Aftermath of police reprisal attack on Ebiraland: 15 lives lost in Ogaminana

Johnson Babajide - 02.03.2008

GUNS boomed, blood flowed, smoke enveloped the whole area, people ran helter- skelter, some children were abandoned and the disabled cried for help. Those who narrowly escaped the ‘war’, but saw their loved ones cold on the ground and their belongings consumed by fire, could not hold back tears. Even supposedly stone- hearted men betrayed emotions as they gnashed their teeth.

The above description is not that of a war film but a replica of the Odi and Zaki-Biam massacre in Rivers and Benue States respectively. It happened live at Ogaminana, the headquarters of Adavi local government area of Kogi State.

It was a reprisal attack by mobile policemen who were avenging the killing and abduction of their colleagues by some youths in the area last Sunday. In some cases, according to sources, the mopol entered a house, ordered the residents to line up and they were killed. There was a case of a toddler in one of the unlucky houses, where a mopol was said to have carried the toddler and said “if this one is allowed to live, who knows, he may be too dangerous to control in future”. He then dropped him and marched on him until life was snuffed out of him.

There was another incidence where a discharged corper was said to have unfortunately arrived the town at the time the “mad dogs” were barking. “Hey stop there!”, a mopol shouted. The motorcyclist who brought him was not spared. “Who are you and where are you coming from?”, the young man flagged his identity card. The mopol was said to have queried, “ then what does this mean?” Before he could utter a word, another mopol opened fire on him, and brought to an end the struggle of a young graduate.

As at the time the dust settled on Wednesday, almost 100 people were said to have lost their lives, several vehicles, houses and motorcycles were set ablaze, while smoke was still smouldering from the rubble when Sunday Tribune visited. When the team of correspondents visited on Wednesday, many were seen fleeing while some went into hiding on spotting the vehicle of the newsmen.

The once bubbling Ogaminana market was reduced to rubble while several houses along Lokoja-Okene road near the council secretariat were burnt. Narrating his ordeal, the chairman of Ogaminana Traders’ Association, Mallam Salihu Jimoh, said that the policemen did not spare the market as they invaded the place, ransacked their stalls before setting them ablaze, stressing that over 150 stalls were burnt during the invasion.

The crisis that snowballed to unwanton destruction of lives and properties was said to have started on Sunday night, when some youths were said to have intercepted some trucks said to belong to Global Holdings Nigeria Limited, allegedly conveying properties belonging to the nation’s iron ore at Itakpe.

The goods were said to have been conveyed in six trucks with registration number: Delta XB 267 SKL [014], Delta XB 269 SKL [022] and another with Edo registration number XB 916 AUC . Three of the trucks had been reduced to ashes as at the time Sunday Tribune visited the spot.

The youths were said to have deflated the tyres of the trucks and smashed the windscreen to prevent them from escaping with the alleged stolen goods, but a white man accompanying the trucks was said to have informed the area commander in Okene who promptly deployed his men to the area to forestall a breakdown of law and order.

Ironically, said the source, the youths were said to have thought that the policemen were abetting and aiding the unlawful carting away of the property at Itakpe and resisted every move by the police to allow the trucks leave the spot.

That was said to have infuriated the mobile policemen who attempted to drive the youths away from the scene which later resulted in the exchange of gunshots, at the end of which many of the youths were said to have been killed while the police also lost one, had three injured and another one with gun-shot abducted.

The action of the youths was said to have provoked the mobile policemen who had to reinforce and embark on reprisal attack, particularly to retrieve the abducted colleague the following day, resulting in the killing, maiming and burning down of houses and properties.

Irked by the onslaught, the lawmaker representing the area at the state assembly, Honourable Momoh Jimoh Anda, alerted the attention of the house through a motion on urgent issue of public importance seeking their intervention to stop the killings.

Anda claimed that the house by its rules has an oversight function to look into the issue as it affected lives and properties, describing the attitude of the police as barbaric and uncivilised. He also said that as at the last count more that 15 people had been killed in the police brutality.

The house, however, resolved that the committee on peace and security should move into action and attend to the matter with the urgency it deserves. In its reaction to the crisis, an association, “Ebira Peoples Association [BPA], in a press release described the action of the police as tantamount to aiding and abetting illegality saying, “the ugly incident which occurred on Sunday, 24th February at about 7.30p.m. was disheartening, for about seven trailers, loaded with suspected stolen raw materials/equipment from Itakpe/Ajaokuta to have moved with mobile police escort to cover up.

“But the indigenes, who got wind of the suspected stolen material, as usual accosted the trailers which were passing through Ogaminana township in Adavi local government area to ascertain the content, permission and destination of the vehicles which were disguised to look like vehicles passing by from a long distance,” the statement added.

The release, which was signed by Mr. A .A. Sani and Kenneth Enebe, President General and National Secretary respectively, stated that their action was to protect government establishment and property in their area, considering the huge financial and material loss that had been perpetrated through such methods from the Steel sites in the past.

The action of the police to protect the alleged illegal movement of the trucks was described as unpatriotic while noting that the state commissioner of police, Mr. Ibe Aghanya, had deployed troops of mobile police to Okene local government area last month in an attempt to forcibly install the council chairman which he said fueled political crisis in the area and that Ebiraland was not safe at the moment.

The association, therefore, called on the National Assembly and the Inspector General of Police to investigate and bring to book, all those behind the mayhem at Ogaminana last week.

However, the state command through its Police Public Relations Officer [PPRO], Mr. Onum Inalegwu, who spoke to Sunday Tribune said that the men of Global firm were last December arrested by the youths for engaging in illegal business and were taken to the palace of the paramount ruler who also handed them over to the police.

He said that upon investigation, police discovered that the men were into legal business which prompted the police to release them and be allowed to carry out their legal business but stated that in the process of carrying out their business, some youths intercepted the men and the police had to deploy men to the area to avert break down of law and order.

Inalegwu said that the youths had to engage the policemen in gun battle which resulted in the injury of three and the abduction of a corporal, adding that the abduction of the corporal prompted the police to go in search of the abducted man who was found dead.

Sunday Tribune further gathered that the gun that was used in shooting the policeman had been returned to the police authority in the state through the council chairman at Ogaminana.