From: Muhd.Muhammad <meinagge@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, May 11, 2013 at 6:44 AM
Subject: ||NaijaObserver|| Nasarawa killings:How police insiders tipped off cultists
To: YanArewa <YanArewa@yahoogroups.com>, talkhard <talkhard@yahoogroups.com>, "dandalinsiyasa@yahoogroups.com" <dandalinsiyasa@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian IDentity <NigerianID@yahoogroups.com>, "NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com" <naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>
Nasarawa killings:How police insiders tipped off cultists
- Category: Cover stories
- Published on Saturday, 11 May 2013 05:02
- Written by Hir Joseph, Lafia
- Hits: 7
One of the suspected moles...Corporal Enugu
. Death toll now over 100
Two police insiders who allegedly leaked information to the dreaded Ombatse cult group were yesterday paraded before Nasarawa State Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura by the state's police commissioner Abayomi Akeremale. The ill-fated Alakyo, Lafia operation led to the death of many police officers and other security agents. Four are still being held by the cultists, according to Al-Makura.
Ombatse, a notorious cult group of the Eggon people of Nasarawa State, has been accused of forceful initiation of people into their fold. The two police corporals paraded for allegedly tipping off the cult members are of Eggon origin.
Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura and heads of the security forces including the state police command, the State Security Service (SSS) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) said the operation which was led by an Assistant Police Commissioner, Mommoh Mohammed, was properly planned for success with all safety measures put for the security operatives.
But they said insider information leaked to Ombatse broke the operation after the security operatives ran straight into the ambush that killed many policemen, SSS operatives and Civil Defence personnel.
"Every arrangement for their (security operatives') safety was made. The most unfortunate thing that happened was the betrayal within them," Governor Al-Makura said yesterday in Government House, when he received widows and children as well as other relatives of the slain security operatives who poured into his office in a large number, to protest against killing of their husbands and relatives.
"This is what betrayal has caused to not only you, but the rest of the nation," Al-Makura told the widows, assuring that "the blood of the heroes will not go in vain."
Al-Makura also said the State Security Council was aware that four of the security personnel on the operation were still being held by Ombatse members in a hideout, but assured that both the government and the security agencies were closing in on the perpetrators to free the men.
"The compounding issue is that the place is still insecure. It is not to say we can't go there. We are trying to get anyone still alive there. We heard up to four men are still being held, but the police are working hard to free them," he said.
Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Akeremale, who led the suspects to Government House, to parade the two policemen in Lafia around 4:30pm, said one of the cops whose name was given only as Corporal Enugu, was arrested after a team of detectives monitored his behaviors since the day of the ill-fated operation.
He said Corporal Enugu who drove one of the patrol vans with registration number NPF 6997 C, was one of the men who returned alive from the operation.
"A team of detectives monitored him carefully. They first stumbled on charms in his vehicle (official vehicle). Then, they followed up and stormed in on him at his residence. But before our men got there, the information had already reached there. But my men were fast to get him, and a second policeman in his house," the police commissioner said.
He displayed three AK47 rifles, a sack of charms of various brands, alongside Corporal Enugu and Corporal Haruna Joseph. The police commissioner also took the governor to the front of the police van and pointed at a red sticker with an image of a machine gun with a chain of bullets, by the registration number, and said: "our investigation has shown that this sticker was put so that his members can notice, separate and spare him."
"This is just the beginning. It is like the beginning of a river, which is usually small; it will lead us to track down all members of the sect."
Widows of the slain officers were still in Government House, when the two suspected cops were taken there. They expressed shock with the quantum of assorted charms they saw.
Operatives of the police, SSS and Civil Defence were ambushed at the Alakyo village, on the outskirt f Lafia, the state capital, on the night of Tuesday when they stormed the village to raid a shrine of the notorious traditional religion, CP Akeremale had said on Wednesday. He said the decision to go on the operation was taken at the State Security Council meeting, earlier on Tuesday afternoon, after allegations that Ombatse members were carrying out forced initiation of Eggon males, continued to widen in the state.
A police inspector of Eggon origin, who resides in Alakyo, was one of the recent persons forced into initiation, by Ombatse, the police boss also said. A young man has also approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Lafia, to formerly complain that he was tortured and compelled by persons he suspected to be Ombatse, to swear to an oath of allegiance to the deity, hours after his Muslim marriage in Lafia.
But the leader of the Eggon people, Chris Mamman, who confirmed he heard of the forced initiation of people of Eggon decent into the traditional religion, denied that Ombatse people had hands in the development.
Mamman, the National President of Eggon Cultural Association (ECDA), blamed the forced initiation on the activities of criminal elements, using Ombatse to extort other Eggon people.
