Death toll from Kaduna attacks rises, families seek lost members
Kaduna reviews curfew, fears over more violence
S’East, Kaduna CAN, youths blame northern leaders
ALTHOUGH some order has been restored in Kaduna and Zaria, the residents are yet to overcome the trauma and separation from their loved ones the suicide attacks on churches on Sunday had brought to them.
Residents, who could not locate their members since the incidents occurred in Wusasa and Sabon-Gari in Zaria and Banawa area of the Kaduna metropolis, yesterday besieged private and public hospitals in the two cities.
Last Sunday, suicide bombers attacked three churches in the two towns, killing dozens of worshippers. The incidents provoked violent riots in Kaduna, where an undisclosed number of residents were killed in reprisal attacks.
Eyewitnesses and hospitals’ officials had on Sunday put the casualty figure from the blasts and the reprisal attacks at 40 while the police said they were still collating the figure of the victims and the injured.
But yesterday, hospital and independent sources said the casualty figure had risen. One of the hospitals where the victims were taken to said it received 65 bodies and 72 wounded persons.
Most of the hospitals in the state were over-stretched as aid workers brought more injured persons to them. More victims were also taken to their morgues.
Residents stormed police stations, emergency units, and the morgues in search of their missing members.
Many, who could not find their relations, wept bitterly, asking unanswered questions on the fate of loved ones.
A worried resident, Mr. Henry Audu, told journalists that, “since Sunday, all my relations, who went to church service are yet to return home and that is why we came here in search of my son and his mother.”
Mr. Bako Lawal, another relation of a victim, who was admitted in a hospital, said:” My little daughter who was hawking foodstuff along Nasarawa Road is on admission. She was attacked by some people.”
The state government, which imposed a 24-hour curfew in the entire state on Sunday, yesterday relaxed the measure, saying the decision was taken at the meeting of the state’s Security Council. For yesterday, the government allowed movement between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. while the duration for today is 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Medical personnel at Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital, Kakuri in Kaduna metropolis, were overwhelmed yesterday by the huge number of injured persons brought to the facility. The morgue was reportedly filled with victims of the explosions. Bodies, which could not be accommodated in the mortuary, were dumped in front of the building while arrangements were being made with the state government to evacuate them.
The Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr. Sunday Adi, however said the workers were coping with the situation, but appealed to the public and the government to assist them.
At the Barau Dikko Government Specialist Hospital, the Matron, Mrs. Hassana Garba, told journalists that they recorded 12 dead persons from the violence in Kaduna and admitted two persons.
A source at the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said 16 deaths were recorded at the Sabon Gari explosion while 31 persons were injured.
“In Wusasa, those that died were two, while the injured were 22. We are still collating the figures, we will get back to you later,” he told The Guardian yesterday.
The media aide of the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Reuben Buhari, in a statement, said “the 24-hour curfew imposed in Kaduna State in view of the recent incident has been relaxed. With effect from today (Monday, 18th June, 2012), the people can move freely from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“Subsequently, the curfew will now start from 6 p.m. to 6.a.m. People are requested to remain calm, law abiding and co-operate with security agencies.”
Following the relaxation of the curfew imposed by the state government yesterday, a group of youths resident in Barnawa, a suburb in the southern part of Kaduna metropolis trooped out with dangerous weapons, attacking the inhabitants of the area.
An eye witness told journalists that “the youths who trooped out from Barnawa Market road at about 4.30pm were armed with guns as they shot at their victims”.
It was not clear at the time of this report the level of casuality recorded.
Meanwhile, Christians and youth groups in the South-East zone said the patience over the bombing of churches and killing of their kinsmen in the North by the Boko Haram sect had been over-tasked.
After a meeting yesterday, South-East chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) asked the Federal Government to prove that it was on top of the security situation of the country.
Declaring that the time had come for Christians to defend themselves, CAN said it was obvious that those behind the bombing were executing a jihad in the country with Christians as targets.
Speaking with reporters in Enugu after a security meeting, the South-East Chairman of CAN, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, lamented that the killing of Christians and destruction of churches had continued despite the huge allocation to security in 2012 budget.
Chukwuma, who is also the Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, stated that the success of the bombing in Kaduna and Zaria churches on Sunday was an indication that the security apparati of the country had failed to realise that the targets were now Christians at their worship places.
At another meeting in Enugu yesterday, 30 Igbo youth groups threatened to begin reprisal attacks on northerners in the South-East, should any church be bombed again in any part of the North.
The meeting, which was held at the Independence Layout Office of the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM), blamed the Sultan of Sokoto, emirs, state governors and politicians in the North for the continued bomb attacks on Christians.
