Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Soldiers battle insurgents in Yobe, Kaduna





THE current spate of terrorists-induced crises in Kaduna and Yobe states lingered yesterday in both states, pitting security forces against insurgents and those bent on carry out reprisal attacks.
Also, Sunday’s multiple bomb attacks in Kaduna and Zaria as well as the reprisals continued to attract condemnation yesterday from concerned individuals and groups.
The European Union (EU), the Jama’atu Islam Nasril (JNI), the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Niger State Governor, Babangida Aliyu, Christian and Muslim clerics were some of those who condemned the attacks.
Meanwhile, Christian leaders in Zaria yesterday said that they had premonitions of Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on their churches before the incidents.
Besides, the leader of the apex Islamic body in the North, Jama’atu Islam Nasril (JNI) and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar Sa’ad III, has condemned the bombing of the churches, saying that it was an attempt to paint Islam in bad light by the perpetrators.
In a statement yesterday, the Sultan “notes with pain and sadness the sporadic bombings of some churches in Sabon-Gari and Wusasa in Zaria, Nasarawa and Trikaniya, Kaduna, Kaduna State.”
He added: “Regrettably, the immediate reprisal attacks that were carried out by some irate Christian youths on the Muslim communities, leading to loss of lives and property in Sabon-Gari Tasha, Kakuri GRA, Gonin Gora, Abuja junction, all within Kaduna State, look like pre-planned acts of unleashing terror on the Muslims.
“We call on the government to leave no stone unturned in unmasking the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against innocent people and their property. These reprehensible attacks are unjustifiable as they are senseless.
“We condemn strongly in unequivocal terms, series of attacks on places of worship, which Islam abhors and call on Nigerians to be steadfast, prayerful and remain law-abiding in all circumstances they find themselves. We are not oblivious of the fact that some petulant elements are bent on dragging the Muslim ummah into a religious war with the Christian community, the consequences of which will be unimaginable”.
Also, Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, was overwhelmed by emotions yesterday as he visited the bombed churches in Zaria.
In Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, Monday’s crossfire between men of Joint Task Force (JTF) and a gang of armed terrorists continued yesterday.
The sporadic shootings were heard in Jerusalem and Nasarawa wards of Damaturu; and the areas south of Sani Abacha Specialists Hospital on Gujba Road.
The state government has not been able to evacuate the remains of those who died in the crisis, which littered the streets, owing to the 24-hour curfew imposed by Governor Ibrahim Gaidam.
But Commander of JTF, Col. Dahiru Abdulsalami, in a telephone conversation yesterday said: “We are on top of the situation...We actually arrested a member of the Boko Haram who was about planting an explosive somewhere in the Damaturu metropolis.”
Abdulsalami stated that the JTF operatives had also discovered a hide-out of the sect members at a primary school in Sabon
Peggi, where the private residence of Governor Gaidam was reportedly targeted by the armed terrorists.
JTF and Nigeria Police sources attributed Monday’s attacks and bombings to the arrest of a suspected member of the Boko
Haram earlier in the day in Damaturu, who allegedly died in custody of security operatives while being taken to the hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds he sustained in a cross-fire with JTF operatives.
The Yobe State Police Commissioner, Patrick Egbuniwe, told The Guardian yesterday that 20 civilians, four policemen, and two soldiers have been confirmed dead in the crisis.
Churches, a police station and JTF patrol vehicles and schools were also set ablaze in the attack, Egbuniwe added.
In Kaduna, the state government yesterday re-imposed the 24-hour curfew it called off on humanitarian grounds following more violent reprisals in the city and Zaria.
The edgy situation in Kaduna, sparked by the bombing of three churches in the state capital and Zaria last Sunday, boiled over yesterday at about 10.25 a.m. as some armed youths attacked people going about their normal business at Tunduwada and
Kaduna Central market areas.
News of the attack brought pandemonium on the city, particularly along the busy Ahmadu Bello Way, Katsina Road,
Tudunupawa, Kakuri, Barnawa and others, as residents ran for dear lives, with motorists colliding in desperate attempts to make it to safety.
An eyewitness at the Kaduna Central Market said: “There were many people who sustained severe injuries in the attack
by the youths who said they were on a revenge mission over last Sunday’s violence that claimed the lives of their kinsmen. There were at least two corpses on the ground at the time some soldiers came to the rescue.
They shot into the air to scare the youths away.”
Soldiers and policemen shot into the air to bring the situation under control.
Another eyewitness said: “ I saw many youths going from house to house in search of some people. Many of them were angered when they brought dead bodies for burial. These were their people killed in last Sunday’s attack”.
The situation degenerated further in the heart of the city as irate youths took over other places like Lagos Street, Katsina Road, Jos Road, Ibadan Street and their environs, attacking residents.
At Hayan Banki, Tudunupawa, Kawo and Mando, several houses were set on fire as thick flames rent the air.
Another eyewitness told The Guardian: “Before the soldiers and police came to Kawo Motor Park, there was serious trouble, and I saw at least four dead bodies on the ground there”.
