ENUGU MASSACRE: 5 Fulani herdsmen nabbed

· Anger as Danbazau, Arase, Daura shun Reps

· Benue communities put losses to herdsmen’s attacks at N64.955bn

 

Exactly a month after the invasion of Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State by armed marauders, police operatives attached to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP’s) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), have arrested five Fulani herdsmen, who led the operation.

Over 40 persons were killed and property worth millions of naira destroyed in the April 25, 2016 midnight raid by the suspected Fulani herdsmen in Nimbo community.

 In the raid, which was widely condemned, seven villages in Nimbo community: Nimbo Nwoko, Ugwuijoro, Ekwuru, Ebor, Enugu Nim­bo, Umuome and Ugwuacha­ra were attacked.

Also destroyed by the invaders were 10 residential houses and a church- Christ Holy Church International, aka Odozi Obodo.

Vehicles, motorcycles and domestic animals were not spared by the Fulani herdsmen.

In a statement, the Force Spokesperson, Kolawole Ola­bisi said that the five suspects were arrested based on credible technical intelligence obtained by the men of the IGP’s team.

She gave the names of the suspects as Mohammed Zurai, Ciroma Musa, Sale Adamu, Suleiman Laute and Haruna Laute.

The police also recovered one Gionee L88 mobile phone with a memory card contain­ing the video recording of the full and detailed operations car­ried out during the mass kill­ings in the community from the suspects.

Similarly, the IGP’s team busted a three-member syndi­cate of deadly kidnappers and bank robbers which has been terrorising residents of Rivers, Imo and Enugu States.

Arms, ammunition, dyna­mites and rifle servicing tools were recovered from them. Other items recovered from them are three AK-47 rifles, one LAR rifle, three10 rounds of live ammunition, 12 rifle magazines, rifle servicing tools, cache of dynamite explosives, one Toyota Highlander SUV, one Toyota Venza SUV and one Ford Edge SUV.

The arrested gang members were Gogo Daniel Ume, Ikado Michael and Ifeanyi Kalu.

In another twist, the Force Spokesperson said Babangida Ibrahim, Idris Abubakar and Idris Mai Anguwa, have been arrested in Kaduna State for al­leged involvement in kidnap­ping and robbery.

Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Minister of Interior, Abdul­rahman Danbazau and the Di­rector-General, Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura and the Nigerian Army, yesterday failed to show up at the House of Representatives’ public hearing on the herds­men’s attacks on Benue com­munities.

Following the development, the lawmakers gave the Securi­ty Chiefs 24 hours to appear be­fore the House or they will in­voke Section 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amend­ed).

The House Committee on Public Affairs had called for the appearance of the Service Chiefs as well as members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Rear­ers Association, whose mem­bers were involved in the crisis with Tiv and Agatu communi­ties in Benue State.

The failure of the Service Chiefs to appear before the committee drew the anger of the lawmakers, who noted that the public hearing was adver­tised in the media with a spe­cific date.

They said there was no rea­son why the invited stakehold­ers should treat the public hear­ing with levity, especially when the issue bothers on peace and national security.

The lawmakers questioned the decision of the Committee Chairman, Hon. Haliru Dauda Jika, to continue with the pro­ceedings even when a serious indictment was being made against the security agencies by members of the Tiv communi­ties, which alleged negligence and incompetence in the face of atrocities committed against them.

In her contribution, Hon. Nkieruka Onyejeocha (PDP, Abia), who is also the Chair­man, House Committee on Aviation, lamented the ugly and gory pictorial evidence presented by the Tiv community.

Onyejeocha raised the alarm on the absence of the IGP as well as the Minister of Interior who are supposed to be the drivers of whatever de­cision or resolution that would be reached by the committee.

She said: “I take excep­tion to the fact that the Inspec­tor-General will not be here to listen to these presentations where we are seeing pictures showing how people were bru­tally murdered, not just mur­dered but butchered in the most gruesome way ever seen and somebody might say, did this really happen?

“So, I would like to tell the committee chairman to do what’s necessary to compel them to come here and answer questions being raised by these people who are alleging that no single person has been arrested in the wake of all these killings.

“For God’s sake, how can Nigerians be so maimed and traumatised and security agen­cies will fold their hands and watch the impunity go on with­out making arrest. I want to see people arrested and prosecuted, and the IGP must be here to an­swer our questions.”

Hon. Fred Agbedi, (PDP, Bayelsa) expressed the same observation, stressing the se­riousness of the issue and the need to ensure that the heads of relevant agencies invited must be present as their represent­atives may not have the com­petence to provide the kind of information the committee needs.

Defending the absence of the IGP, Hon. Jika explained that he was informed that Ar­ase’s absence was due to a police conference and that the repre­sentative of the Interior Minis­ter was on his way.

Following the heated de­bate, the chairman called for a closed-door session with his colleagues, after which they adjourned the hearing sine die (indefinitely).

In his presentation, Mr. Ed­ward Ujege, President-Gener­al of Nzor-Tiv Global Asso­ciation, presented a colour graphic illustration of killings allegedly perpetrated by the herdsmen.

He said they do not expect anybody to try and pull wool over their eyes in a glaring case of intentional violation of their rights and the killing of their people in an attempt to take away their land and put the val­ue of property destroyed by the herdsmen at N64.955 billion.