President of the IYM, Mr. Elliot Uko, told journalists that “we have decided to inform the Sultan of Sokoto and all the emirs in the North that their reaction to the attacks on Christians and their places of worship in North will decide whether Nigeria will remain as one or not.
“The continuous claims that they don’t know who the Boko Haram members are is unacceptable to us and the excuse of poverty and hunger for the killing of people inside the church is no longer tenable.”
Former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, has urged the state government to re-establish the Military Task Force bases in strategic locations in the state to prevent further crisis in the state.
Makarfi, who is also the Senate Committee Chairman on Finance, said the dismantling of the Task Force bases, which his administration set up had made Kaduna more prone to crisis.
Also, CAN in Kaduna State, has faulted comments credited to the Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, that the attacks by Boko Haram was political. They said his assertion was a deviation from the reality of the insurgency against Christians, adding that, “Tambuwal was more concerned on reprisal than the factors that precipitated the attacks.”
In a statement, CAN chairman, Rev. Samuel Kujiyat, said “though, the suicide bombings unexpectedly provoked angry protests by youths in Kaduna South and environs, the deaths, injuries and destruction of property and vehicles of innocent people; was condemnable.”
He continued: “CAN was reliably informed that some security agents, who attacked and killed some youths at Maraban Rido and other locations in Kaduna and environs, were arrested and disarmed and now under detention.”
The Gurara Forum of indigenes of southern Kaduna said yesterday that “we wish to make clarifications regarding the ongoing annihilation of Christians in Northern Nigeria, and the orchestrated hysteria being peddled by selfish northerners aimed at jeopardising the reality of the Boko Haram’s insurgency and plots against Christians.”
The group in a statement by its Secretary-General, Mr. Jerry Adams, noted that “as our churches were hit again in Zaria and Kaduna town, it became glaring that the sect meant what they represent, more so, they have cleared the air and claimed responsibility of the attacks which defied falsehood being advanced by selfish northerners.”
Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, has warned the youths in Plateau State not to take the law into their hands and stop reprisal attacks after bomb blasts.
The Bishop of Ife Diocese (Anglican Communion), Rev. Oluranti Odubogun, has also decried the killing of innocent Nigerians in the country by those who erroneously believe they were serving God by terminating the lives of others.
S’East, Kaduna CAN, youths blame northern leaders
ALTHOUGH some order has been restored in Kaduna and Zaria, the residents are yet to overcome the trauma and separation from their loved ones the suicide attacks on churches on Sunday had brought to them.
Residents, who could not locate their members since the incidents occurred in Wusasa and Sabon-Gari in Zaria and Banawa area of the Kaduna metropolis, yesterday besieged private and public hospitals in the two cities.
Last Sunday, suicide bombers attacked three churches in the two towns, killing dozens of worshippers. The incidents provoked violent riots in Kaduna, where an undisclosed number of residents were killed in reprisal attacks.
Eyewitnesses and hospitals’ officials had on Sunday put the casualty figure from the blasts and the reprisal attacks at 40 while the police said they were still collating the figure of the victims and the injured.
But yesterday, hospital and independent sources said the casualty figure had risen. One of the hospitals where the victims were taken to said it received 65 bodies and 72 wounded persons.
Most of the hospitals in the state were over-stretched as aid workers brought more injured persons to them. More victims were also taken to their morgues.
Residents stormed police stations, emergency units, and the morgues in search of their missing members.
Many, who could not find their relations, wept bitterly, asking unanswered questions on the fate of loved ones.
A worried resident, Mr. Henry Audu, told journalists that, “since Sunday, all my relations, who went to church service are yet to return home and that is why we came here in search of my son and his mother.”
Mr. Bako Lawal, another relation of a victim, who was admitted in a hospital, said:” My little daughter who was hawking foodstuff along Nasarawa Road is on admission. She was attacked by some people.”
The state government, which imposed a 24-hour curfew in the entire state on Sunday, yesterday relaxed the measure, saying the decision was taken at the meeting of the state’s Security Council. For yesterday, the government allowed movement between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. while the duration for today is 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Medical personnel at Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital, Kakuri in Kaduna metropolis, were overwhelmed yesterday by the huge number of injured persons brought to the facility. The morgue was reportedly filled with victims of the explosions. Bodies, which could not be accommodated in the mortuary, were dumped in front of the building while arrangements were being made with the state government to evacuate them.
The Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr. Sunday Adi, however said the workers were coping with the situation, but appealed to the public and the government to assist them.