"We call on the government and security agencies to go after these miscreants and arrest and prosecute them. They are the fallout of the crisis that went on in Nasarawa. They should not criminalize the Eggon nation," he had said barely a day before the ambush on the security operatives in Alakyo.
Also, a certain man who claimed membership of Ombaste spoke to the BBC Hausa Service, and claimed that they killed 90 police officers "in self defence", during the Tuesday night operation.
He said they had information that the police planned a raid on the village, compelling them to prepare and wait for them, but added that "we told them we were not going to allow them into our village until they gave us a good reason."
He said the security operatives told them they were in the village to arrest a certain old man who serves as a chief priest of the shrine of Eggon, and started attacking the villagers with teargas and gunshots, sparking up what now led to the gruesome murder of police officers, SSS and Civil Defence personnel in large numbers.
He said nine of their people were killed.
But a man whose name the BBC gave as Mr. M.B. Maina, a leader of Ombatse, was quoted to have claimed that the villagers of Alakyo, and not his members, attacked the team of security personnel.
"We are not happy with what happened with those police, but government, not only of Nasarawa State alone but Nigerian government, the whole country; there is need for justice from the part of the government. So it was no Ombatse, it was the villagers. Ombatse is all over the world, but we are peace loving people", Maina was quoted to have said.
Meanwhile, the Dalhatu Araf Specialist's Hospital (DASH) in Lafia has continued to play host to convoys of ambulances, accompanied by heavy security, to pour in corpses. A nurse at the hospital told the BBC that they received 90 corpses and were still waiting for another 17 to be brought in.
The governor told the widows that eight more corpses were recovered yesterday, and taken to the hospital.
Sympathizers and relatives of deceased security men continued to throng the hospital, but they were advised to stay off by the governor who insisted that looking at the charred remains of corpses will traumatize them.
The corpses were gathered and burnt at the village, police said.
Also, widows and other relatives of the slain security personnel, who have been protesting the murder of their relatives, yesterday, poured into Government House, where they registered their anger against both the government and security agencies.
Mrs. Rita Benjamin, widow of one of the slain personnel she named as Corporal Benjamin Zakari, was the first to speak when the governor led heads of security services in the state, to receive them. She spoke for few minutes, but at the end, both the women who accompanied her, and the officers who received them, bowed their heads. Sobbing from the widows took over the hall.
She said in Hausa: "Our husbands left to protect lives and property of other Nigerians. They didn't return because there was nobody to protect them. They were told that they were going for outside work in Makurdi, in the neighbouring Benue State. So they did not even know where they were being taken to. They kissed goodbye to their families and left happily. Today, we their widows, children, unborn children and other relatives grieve. Oh, there is God, and we will continue to believe in Him. But we have lost confidence in both government and security agencies to protect those whose duty it is to protect Nigerians."
She pleaded with the authorities to allow them take custody of the corpses of their husbands, insisting "we are not happy with the condition their bodies is being kept. They are decomposing, increasing our trauma. We need the corpses so we can bury them and look away from this place."
She spoke for the police, while Mrs. Godiya Makama, an elderly mother of one SSS personnel, spoke for the SSS. Both women pleaded with the authorities to safeguard the lives of other Nigerian security personnel.
"Our own relatives have gone, but other people still have relatives in the forces. We plead that the government should do more to safeguard them, so they can protect Nigerians," Mrs. Makama, mother to an officer whose name she gave as Paul Simon, said, sobbing.
Al-Makura told them he was personally touched because some of the personnel, including ACP Mommoh who led the operation, were known and close to him. He sympathized with the widows, and pleaded that they take heart and consider the fate of their husbands as an act of God.
The governor announced N3 million to the slain ACP Mommoh, N1.5 million each to two Superintendents of Police, and N1 million each to other personnel, as part of the state government's support to the families of the slain officers.
Meanwhile, stretches of protests along Akwanga-Lafia federal road continued yesterday. Widows and other relatives of the slain officers had continued to barricade the road at various points in Akwanga and Nasarawa-Eggon, to prevent vehicular traffic.
The women first stormed out in front of the Mobile Police Squadron 39, popularly called MOPOL 38 Tiger Squadron, and barricaded the road at Ube area of Akwanga, obstructing traffic flow for hours on Thursday.
By yesterday, the protest spread to Nasarawa-Eggon, and continued by about noon till press time about past 6pm.
The Acting Police Area Commander of Akwanga, Paulinus Attah, has frequented the protest scene, pleading with the protesters to leave, with only a little success, while travelers along the road have continually being stranded.
Muhammad
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