Just when there was hope that things were dying down in Jos as a result of the curfew in place, fury erupted again, in what many people now see as a revenge mission.

Just like the last time, it took place on a sunday, but this time it was in the early hours. Several lives were lost but there were conflicting figures.

As controversies arose over the number of casualties left by Fulani herdsmen, the suspected aggressors, at three villages in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, a state government aide, Mr. Dong Majan said “no fewer than 500 or above were killed, that’s makes me to keep wondering why the media keep on reporting 200 people were killed.”

He maintained that he was sure of the figures he gave.

“ I am not giving you an unconfirmed report as a video (recording) is available to prove it and the Commissioner of Information, Mr. Gregory Yenlong, was there to count the number of the dead bodies along with some other state officials and they made the video there. I am saying this because I want the world to know the accurate figure of casualties,” Majan further said.

“It is nothing but ethnic cleansing,” Yenlong told newsmen shortly after visiting the attacked villages. He said all the three villages attacked were Berom villages, making the state government to suspect that it was aimed at a particular ethnic group.

He said preliminary reports on the attack indicated that the attackers were Fulani, adding that government suspects former state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Saleh Bayeri,, of having foreknowledge of the attack because he had been making statements inciting the Fulani people against the Beroms.

However, Bayeri denied this, stating that since the attack on the Fulani in Kim Kim and Kuru Karama in January, he had been appealing to his people to be calm. He wondered why

the state government was swift to point at a suspect over the latest killings when it failed to name a single person when the Fulani were killed in January.

While the controversy on the actual figure of casualties and the perpetrators  raged the leader of the  Fulanis who were fingered as the aggressors who killed hundreds of innocent women and children, has explained why they perpetrated the gruesome act. The fulani leaders had initially denied being the aggressors.

An online news agency Pointblanknews quoted the Fulani leader and secretary Sultan’s Farmer/Cattle Rearers Conflict Committee, Sale Bayari, as saying that the recent mishap was caused by failure of both the Plateau State Government and the Presidential Committee on Jos Crisis to clearly address the losses of the Fulanis in past crisis.

Bayero, who was said to have addressed newsmen in Abuja said he was not a stakeholder in the crisis, but said it was unfair for the police to continue to hold the 49 Fulanis arrested so far, adding that what happened was a complete case of jungle justice.

“Some of us have been forced to live like outlaws in Jos. Why would a government turn its own responsibility upside down? Under the circumstances of what has been happening in Plateau State, some people just have to die.

“Any society that refuses to be just and fair shall become a jungle where only jungle justice shall operate like the case in Plateau State today. There are some people who are very conversant with the jungle.

“They sleep with snakes, gorilla even at night. So, if you turn your state to a jungle state, this is what you get. So far, we have suffered most. Indeed, majority of our killings were carried out in areas where there was strong government presence,” he said.

Bayeri further noted that it was completely unjust for government and the media to be silent when the Fulanis lost hundreds of their kinsmen most of whom were children and women, only for everyone to hastily condemn them now.

“When our people were killed or were being killed, we can’t remember seeing Governor Jang, the Gbong Gwom, the Information Commissioner, members of House of Assembly of the areas, neither did anyone of them say a word about what happened to us. Up till today, they are behaving as if nothing ever happened to us and you expect this to just pass away and forever? In Kuru Karama when Aljazeera was beaming the corpses of 150 children and women strewn into the village streets, where was Governor Jang and Gyang Buba?

Who has been arrested? Who provided the five Hilux Jeeps that brought the killers? Who has made any effort to fish out the killers. Haba!

“The herdsmen have been at the receiving end for no reason whatsoever and it is, therefore, most baffling to hear government now exaggerating the figure of those who lost their lives in what is called reprisal attack at Dogo Nahauwa in order to give the world the impression that those who lost their lives in this incident outweigh any other that happened to other people such as the Fulani

“We observe with great dismay and outright taking of sides by the government through its spokesman, Mr. Gregory Yenlong, Commissioner for Information, by saying that 500 were killed while the Police Commissioner was categorically saying 109 people were confirmed killed. Why is the government denying our own casualties and the loss of property, which we have documented and published in the media while trying to convince the world to accept their own speculation as fact?