The reports of the violence in Kaduna also engendered negative reactions from some aggrieved youths in the southern axis of the metropolis, particularly Sabo and Narayi where attacks were also launched.
But the quick intervention of the combined patrol teams of armed soldiers and policemen in these two areas and other places like Television Village, Ungwar Sunday, Gonigora,  Kabala West saved the situation from degenerating.
Later in the day, military trucks and armed soldiers and police began to patrol the troubled spots.
In a statement yesterday, Senior Special Assistant to Kaduna State Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr. Reuben Buhari, stated: “In view of certain new security challenges that came up today, and based on the need for the state government to continue with its responsibility of safeguarding the lives and property of its citizens, the state government is hereby re-imposing a 24-hour curfew in all parts of the state”.
Also, Commissioner for Information, Saidu Adamu, said: “We thought that the people understood the importance of living
together and having peace in Kaduna. That was why we decided to relax the curfew earlier on. We did it based on the reports of the security agencies that things have normalised; that was from Sunday night up to Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, on Monday evening when the curfew was relaxed, we recorded some problems in Barnawa, Narayi, and some other places.”
Kaduna State Police Commissioner, Muhammed Jinjiri Abubakar, had said Yakowa’s decision to relax the curfew was responsible for yesterday’s riot in Kaduna metropolis.
Abubakar, at a briefing on the fresh attacks, pointed out that the governor relaxed the 24 hours curfew earlier imposed “out of kindheartedness to prevent the people from experiencing hunger and hardship in the course of observing the curfew”.
Though the Police chief refused to confirm the casualties of yesterday’s attacks, unofficial report had it that some people were killed along Nnamdi Azikiwe Eastern bypass with several others injured.
He stated that two suspects - Malam Daudu and Mr. Victor - were caught with dangerous weapons and 17 gas cylinders suspected to be impoverished explosives.
On why the police could not foil Sunday’s bombings in Kaduna and Zaria on getting wind of the impeding attacks, Abubakar said: “My men went to service their vehicles and that is not to say that we were taken unaware by the bombers.”
Abubakar confirmed that the injured were taken to various hospitals in the city.
Governor Aliyu, who spoke in Minna yesterday at a workshop for directors in the state civil service, said: “The nation is on fire. We watch innocent people being killed in bombs and reprisal attacks. We have called on Federal Government to see the situation and help us arrest it. It is almost a year now. We seem not to know what to do.”
He stressed the need for government officials and highly placed Nigerians to go back to their domains to educate the people on how to secure their areas and themselves, as a first measure towards curbing attacks.
Aliyu also charged clerics of all religions to promote unity among their followers, stressing that “evil succeeds only when the people keep quiet”.
A statement by the EU Commission’s Vice President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, wrote: “Nigeria’s Constitution protects the freedom of belief and religion. Through the human rights dialogue that exists between the EU and Nigeria, which also covers the issues related to the freedom of belief and religion, we will explore ways that the EU can support the government’s efforts to bring order to prevent such atrocities happening again.
“At the same time, it is important that those responsible for this terrible loss of lives should be brought to trial and if found guilty, be punished.”
According to Ashton, “the EU will renew its efforts in co-operation with the government and people of Nigeria to “address the underlying social and economic problems in the northern parts of the country and work with the authorities to make the fight against terrorism more effective.”
Also, President, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has flayed the administration of   President Goodluck Jonathan over the attacks.
In a statement, Oritsejafor said: “Since these terrorist acts began, nothing the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has done has been re-assuring. On the contrary, his utterances after each bombing and killings, even if unwittingly, seem to have cast a hallmark of weakness on his Presidency and an escalation of the terrorist acts.”
In a reaction, Chairman, Bauchi State Muslims Christian Peace initiative, Alhaji Aminu Sidi, appealed to the Federal Government and other stakeholders to do all they could to stop the suicide bombing of places of worship across the country.
Also, President and Chairman-In-Council, NIM, Dr. Michael Olawale-Cole, has expressed deep concern over the reprisal attacks that trailed the bombings.
In a statement, Olawale?Cole, who described the latest attacks as “despicable and condemnable act, which have further portrayed the country as unsafe for all”, reminded Christians that “vengeance is of the Lord and forgiveness one of the virtues of true Christianity.”
Secretary of the Second ECWA DCC, which was affected by Sunday’s explosion, Rev. Chris Dariya, told Governor Yakowa that they actually got information that the Boko Haram Islamic sect was planning to attack churches on Sunday.
He added: “We were very concerned and thought of what to do in order to avert the attack. There were soldiers patrolling and guarding the area. I saw them packing their things and I drove there and asked two of them what was happening. Also, I told them of what we heard. I said: ‘You are packing your things and it does not speak well for the community and for me as a religious leader.’ 
“I was told that the community was disturbing them and that is why they have to move. I told them that ‘it was not the community that kept you here, but the government.’ But they told me they were ordered, but I don’t know where the orders came from”.

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