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145 killed as bandits attack 23 villages in Plateau

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12 months ago

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Chief of Defence Staff, CDS, Maj.-Gen. Christopher Musa

145 killed as bandits attack 23 villages in Plateau

No fewer than 145 persons are said to have been killed in bandits’ attacks on 23 villages in Plateau State.

The assailants reportedly killed 113 persons in 20 villages in Bokkos Local Government Area and 32 in three villages in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.

It was gathered that the villages were attacked from Saturday night to the early hours of Monday.

The attacks were also said to have left hundreds of people injured and property destroyed.

Areas affected included Ruku, Hurum, Darwat, Mai Yanga Sabo and NTV villages in the Gashish and Ropp districts.

The Transition Committee Chairman of Bokkos Local Government Area, Monday Kassah, confirmed the incident to reporters yesterday.

When contacted for reaction, the spokesman for the state police command, Alabo Alfred, did not respond to text messages sent to him by our correspondent.

But Captain Oya James, spokesperson for Operation Safe Haven, a security taskforce maintaining peace in the state, confirmed the attacks to Daily Trust yesterday.

He, however, said he could not confirm the casualty figures at the moment, but said the situation had been brought under control.

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“For now, the situation has been brought under control. More reinforcement has been deployed in the affected communities. But I don’t have the figure of casualty at the moment,” James told one of our correspondents.

A humanitarian worker who spoke in confidence said they counted over 180 dead bodies from the attacks.

We’ve recovered 113 bodies – Council chair

The Transition Committee Chairman of Bokkos LGA, Kassah, told journalists yesterday that 113 bodies were recovered from the attacks.

“The attacks were well coordinated, no fewer than 20 different communities were attacked by the bandits.

“As I am talking to you, we have recovered 113 dead bodies from those communities. We have recovered more than three hundred injured; some were taken to hospitals in Jos, some to hospitals in Barkin Ladi and others have been taken to hospitals in Bokkos.

“The security personnel have been doing their best, the difficult terrain reaching those communities has made the security not reaching there on time to prevent those communities,” Kassah stated.

The chairman of Barikin LGA, Danuma Dakil, who also spoke to Daily Trust yesterday, said the attackers killed 32 persons and burnt many houses in three villages in his local government area.

Dakil further stated that the search for more bodies was ongoing.

Attacks barbaric – Gov 

Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang described the attacks as barbaric, brutal and uncalled for.

According to a statement by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Gyang Bere, the governor directed security agencies to promptly apprehend the attackers and ensure they face the full force of the law.

The governor, who expressed deep concern over the incident, urged communities across the state to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities to security forces for immediate action.

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He questioned “The impunity of the attackers who inflicted harm on communities, destroyed property and evaded justice.”

The governor assured that proactive measures would be taken to curb attacks on innocent citizens.

He sympathised with affected families, and urged them to find solace in God as the government diligently works to end the “prolonged violence.”

Residents narrate ordeals

An indigene of Darwat community, Friday Maska, told our correspondent that his mother and younger brother were injured in the attack.

Maska said his mother, Rebecca Maska, was pursued into the bush by the attackers and shot, but was lucky to survive.

He said his mother bled for about three hours before help came her way; while his brother, Nanpan Maska, had his hand cut off and head macheted.

He said both his mother and younger brother were rushed to the General Hospital in Barkin Ladi, but were later referred to Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).

Maska said the assailants operated from 6pm to 11pm.

The Berom Youth Moulders-Association (BYM), under the leadership of Solomon Dalyop Mwantiri Esq, condemned the attack, describing it as an act of terrorism.

The association, in a statement, by its National Publicity Secretary, Rwang Tengwong, said the attack has already led to the complete displacement of thousands of persons.

Tengwong said the attack did not only demonstrate a blatant disregard for human life, but also sought to undermine the peace and unity that are at the core of their values.

He called on the international community to add its voice to the crisis on the Plateau, which has been going on for years.

“On a day meant to celebrate love, compassion, and togetherness, the perpetrators of this dastardly act have brought untold agony, suffering and grief to the affected communities.

“We call on the government and relevant authorities not only to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the incident, identify those responsible, and bring them to justice, but to swiftly come up with palliative packages as well as compensation for the victims.

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“The BYM also urges the government to take immediate and decisive action to prevent further attacks and ensure the safety and security of all citizens regardless of their ethnic or religious background.

“We want to urge all Plateau sons and daughters to put aside their differences and come together to resist elements perpetrating the dastardly acts,” he said.

