OMBATSE RETURN TURNS BACK THE HANDS OF THE CLOCK   Category: News Published on Saturday, 21 September 2013 05:00 Written by Hir Joseph, Lafia Hits: 120 “Kill Man, No Case,” is the inscription on one of the walls standing amidst the rubbles along a major street beside the palace of Asakyo of Owusakyo, the traditional ruler of Assakio, a town on the outskirts of Lafia, along Shendam road. The inscription tells the story of the time in the last one week in Nasarawa State. The state witnessed the return of bloodbath in four towns and villages between Friday and Monday. Adabu Alago, a settlement along Lafia-Obi-Awe-Taraba State borders road, and Obi, headquarters of Obi Local Government Area were sacked between Friday and Saturday, while Assakio and environs in Lafia LGA were sacked between Sunday and Monday. A government state-wide broadcast on Saturday, by the Deputy Governor, Dameshi Barau Luka, accused Ombatse, the Eggon militia group of being behind the new clashes. Hundreds of persons were killed in the violence which spread to nearly all ethnic groups of the zones: Alago, Migli, Tiv, Eggon, Fulani, Hausa, Gwandara, Bassa and Mada. Reports said trouble started after the Alago people of Assakio tipped off their kinsmen in Adabu Alago, about a group of Eggon youths believed to be Ombatse members, who were on their way to Awe with arms tucked in a Peugeot J5 mini bus. The Alagos, then reportedly tipped off the police, who intercepted the vehicle, and arrested two Eggon youths. Most of the youths in the vehicle were said to have escaped and fled to Tudun Adabu, an Eggon settlement. This is just as reports said the vehicle conveying the Eggon boys was allegedly torched by Alago youths, who chanted in celebration to the anger of their Eggon neighbours in the neighbouring Tudun Adabu. Those who escaped were reported to have called their kinsmen in Assakio, signaling what would befall Adabu Alago. When they attacked on Thursday, the Eggons of Tudun Adabu barricaded the road in front of their village, stopping vehicular traffic. They were said to have been joined by hundreds of their kinsmen from other Eggon areas including Assakio. The police confirmed this, but Chris Mamman, leader of Eggon Cultural and Development Association (ECDA), denied it all. He said an Eggon teacher in Government Girls’ College in Keana, an Alago town, was murdered by Alago people, just as he said there was an attempted murder of another Alago man in the same school, sparking the road blocks in Tudun Adabu, in protest. The Eggon youths blocked the road until Friday. That same day, they launched a bloody attack on Adabu Alago, killing some people there, and razing down houses and shops, displacing Alago people as well as the police. The next day, the youths whom the broadcast accused as Ombatse members, allegedly attack Obi razing down houses and shops, again, killing and displacing persons, the police claimed. The clashes reportedly reached Assakio, several kilometers away, where they allegedly killed dozens, and razed down buildings, including the palace of Asakyo of Owusakyo, HRH Osula Inarigu. On that day, they were said to have stormed the police station in Obi, and freed their members. Same day, soldiers from the 177 Brigade of Guards Battalion arrived the trouble areas, to begin town-to-town and village-to-village hunt for suspected Ombatse members. In Tudun Adabu and Assakio, the soldiers allegedly shot several Eggon youths. Security sources said the youths, believed to be members of Ombatse, attempted at various points in Tudun Adabu, and Assakio to surprise soldiers on patrol, with a similar ambush reported to have taken place on May 7 in Alakyo. A field commander of the group was said to have been killed by soldiers who returned the surprise to them, pushing them into a tight corner where they could only turn back to face military bullets, security sources said. Not less than a dozen were said to have been killed between Tudun Adabu, where they were alleged to have opened fire on the soldiers; and Assakio, where they alleged ytried an ambush on the troops. On Tuesday, soldiers said the military checkpoint at Alushi Junction, along Akwanga-Keffi road, was attacked by heavily armed members of Ombatse, among whom was a serving policeman from the Force Headquarters in Abuja. But the soldiers on duty fended them off, killing at least 12, including another militia field commander. The policeman among them Corporal Ekipi Mala, was among the not less than 200 Ombatse members led by the field commander killed in the earlier minutes of the incident, soldiers who drove three injured members of the cult members told newsmen in Government House, Lafia. Mala’s police identity card found on him, after the soldiers disabled him with bullets, showed that he is from a squadron of the Mobile Police (MOPOL), but the state Police Commissioner, Umar Shehu refused to let journalists have a closer look at the document. Corporal Mala, was brought in company of a teenage boy, who was said to have bore his AK47, and first opened fire on the soldiers at the checkpoint on the outskirt of Akwanga. An Army lieutenant, who led the soldiers said a young man in his early 20s, rode on a Bajaj motorcycle, and attempted to go through the checkpoint without a pass. He was then forced to stop, to explain himself, but he struggled on with the soldiers as he refused to disclose the content of his bag until it was forcefully collected from him. The lieutenant said the motorcycle rider finally opened up, and identified himself as an Ombatse member and that the content of his bag were items sent by Baba Alakyo, the chief priest of the cult group, to his elder brother in a village near Alushi. The soldiers said they asked him to call his elder brother to explain that he had to come because the younger brother was arrested at the checkpoint. The elder brother was said to have stormed the checkpoint with not less than 200 youth armed with guns of all sorts and machetes, as they were dressed in black attire with red scarf on their heads, screaming war chants in Eggon language. “They opened fire. The teenager was holding an AK47”, a soldier said, but the military men said they were able to repel them with superior fire power, in a shootout that lasted over 10 minutes. Travelers claimed they spotted not less than eight corpses lying at various points of the road. The President General of ECDA, reacted harshly against the killing, describing the action of the soldiers as “high level of rascality by government agents.” Mamman said he was also informed that soldiers opened fire on two Eggon youths ridding on a motorcycle, and killed them at Wulko that same day. He said “the level of rascality by government agents has reached a level that will lead to an emergence of more crises and social vices. “They are making it difficult for community leaders to appeal to the people to be patient.” More than 10 policemen of Eggon origin have been in detention at the Nasarawa State police command, after they were arrested in May, in connection with the alleged leak of a security operation to members of Ombatse. Also, Eggon people believe that they have had to face suppression from their neighbours over the years, due to land. The case of Assakio where a clash first broke out between them and Alago people in June of 2012, is case in point. That year, the Eggon people refused to pay royalties to the Assakio traditional ruler. The Alago people insisted the payment has been a longstanding tradition over a particular piece of land, but Eggon people insisted they were suppressed. A panel of inquiry was set up by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, with its report indicting both the traditional ruler, an Alago, as well as about five Eggon people. But distrust reportedly set in barely a year after their election victories against the PDP, because it is widely alleged that if there was an agreement, it may have been broken. Crisis erupted in much of the southern parts of the state between 2012, and this year, especially between Eggon and Alago, and Eggon and Fulani. Al-Makura and Ewuga have been widely accused by various communities and groups at the ongoing public hearings of the panel sitting in Lafia, over these crises. Ewuga is accused of being behind Eggon onslaught on communities, while Al-Makura is alleged to have watched as Fulani mercenaries raided Eggon villages. Behind the scene too, traditional rulers in the southern parts have been blamed for aiding and abating violence against farmers, using Fulani mercenaries.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 16:46:58 +0000
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