Death toll in Bama attacks hits 17

[TGD]

 • Residents hide terrorists, says JTF

• Reps panel seeks reform of security, justice sectors

• Don't blame Boko Haram for North's dislike of Jonathan, says Kukah

DEATH toll in last Thursday's attacks on Bama Divisional Police Station and market in Borno State by Boko Haram gunmen has risen to 17 people, including 10 suspected terrorists and seven security personnel from the military Joint Task Force (JTF) and the Police, the Commander of 202 Armoured Brigade, Bama, Lt.-Col. A.G Laka, has disclosed.

Bama is 78 kilometres south-east of Maiduguri, the state capital.

Lt.-Col. Laka spoke on Monday in Bama Town while briefing Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and the Shehu of Bama, Alhaji Kyari Umar Ibrahim El-Kanemi.

Laka said the Bama carnage started when six gunmen opened fire on the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) while he was buying a bottle of water in a shop on the Maiduguri-Bama road, before the armed hoodlums attacked the police station, which triggered the torching of shops, houses and market stalls for three hours.

In another forum, however, the Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Dr. Matthew Hassan Kukah, said it is preposterous for people to blame the Boko Haram insurgency on the North's dislike for President Goodluck Jonathan.

Kukah argued that the Boko Haram insurgency should not be viewed from the narrow prism of religion but from the broader perspective that Nigerians have failed to appreciate and understand one another since the British conquest and amalgamation of the country.

Laka continued: "The armed hoodlums started firing sporadically at innocent people, including the traders in their shops. They marched to the police station to attack it but officers on duty repelled them, after three policemen were killed along with four of our members slain. The total number of casualties in Thursday's Boko Haram multiple attacks has risen to 17, including seven uniform men lost their lives. This figure also included 10 of the Boko Haram terrorists killed in the crossfire that lasted for over four hours in the town."

He told the governor that some of the residents are, however, not helping matters because they allegedly hide the armed terrorists in their "houses and shops" to launch attacks and bombings on soldiers and policemen patrolling the town.

Appalled by the level of destruction, Governor Shettima directed the release and distribution of 180 metric tons of food items.

Apparently worried by the alleged killing of 185 persons in Baga, Borno State, the House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights yesterday called for an urgent reform of the security and justice sectors of the country.

Speaking at the opening of a stakeholders' retreat in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the Committee, Beni Lar, decried the activities of security agencies, just as she expressed concern that in all the crisis-ridden areas of the country, nobody has been brought to book.

She particularly made reference to the crisis-ridden Plateau State where nobody has been found wanting and sentenced in accordance with the rule of law.

"It is sad to note that in an attempt to contain the insurgency, the security forces have become violators of the 'right to life' of citizens," she noted.

But the lawmaker also called for a reversal of the development with the application of justice to perpetrators of unlawful killings in the country.

"We can begin changing this trend by providing better training for the security forces so that they improve their collaboration with communities to pursue the targeted criminals," she said.

Kukah, who spoke on the theme: "Building a lasting legacy", at the Converge Rewire Port Harcourt conference organised by the Converge Team headed by Apola Diepriye Opuda, Dabo Owen Etela in Port Harcourt yesterday, regretted that since Nigeria's independence, it has continued to lack leaders who put the county before themselves and worst still, have failed to build a nation of cohesive people.

He cautioned that if nothing was done urgently to create a national myth that will make people believe in the country, 20 years from now, Nigerians will discover that they have a country without citizens.

He observed that the country is in a state of retrogression because of government's inefficiency and failure to provide the basic necessities for the citizens. These factors, he stressed, are responsible for the massive corruption raving the country and its electoral violence since people now assume that political position is an avenue for sectional and personal aggrandisement.



The Guardian