Curfew in Potiskum ...After protest over market massacre

[DT]

Demonstrators took to the streets in Potiskum yesterday to protest what they called failure of security forces to foil last week's massacre at a cattle market.

Chanting slogans condemning the security agencies' poor response, the crowds went wild as they marched in the streets, leading to the imposition of a 24-hour curfew in the city which has been bedeviled by Boko Haram insurgency. At the start of the day, thousands of people held a prayer session to seek God's intervention for the restoration of security in the area, following the cattle market killings on Thursday.

"We have recited verses from the Holy Qur'an, we brought these books from far and near, even from Niger Republic. Whoever participated in this devilish act would immediately be punished by God, very soon you will begin to see the result," one of the clerics told Daily Trust.

Another cleric Goni Yahuza, who led the prayers, told news agency AFP: "We call on God to expose the criminals that attacked this market and killed people in cold blood and destroyed means of livelihood."

After the prayers, protesters marched towards the emir's palace to register their grievances, but some youths hijacked the otherwise peaceful procession, setting bonfires and dismantling military checkpoints.

They also expressed anger at the security agencies for the failure to foil the attack on Thursday.

"We do not want the presence of the military in our town," demonstrator Sale Ibrahim said. "They are of no use to us since they could not protect our lives and property. They only enjoy harassing people at check points forgetting that their allowances come from tax payers money. Life has become difficult for us."

The protesters set up bonfires along Mohammed Idris Way, while some of them attempted to forcefully break into the Mobile Police headquarters and the Divisional Police Station but they were prevented by the police who fired teargas.

Youths also hurled stones into the police offices.

One of the protesters, Mohammed Rulwanu, was wounded by a tear gas canister while a 13-year-old pure water seller sustained bullet wound on his hip and was taken to the Potiskum General Hospital for treatment.

Later in the day, Yobe State Police Commissioner, Mr Moses Onirepi, said a curfew was placed to douse tension in the town. He said the rioters were attempting to burn the emir's palace when the police came in to disperse them.

Onirepi told journalists that the ECWA church and two blocks of classrooms of Yidiski Primary School were burnt by the rioting youths.

The curfew, he added, "would continue indefinitely until the time we review it probably tomorrow."

Potiskum has been on a 6pm to 6am curfew for months, and has been under a state of emergency since December 31 following heightening Boko Haram violence.

Meanwhile, a senator from Yobe State, Alkali Abdukadir Jajere, yesterday said the death toll in Thursday's cattle market raid has reached over 160. Initial reports put the figure of the dead at 34 though residents said many more corpses had been buried by relations without taking them to hospitals.

Jajere told the BBC Hausa yesterday that he counted more than 160 bodies when he visited the hospitals in Potiskum.


.

Daily Trust