At the Barau Dikko Government Specialist Hospital, the Matron, Mrs. Hassana Garba, told journalists that they recorded 12 dead persons from the violence in Kaduna and admitted two persons.
A source at the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said 16 deaths were recorded at the Sabon Gari explosion while 31 persons were injured.
“In Wusasa, those that died were two, while the injured were 22. We are still collating the figures, we will get back to you later,” he told The Guardian yesterday.
The media aide of the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Reuben Buhari, in a statement, said “the 24-hour curfew imposed in Kaduna State in view of the recent incident has been relaxed. With effect from today (Monday, 18th June, 2012), the people can move freely from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“Subsequently, the curfew will now start from 6 p.m. to 6.a.m. People are requested to remain calm, law abiding and co-operate with security agencies.”
Following the relaxation of the curfew imposed by the state government yesterday, a group of youths resident in Barnawa, a suburb in the southern part of Kaduna metropolis trooped out with dangerous weapons, attacking the inhabitants of the area.
An eye witness told journalists that “the youths who trooped out from Barnawa Market road at about 4.30pm were armed with guns as they shot at their victims”.
It was not clear at the time of this report the level of casuality recorded.
Meanwhile, Christians and youth groups in the South-East zone said the patience over the bombing of churches and killing of their kinsmen in the North by the Boko Haram sect had been over-tasked.
After a meeting yesterday, South-East chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) asked the Federal Government to prove that it was on top of the security situation of the country.
Declaring that the time had come for Christians to defend themselves, CAN said it was obvious that those behind the bombing were executing a jihad in the country with Christians as targets.
Speaking with reporters in Enugu after a security meeting, the South-East Chairman of CAN, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, lamented that the killing of Christians and destruction of churches had continued despite the huge allocation to security in 2012 budget.
Chukwuma, who is also the Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, stated that the success of the bombing in Kaduna and Zaria churches on Sunday was an indication that the security apparati of the country had failed to realise that the targets were now Christians at their worship places.
At another meeting in Enugu yesterday, 30 Igbo youth groups threatened to begin reprisal attacks on northerners in the South-East, should any church be bombed again in any part of the North.
The meeting, which was held at the Independence Layout Office of the Igbo Youth Movement (IYM), blamed the Sultan of Sokoto, emirs, state governors and politicians in the North for the continued bomb attacks on Christians.
President of the IYM, Mr. Elliot Uko, told journalists that “we have decided to inform the Sultan of Sokoto and all the emirs in the North that their reaction to the attacks on Christians and their places of worship in North will decide whether Nigeria will remain as one or not.
“The continuous claims that they don’t know who the Boko Haram members are is unacceptable to us and the excuse of poverty and hunger for the killing of people inside the church is no longer tenable.”
Former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, has urged the state government to re-establish the Military Task Force bases in strategic locations in the state to prevent further crisis in the state.
Makarfi, who is also the Senate Committee Chairman on Finance, said the dismantling of the Task Force bases, which his administration set up had made Kaduna more prone to crisis.
Also, CAN in Kaduna State, has faulted comments credited to the Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, that the attacks by Boko Haram was political. They said his assertion was a deviation from the reality of the insurgency against Christians, adding that, “Tambuwal was more concerned on reprisal than the factors that precipitated the attacks.”
In a statement, CAN chairman, Rev. Samuel Kujiyat, said “though, the suicide bombings unexpectedly provoked angry protests by youths in Kaduna South and environs, the deaths, injuries and destruction of property and vehicles of innocent people; was condemnable.”
He continued: “CAN was reliably informed that some security agents, who attacked and killed some youths at Maraban Rido and other locations in Kaduna and environs, were arrested and disarmed and now under detention.”
The Gurara Forum of indigenes of southern Kaduna said yesterday that “we wish to make clarifications regarding the ongoing annihilation of Christians in Northern Nigeria, and the orchestrated hysteria being peddled by selfish northerners aimed at jeopardising the reality of the Boko Haram’s insurgency and plots against Christians.”
The group in a statement by its Secretary-General, Mr. Jerry Adams, noted that “as our churches were hit again in Zaria and Kaduna town, it became glaring that the sect meant what they represent, more so, they have cleared the air and claimed responsibility of the attacks which defied falsehood being advanced by selfish northerners.”
Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe, has warned the youths in Plateau State not to take the law into their hands and stop reprisal attacks after bomb blasts.
The Bishop of Ife Diocese (Anglican Communion), Rev. Oluranti Odubogun, has also decried the killing of innocent Nigerians in the country by those who erroneously believe they were serving God by terminating the lives of others.
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