Witness narrates armed youths' role in Jos crisis
From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna), Isa Abdulsalami (Jos) and Isaac Taiwo (Lagos)
IN an "Intelligence Report" to the Federal Government, the Kaduna State Police Command has alerted of the existence of a militant camp being run by an Islamic sect in Zaria.
The report, which was forwarded to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, by the state Commissioner of Police, Tambari Muhammad, accused the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, popularly known as Shiites, of gun-running and training of militants drawn from 13 northern states and Niger Republic at its headquarters in Zaria.
The command is however shocked that the secret document it forwarded to the Force Headquarters is in the hands of the Islamic sect.
When Muhammad was contacted on the authenticity of the report, he exclaimed: "It is unfortunate that an official document could get out and reach these people. I will not say anything."
But the leader of the sect, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, told journalists yesterday in Kaduna that there was no truth in the police allegations.
Earlier this week, the Secretary-General of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and Abuja, Saidu Dogo, alleged that the country had been invaded by terrorists, who were being trained in the bush.
In the report dated February 13, 2009, which Muhammad sent to Okiro, he said: "I wish to inform the Inspector-General of Police of the notorious activities of Shiite Islamic sect in Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
"From available intelligence gathering, Dambo village not only serves as a training camp of the Shiite Islamic sect, but a place where arms/ammunition are stored.
"The training camp is out of bound to members of the public except those who are linked to the Shiite sect. The village is guarded 24 hours by members of the group and they are strategically located around the area. Members of the sect are recruited from Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi and the neighbouring Niger Republic.
"In fact, 95 per cent of its members are not from Kaduna State. The activities of Malam Ibrahim El-Zakzaky have deviated from what they used to be. The Muzahara that used to be a peaceful procession is now violent. The members who wear innocent looks are now looking dangerous, fearless and die-hard."
Conducting reporters round the Shiites' headquarters known as Fadiya Islamic Centre and another facility at Dambo village, all in Zaria, El-Zakzaky said that a "Good Samaritan" forwarded a copy of the police report to the movement and described the group as a mass body, which engages mainly in intellectual discourses on Islamic affairs.
According to him, "for the past 10 years, we have carried out our activities here. We have a film village, built for the purpose of producing a film on Dan Fodio. There are buildings portraying the past, like a palace of the Emir, built specifically to shoot the film.
"The script for the film has been screened by historians at the Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto. The police say this is the place where we train militants and store arms and ammunition and that nobody is being allowed to go there except authorised. That is what the intelligence report says. They also say that where we also produce films to tarnish the image of Nigeria.
"This facility was initially three houses of two-bedrooms each, which we bought and converted into a multi-purpose hall, a library, an office for the director, a computer room, a kitchen, a residential area, where some people sleep if they are not able to finish their programmes on time.
"We have discussions in the library and there are also short-term courses and public lectures here and outside Zaria. We have wings, which are duly registered like the charity organisation, which take care of our members killed. We have a committee in charge of publications and they publish our books and magazines.
"We have the Almizan magazine in Hausa language and The Pointer magazine in English language. We have a committee on education, which supervises our schools. Our schools have the same syllabus like others in the country and our students sit for the same public examinations.
"They also say we are a sect. We do not have membership cards, no registration. It is an idea. If you participate in our activities, then you are one of us. We also have the Islamic Movement Medical Association (ISMA). We do not have a hospital yet but we have medical camps that intervene medically during crises."
And in Plateau State, the Prince Bola Ajibola Commission of Inquiry into the Jos crisis of November 28, 2008 continued its sitting yesterday.
The spokesman of the Yoruba in a section of Jos, Rev. Akindele Odunlowo, said Nigeria is doomed if nothing was done to check youths criminality in the country.
Odunlowo, in his testimony yesterday, said when he peeped through the window of his house during the crisis, he saw Hausa youths between the ages of eight and 18 years, armed with petrol, cutlasses, bows and arrows, guns and other dangerous missiles.
He said: "If at that age, they have become perfect and professional criminals, and they are supposed to live for about 70 years, it then means that they will use the remaining years of their lives in criminality. There is no future for Nigeria. Nigeria is doomed."
The clergyman said that if the Hausa do not want the Yoruba to live with them in the North, " let them tell us and we shall go but not our death bodies."
Odunlowo suggested that parents of children found roaming the streets or begging should be arrested and prosecuted because they were being used to execute such evil plans.
At a separate forum, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Armoured Division, Maj.-Gen. Saleh Maina, said yesterday that he would soon review the curfew imposed on the state during the crisis.
Maina spoke when he visited the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camp in Plateau. He noted that the state was very fragile, adding that anything concerning peace should not be left to chance.
The GOC was there to verify the rumoured death of a youth corps member in the camp in an unusual manner.
The state Co-ordinator of NYSC, Mr. Peter Atilola, said the camp was very porous "as people can come in at will."
He said a corps member, Ekpemkhio Airekun Imoje, who hails from Edo State, died from diabetes on March 10, even when the training at the camp had not started.
The Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde, has called on the Federal Government to take seriously the alarm raised by Dogo that some persons described as "foreign terrorists and religious fundamentalists" were planning to invade Nigeria.
In a statement issued on his behalf by the Church's Head of Media and Communications, Rev. Oladapo Daramola, the cleric said it would be a grave danger if those in authority and relevant agencies ignore the cry and treat it with levity.
Makinde said: "The security of this nation is a collective responsibility, hence when people with credibility and integrity raise alarm over a situation or looming danger, we must take it seriously. It is pertinent to note that an Islamic group raised similar alarm just last week and in fact identified some northern states as targets of these terrorists-cum-fundamentalists, who intend to cause mayhem and in the process destabilise the country. Even the Bible enjoins us to watch and pray, so when people are praying for the peace and stability of this country, there is also need for us to be vigilant and be watchful."
