Barely one month after over four hundred people were killed in Jos, Plateau State, security agents yesterday arrested twenty six suspected mercenaries armed with 22 double barrelled guns around the Gengere/UTC area of the city.
The security agents also found eight cutlasses, army boots, tear gas, charms, army uniforms and fake identity cards bearing “Force Headquarters, Abuja” in the vehicle conveying the suspected mercenaries.
The suspects came into the city in two vehicles – a white Hiace 18-seater bus with the inscription “Okene Local Government Legislative Council, Kogi State” and another Toyota Corolla car with a Lagos State plate number, AE 403 BDG.
Sources said the suspects came into the city in the Okene Local Government vehicle in disguise, to beat security checks around the area.
The mercenaries claimed they were in transit to Bauchi State when the military men intercepted them at one of the many road blocks in the city.
Also found with the suspects were Bauchi State government letter heads, with a purported letter from the state government requesting for the release of the vehicles for their operations.
But when contacted, the Bauchi State government denied knowledge of the suspects.
Two of the suspects Haruna Yahaya and Dahiru Usman with fake identity cards said they were travelling from Kogi State to Bauchi.
All the suspects have since been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police headquarters in Jos.
The Senior Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to Governor Jonah Jang, Hon. Dan Manjang described the incident as “very unfortunate.”
Manjang said: “This has vindicated the state government’s position that the Jos riot was pre-planned with the aid of mercenaries.”
He continued: “I was at the state police headquarters to see things for myself today. We call on the federal government to reason with us. The federal government must not sweep this incident under the carpet, as it would not help matters.
“Security reports show that there are more of such groups planning to come into Jos. The state government is trying its best to catch them.”
But the Plateau State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Umar refused to comment on the matter, saying ‘investigations are still on going.”
In a related development, the youth wing of the Jama’Atu Nasril Islam (JNI), yesterday said Governor Jang had no moral rights to constitute a commission of inquiry to investigate a crisis in which he was an active collaborator.
Addressing a press conference in Jos, the JNI youth wing said since the crisis erupted in November last year, “Governor Jang has exhibited a high degree of partisanship, hatred and bias against Hausa/Muslims.”
Led by the secretary of the group, Barrister Ahmed S. Garba, the JNI alleged that the governor and his aides have consistently accused Muslims of starting the crisis “thereby diverting the attention of the public from the truth.”
Garba said with the setting up a Judicial Commission by Jang, “Muslims feel uncomfortable with the likely biased outcome of such a commission.”
The group said though it has respect for Prince Bola Ajibola whom Jang has appointed to head the commission, but “after all is said and done, the report will go to the same Jang who can do whatever with it.”
JNI said the refusal of the governor to accept the commission set up by the federal government did not only confirm their belief of his involvement, “but equally shows that he has more skeletons in the cupboard than we know of.”
Under the current situation, JNI said, the matter is between the state government on one side and the Hausa Fulani on the other, “hence, the only appropriate and neutral arbiter is the federal government and the National Assembly, whose commission we will honour as soon as the legal issues raised are cleared.”
Meanwhile, indigenes of Jos who perceive President Umaru Yar’Adua as taking side with the Hausas/Muslim community have vowed not to appear at the commission set up by the federal government.
They also fear that “with the role played by the head of the federal government panel, Major General Emmanuel Abisoye (rtd), in the trial and elimination of prominent Plateau sons in the military during the Colonel Buka Suka Dimka coup of 1976, a re-play of injustice may be seen.”
Jan32009