Not the first time 

Hundreds of people had been killed in Plateau State within this year. Between January and June alone, a total of 201 people were reported killed in 27 attacks in seven local government areas of the state, including Riyom, Bokkos, Jos South, Jos East, Barkin Ladi, Bassa and Mangu, according to a tally by Daily Trust.

Attacks on communities in the state have been ongoing since the ethno-religious crisis broke out in Jos in 2001.

Since then, violence has spread to communities in the state, and there have been clashes between the farmers and the herdsmen with devastating consequences.

Three days ago, 22 persons were killed in attacks on Mangu and Bokkos apart from eight persons that were killed in an attack on Du village of Kwall District, Rigwe Chiefdom, in October.

The National Publicity Secretary, Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Davidson Malison, had said the incident in their communities had been a sad continuation of destruction of lives and properties of the people.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), Plateau State Chapter, had also said they had lost many members owing to attacks on them in the latest resurgence of violence.

Take ownership of security, defence chief tells Nigerians 

Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, has called on Nigerians to take ownership of security challenges in the country.

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He spoke yesterday at the Defence Headquarters Hospital located at Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja, when he visited ailing personnel to mark Christmas and his birthday.

Musa, who also called on all Nigerians to have love for and confidence in Nigeria and fight together for its peace and progress, noted that running away from the country is not the solution to the present challenging situation.

He was explaining what he meant in his Christmas message that Nigerians should be united against the common enemies.

“It (Christmas message) entails that all Nigerians should take ownership of the challenges we’re facing as a country. The security challenges, especially, are not armed forces or police challenges or any individual parastatal.

“It is a collective effort for all Nigerians and all Nigerians should put hands together. We cannot do it alone. We need the support of everyone. When you see something, say something, talk as quickly as possible so that measures can be put in place.

“We will continue to seek support from members of the public to take ownership of our challenges. Nigeria is our own. If Nigeria succeeds, we all succeed, if Nigeria fails we all fail and we don’t want Nigeria to fail. So, I call on all Nigerians to give us all the support,” he said.

Musa told journalists that the visit to the hospital was in tune with his leadership concept, which is people-centric, adding that the outreach was to ensure that people, both the security agents and the citizens, felt the impact of love being shared, especially their healthcare.

According to him, it is always good at this period of celebration to come around and see how those who are in hospital who don’t have the ability to celebrate, how they are doing and to wish them well.

“It is for them to always know that we are always with them, we are praying with them and we want them to recover so that they can come back fully to life. We will continue to do that as we have been doing. So this is just not a one off thing, it is something we do regularly,” he added.

Speaking further, the defence chief said those traveling out of the country would not have countries to run to if the indigenes did not develop those countries.

He stated, “We must stay and fight whatever challenge is. Those countries they are running to, stood back and fought and got to where they are. If they had run away, they would not have achieved that for them to go and meet them.”

The CDS, who was flanked by his wife and other principal officers at Defence Headquarters, donated hampers and cash gifts to all the patients in the hospital during the visit.

145 killed as bandits attack 23 villages in Plateau

Daily Trust

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Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

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December 22, 2024

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Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

Segun Olowookere, a man who was sentenced to death for stealing fowls in Osun State when he was 17, has recounted how the police tortured and gave him a cutlass used as an exhibit against him as a minor in court.

FIJ had earlier reported that Governor Ademola Adeleke planned to pardon Olowookere after news of how Justice Sakariya Oyejide Falola sentenced Olowookere and Morakinyo Sunday to death in 2014 broke out.

Olowookere was charged in court with conspiracy, armed robbery and stealing. It was on these grounds that Falola delivered his judgment.

Olowookere and Sunday spent some days at a police station in Okuku before their arraignment and conviction. Olowookere said that the police gave them one cutlass each while at the station for weeding the premises.

However, the two of them were later transferred to Osogbo, the state capital, with the cutlasses. These cutlasses were later presented before the judge as exhibits of an armed robbery offence, Olowookere told The Punch in an interview on Sunday.

HOW HE WAS ARRESTED

Now in a custodial centre working with a medical team, Olowookere said he gave himself up for the arrest in November 2010.

“I was at my father’s shop in Oyan after returning from school. My dad and I were discussing my university admission and suddenly, we heard gunshots, and everybody ran away except my dad and a few others,” he narrated.

“My father was taken to a police van where there were some children. I was peeping out and could hear and see what was going on. The police asked my dad where I was and he asked them what my offence was. When they couldn’t give him a satisfactory response, my father shouted at the top of his voice that I should run away because the police wanted to arrest me.

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“But I was wondering what my offence was. So, I came out and went to meet them. I was detained at the police post in Oyan and was taken to Okuku Divisional Police Headquarters the following day. I met the children who were in the police van when they came for me sitting on the ground and eating rice.”

