Saturday, November 10, 2012

Gunmen kill three cops in Yobe


THREE policemen were killed yesterday as gunmen attacked the Divisional Police Station in Buni Yadi, Gujba local council of Yobe State.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Yobe, Lt. Eli Lazarus, confirmed the killings in a statement issued in Damaturu, capital of Yobe State, yesterday.

According to the statement: “in the early hours of today, gunmen attacked the Divisional Police Station at Buni Yadi and three policemen were killed with some arms carted away.”
He said the JTF drafted its personnel to the area to beef up security and forestall further attack.

A News Agency of Nigeria report,states that Fika, Gashua and Buni Yadi, the headquarters of Fika, Bade and Gujba local councils, respectively, had in the week suffered attacks from gunmen.

A former Governor of the state and current senator, Buka Ibrahim, had on Thursday flayed the crude tactics used by the radical Islamic sect Boko Haram to enlist sponsors.“He listed the two main tactics as “threats and extreme coercion.”

“Senator Ibrahim, who disclosed this on the floor of the Senate while contributing to a motion on banditry attacks on Kabaru village in Mau Local Government Area of Zamfara sponsored by Senator Kabiru Marafa and co-sponsored by all Senators. He also accused the military-led JTF of killing more people in North East region than the sect.

“Consequently, the Senate asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to, as a matter of urgency, step up surveillance and effective policing in the area.“It also called on the Federal Ministry of Works to prioritise work on Anka-Dangulbi-Dansadau-Birnin Gwari and Dayi-Tsafe-Dangulbi federal roads as a means of opening up the area and linking it with neighbouring areas.

“In the same vein, the Senate resolved to call on National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to speed up intervention in the area by providing relief to persons; largely women and children within the affected areas.“

 Speaking on the motion, Senator Ibrahim who supported the motion on the ground that the experience in Zamfara is a reflection of events in other parts of the country said: “Today people are being forced to partially fund Boko Haram because of the activities of this people.“

"They kill one, two or three people around, they frighten everybody and now everybody is succumbing to their demands. So today people are being forced to partially fund Boko Haram because of the activities of these criminals."“While accusing security agencies of mass killings he said, "security agencies are the number one killers in term of number.

I am surprised the other day when the Chief of Army Staff said Boko Haram killed 3,000 people; the security agencies have killed a lot more than 3,000 since this thing started.

On the first day that this crisis erupted in Maiduguri, over 5,000 people were killed."“According to him, Boko Haram started just like any other religious sect and it is not a new phenomenon as people are being made to believe.“

“But it is the activities of particularly the police who pushed the Boko Haram people to the wall by killing their leaders and killing thousands of other innocent people. That is what forced them to come out against the Nigeria state. It is the attitude of the security agencies; the way they operate that really makes it worse, not any better.

““Of course, naturally, common criminals will take advantage of the situation to extort money from people and then the armed robbers are the third killers, and this is happening in Zamfara,” he said.“Senate President, Senator David Mark, thereafter directed the Police Affairs Committee to look into Ibrahim's allegation and said the Senate will do everything possible to ensure that the high level of insecurity in the country is reduced.

“Mark equally noted that security agencies have been put in difficult situations urging residents of the area to always volunteer information on the activities of the deadly sect.““It is not for me to defend or speak for the Armed Forces but the Armed Forces find themselves in a very difficult situation when they have to do internal operations or street to street fight.

What I would suggest is that areas where we have these types of problem people must give as much information out as possible and as quickly as possible because once you kill a member of the Armed Forces the natural reaction is for them to do what perhaps is happening now.

It is very difficult to see a Commanding Officer seeing two or three of his people killed and then he begins to search around looking for the fellow who committed the atrocity. It is explainable.

““For the police, I think as much information as possible should be given to them. But there are serious allegations that have been raised here and I hope that the Committee on Police Affairs and Intelligence and National Security, Defence and the Army will take up some of these.”

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