensure that instigators of the mass loss of Nigerian lives are censured.

Said he: “It is with great shock that I have learnt of yet another tragic turn into violence in response to perception of what may or not may be appropriate outcomes from political matters with this new wave of arson and murder in Plateau State.

“Whatever at all may be the reasons, the taking of human lives is unacceptable and condemnable just as is the deliberate destruction of property…”




http://odili.net/news/source/2008/nov/29/508.html

Shoot on sight, Jang orders troops

More funeral for innocent citizens

• 1500 Mercenaries nabbed

1500? That means they deployed about 10000 almajiris from up north. Damn.

I thank God! May He prevent such occurences in the future, ameen!

1500? Na wa o

why would the hausa/fulani moslems hire "foreigners" to fight their fellow "citizens" in ONE NIGERIA

.

if it's true mercenaries were used, then the border with niger should be sealed for a while. those people are a pest

RedHotChic:

More funeral for innocent citizens
1500? That means they deployed about 10000 almajiris from up north. Damn.

RHC,dan ubanki who said the mercenaries are hausa,It can be some Niger delta militants terrorists.

if it's true mercenaries were used, then the border with niger should be sealed for a while. those people are a pest[quote][/quote]

Those pests were invited by other pests.

bawomolo:

if it's true mercenaries were used, then the border with niger should be sealed for a while. those people are a pest

Its too late for that

Abacha an "alleged" Nigerien has ruled this country

A lot of other top Northern Politicians are suspected of having Nigerien roots, so they've been plundering this country since than days of
Othman Dan Fodio (also have ?s on where that dude is from )

t least its returning to normal THANK GOD, think the government should suspend the practise of sending corpers to potential hot spots for the time being and more effort should be made in educating and creating awareness amongst the almajiris while the big men behind these atrocities are fished out and brought to justice, illiteracy and ignorance plus tribal bigotry combo is a deadly cocktail in any nation be it nigeria,africa,asia e.t.c and the solution in my opinion is education, it worked in adamawa during the elections t least for the villagers to be aware of their votes and electoral rights

thanks God