THEY WERE GIVEN CUTLASSES

Olowookere recalled that the divisional police officer (DPO) heading the station at the time accused him of being a leader of an armed robbery gang consisting of teenage children.

Some days after his arrest, his parents were still making efforts to secure his bail. While this was ongoing, the police engaged them in labour, giving them a cutlass each to cut the grasses at the station.

“The DPO told me that one of the children confessed to stealing two broilers and some crates of eggs. I met the broilers and the eggs at the station,” he said.

“The children were eight in number. He told me the children said I was their gang leader, which I denied. The children he was talking about were around 12 and 13 years old, while I was 17 then. I told him I knew the children but I didn’t have anything to do with them other than greeting them in the community.

“I met Sunday Morakinyo at the station, and he told the police that he didn’t know me nor had anything to do with me. I don’t even know where he was arrested. All the children were released but Morakinyo and I were not.

“We were seriously tortured from the first day I got to the Okuku Police Station under the supervision of the DPO. The children who allegedly committed the crime were not beaten. He repeatedly asked me to admit and confess to a crime I didn’t commit.

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“After some days, we were given cutlasses to cut the grass at the police station premises despite having injuries on every part of our body as a result of the torture.”

BAIL SUM BEYOND HIS PARENTS

Olowookere’s father was asked to produce N30,000 for his bail, but his father could only raise N20,000, and the police would not cut down this financial bail demand.

His father then left the station, perhaps to gather the shortfall of N10,000. Before his father could return, the police had ferried them to Osogbo.

“My father could only raise N20,000 out of the N30,000 they demanded. The police rejected it and insisted on the N30,000,” Olowookere said.

“My dad left the station to look for the money. But before he returned the following day, we had been moved to the SARS office in Osogbo. The cutlasses that were given to me and Morakinyo to cut the grass were presented to SARS as exhibits and they were told we were armed robbers.

“After 17 days in the SARS cell, we were taken to a magistrate court and charged with robbery, and from there to the High Court, where we were sentenced to death.”

The poultry farm from which they were alleged to have stolen fowls belonged to one of his uncles.

Despite initially promising not to pursue the case against him, the uncle went on to testify in court against him.

“We are from the same Ajerotutu Compound in Oyan. He was summoned to a family meeting where he said I was not among those who stole the fowls, but my name was mentioned by the children who were arrested,” Olowookere explained.

“He told the family that he would discontinue the case. But he later came to court to testify against me.

“I never wrote any statement to the police. My parents never had a flat, not to mention a six-bedroom flat. I lived with my parents until I was arrested.”

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Asked why his lawyer didn’t object to the statement during the trial, Olowookere said, “I didn’t know anything, but I am sure I didn’t write any statement.”

SUNDAY SUFFERS MENTAL ILLNESS

As a result of the torture they received at the police station before arraignment, Sunday began to bleed from several parts of his body.

Eventually, this bleeding led to his becoming mentally ill, according to Olowookere.

“He is now a mad person. He is at Ibara Prison. He developed mental issues when we were tortured at the police station in Okuku and by the officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. I am just lucky, and I believe God’s grace is over me,” he said.

“Morakinyo was bleeding from the anus, ears, nose and on the head. The police did not treat him despite that. I cleaned the cell every day because his blood stained the floor. He was bleeding for the entire six days we spent inside the Okuku police cell before we were transferred to the SARS cell in Osogbo.

“We spent 17 days with SARS and Morakinyo bled every day. Some of the SARS officers noticed that he was not mentally normal again but others thought he was pretending, and from there, he developed full mental issues.

“When we were remanded at Ilesa Custodial Centre, the warders tried to manage his mental health but they didn’t have the capacity. His condition then worsened. As I am talking to you, he doesn’t recognise anybody again. His mother has stopped checking up on him.”

Olowookere said he was hopeful that he would regain his freedom someday to pursue his academic studies and become useful to the world.

“I first enrolled in Yewa College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, after my sentence. It is my dream to study medicine, but it is not available at a college of education. I was later transferred to a maximum prison in 2016. But due to financial constraints, I couldn’t study my dream course,” he explained.

“However, I was encouraged to train under the medical practitioners in the prison. So, I applied and I was accepted into the medical line in 2017. Since then, I have been working with the nurses, pharmacists and doctors inside the prison.

“I believe I will be free one day, and when I regain my freedom, I will definitely go for medicine. I pray to God to set me free because I am innocent.

