Bauchi: Normalcy Returns as Soldiers, Police Maintain Peace

As normalcy gradually returns to Zango area of Bauchi metropolis yesterday after the religious crisis that broke out in the city last Monday, business and commercial activities have resumed fully just as more riot policemen and soldiers have been deployed to maintain peace. People were seen returning to their homes, while others whose houses were razed went round in company with relatives to see the damages done. People who had taken refuge at the building of defence industry had left the place for their different places of abode. Soldiers and policemen were seen patrolling the streets and the road blocks have been dismantled. Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Barau, said both riot police and the Army deployed in the area would stay for some time to sustain the peace. He advised people in the state to go about their normal business as security personnel were on alert to protect their lives and properties. The Chief Imam of Bauchi Central Mosque, Mallam Bala Ahmed Baban Inna said religious fundamentalists usually hide under the cover of religion to carry out their evil act, adding that Islam means peace and it does not permit fighting or chaos of any kind. The Imam prayed to God to forgive the sins of the deceased and advised people to live in peace with one another according to the tenets of Islam and laws of the land. Meanwhile, the state police command has maintained that 35 members of the religious sect including their leader, Malam Badamasi, were killed and not over 72 as claimed by some people. The command also said two residents of the area and a soldier lost their lives which brings the death toll to 38. The PPRO, Barau said: “As soon as there is any new development, we will get across to you people. So please don"t listen to rumour because the situation at hand now is very sensitive.” However, a source told THISDAY that he counted over 70 corpses at the morgue of the specialist hospital between Monday and Wednesday morning “and I want to fault the media on the number of children reported that were killed in that Kala-Kato uprising”. According to him, “even on that very day, we counted over 18 children not to talk of the adults who are still dying from injuries sustained in the fight, and if you doubt me, go and ask those people working in the mortuary.” Secretary to the Nigeria Red Cross (NRC) in the state, Malam Adamu Abubakar, said many of the people who were killed in the clashes on Monday were youngsters below 18 years of age. Abubakar disclosed that while some of the victims were shot, most were attacked with machetes and knives. An army officer who was sent from a nearby base to speak to the sect’s leaders was killed with a machete, he added. He said most of the dead were youngsters from outside Bauchi, popularly called almajirai, who had been sent to study Arabic and the Koran with local clerics. When THISDAY visited the Bauchi Specialist Hospital where the corpses were kept, riot policemen were seen keeping guard at the mortuary. But a senior staff of the hospital yesterday said they had received 37 corpses, including that of the leader of the sect, Badamasi. He said all their fridges were filled with corpses, adding that no relative of the dead had come to claim any of the corpses, perhaps for fear of being implicated. Badamasi’s corpse was placed on the bare floor at the hospital’s mortuary with that of 35 other people. All efforts by THISDAY to speak with the hospital’s Chief Medical Director (CMD), who is the only competent official to comment on the issue was unsuccessful as he was said to be on official engagement outside the premises. Violence had broken out Monday in the Zango aread of Bauchi metropolis following the arrest of a suspected leader of an Islamic sect, Kala Kato Group, by the police in Bauchi. Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=163126