“Why didn’t the government challenge us to prove the loss of 215 people in the January 17 Jos crisis? Why didn’t the government respond to our petition to the Federal Government through the force CID that we wrote to only to deny that what took place was a reprisal attack as stated by the police. Whether it was a reprisal attack or not, between 2001 to the recent crisis, the Berom have killed over 365 herdsmen in cold blood in Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Rayon local government areas.

“Because the Fulani are local herdsmen who are not beneficiaries of the state, national and international media, deaths of our children, women and men never occurred and were never reported and the purported reprisal theory was never justified. If, we may ask, why then this attack took place where it happened and nowhere else outside the three Berom local government areas that we alleged we lost 215 people? We want an answer from Jang,” he said.

Bayeri, therefore, called on the Federal Government to halt the indiscriminate arrest of herdsmen in the country and cautioned that if these acts of injustice to the Fulanis continued there would not be a way out of the crisis.

“The Fulani abhor injustice and they shall seek justice through any means legal. We, therefore, call for the fair trial of all those arrested before only a federal high court and by the office of the Federal Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and not by the Plateau State government headed by a Berom governpr and Berom Attorney-General whom the Fulanis hold squarely responsible for the unfortunate crisis,” he posited.

Meanwhile the Bauchi State government is making all efforts to bring succor to all the over 10,000 Internally displaced persons presently taking refuge in Bauchi State, following the last Jos religious crisis that claimed many lives and properties in January. The  state governor, Isa Yuguda, has set up an 11-man committee to resettle them at their various camps  across the State.

Inuwa Bello , the state director of information, who disclosed that over 10, 000 victims of the crisis are being camped at Toro, Ningi, Boto, Dass, Bogoro and Bauchi at present, also said that the Committee will determine the exact number of displaced persons willing to stay in the state.

He said that the committee is also saddled with the responsibility of collecting data house hold by household of the number of families to ascertain the size, number of dependant among other characteristics of the displaced persons. He added that the data collected will be analyzed to enable the committee properly advise the state government on how to plan for adequate facilities such as schools, hospitals, access roads, among others for the new.

The Director of Information then said that efforts were being made by the state government through SEMA to ensure that food materials, accommodation, healthcare services and security were well received by the victims saying,

“There is a standing committee, the Emergency Management Committee which sends feed back to SEMA on a regularly basis to ensure that they do not run short of supply of food and items such as cloths and blankets.

“The security of the IDPs is of paramount importance to the government.  There is a security team that takes surveillance 24 hours to ensure the security of their lives and of the items being taken there are guaranteed,” Inuwa Bello said.

While reacting to the crisis, Chief Imam of the Bauchi Central Mosque, Ahmed Bala Mohammed Baba Inna, blamed the Plateau State government for the continued crisis in the state, noting that leadership has failed the state.

The Islamic cleric, who was speaking with newsmen in Bauchi, said that there would be no end to the incessant crises in the state as long as the government refused to take decisive action against who took delight in forment trouble

for their selfish aim and alleged that the problem in Jos tends to portray leadership of the state as those engineering the crises. According to him, their utterances seem to suggest that they are bias and seem to favour certain group of people.

“The Yoruba, the Ibo, the Ibibio, the Hausa, the Fulani that live in Plateau State are subjects of government of Plateau State , if the government starts pointing accusing finger at any one of them without proof, then it is unfortunate,” he said.

He, however, warned that, “If the government doesn’t take a proper care, we may be convinced that they are the people behind all the killings and destruction of people’s properties. He posited that the perpetrators of the Jos mayhem must be exposed and brought to book.

In his words, Bala Mohammed said, “it was reported that there were some people in Police and Army uniforms. These people were arrested and up till this very moment, nobody can tell us what happened to them. They have not been

tried. Perhaps they have even been released. And in the one that happened on Sunday, it was said that five people were arrested with army uniform”.

“Who are these people, where are they coming from? Expose them. If you can expose Mutallab attempting to bomb a plane, why can’t you expose people that you see in Army and Police uniforms? If they can do this and go free, then the country is at stake. They can invade anywhere,” he concluded.

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