“I don’t know anything about the crime I am convicted for. I pray to God to give me the opportunity to prove my innocence to the world and be useful to society. I am not a criminal; I have never stolen anything in my life, not to talk of robbing somebody.”

Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

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Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

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December 22, 2024

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Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo)

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

Stakeholders under the Ijaw Youths Network (IYN) have alleged a well-coordinated international blackmail campaign against High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Chairman of Tantita Security Services; Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL); and Dr. Dennis Otuaro, Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

In a statement issued on Sunday by its President, Frank Ebikabo, and Secretary, Federal Ebiaridor, the IYN accused a cabal of oil thieves of sponsoring the campaign to undermine the successes of Tantita Security Services and other security outfits in combating oil theft.

The group specifically condemned a staged protest outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, describing it as a smear campaign filled with false criminal allegations against Tompolo, Kyari, and Otuaro.

The IYN called on the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and others entrusted with the nation’s security to ensure a thorough investigation of persons behind the blackmail and bring them to justice in the interest of national security.

The stakeholders also urged President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to be resolute in sustaining the reversal of the evils of oil theft against Nigeria and her citizens.

The IYN stressed that oil thieves and their operatives armed with billions of ill-gotten resources were funding the recurrent attacks on Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro.

The youths insisted that a virulent cabal of oil thieves with a vast network across international boundaries was on the  rampage to orchestrate the campaign targeting the economy of the country and its leadership.

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The IYN said that the oil thieves were pooling resources together with their international collaborators to undermine the President, national security and the nation’s economy.

The group said that it was not unexpected that the deadly cabal that almost ruined the economy of the country by stealing billions of petro dollars would not give up their lucrative crime without a fight.

The IYN said that the achievement of the Tinubu Administration which had been able to attain 1.8m barrels of crude oil per day, after serious efforts into the battle against oil thieves should be protected from such influential, deadly gang.

The IYN added some of those fighting Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro were persons, who pressed to be appointed Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme without success.

The Ijaw youths groups said that the antecedents of Otuaro and his capacity to deepen consultations and sustenance of peace in the Niger Delta might be hurting those behind the campaign of calumny in the region.

The group called on all sister organizations in the Niger Delta to support the campaign against oil theft, Tantita Security Service Limited, the NNPCL and the PAP leadership.

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The group said: “We are shocked at the extent to which this deadly cabal of oil thieves can go to orchestrate a campaign of calumny against hardworking people carrying out their lawful responsibilities in the Niger Delta.

“Of course, nobody expects a group of extremely wealthy, connected and influential people who has been involved in oil theft, stealing billions for years to go away without resistance.

“The show of shame in front of the UN headquarters is a most reprehensible attack on the country image, the President, national security and our economy.

“The unpatriotic characters are conniving with enemies of Nigeria in their criminal bid to bring back the dark days of oil theft and its impact on the nation’s economy.

“We call on the President, to be firm in sustaining what is good for Nigeria. Tompolo, and Tantita have shown that it is not impossible to stop the menace of oil theft as shown by the daily production of oil to 1.8 million barrels per day,

“We also urge the Mr Kyari and Dr Otuaro to be firm in carrying out their official responsibilities to this great country. That oil thieves are focusing attacks on the, shows in clear terms that their actions are suffocating their evil activities in the region.”

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

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NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution 

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12 hours ago

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December 22, 2024

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NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution 

 

The General Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Kayode Agbeyangi, has enjoined Nigerians to imbibe the virtues of peace, love and compassion as taught through the birth of Jesus Christ.

He stated this in his Christmas and end of the year goodwill message to felicitate members of the union and Nigerians in general.

Agbeyangi urged Nigerians to use the festive season to reflect on the values of love, compassion, and sacrifice that Jesus Christ embodied.

“This period is not for merry making alone; we should also spare time to reflect on the birth and life of Jesus Christ.

“His birth teaches humility, love compassion and sacrifice. As Nigerians, we must show love to our fellow county men. We must love our country. As Nigerians, we must be ready to make sacrifices for the nation.”

The NURTW scribe also used the opportunity to appeal to members of the union and other road users to always exercise caution and adhere to all safety protocols while travelling during the festive season.

“As we celebrate, let us not forget the importance of road safety. The roads can be treacherous, especially during the festive season.

“I urge our members and all road users to drive safely, avoid overspending, overtaking at dangerous bends and overloading, and be courteous to other road users,” he stated.

He also advised drivers that all their vehicle papers should be up to date to avoid embarrassment from law enforcement officers on the highways.

Comrade Agbeyangi prayed for a peaceful and joyous celebration, and wished members of the union and Nigerians, a happy prosperous New Year.

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