Jukuns carpet Army chief's defence of collusion in Taraba killings

ITREALMS:

The Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN) has rejected in its entirety the report by a panel set up by the Nigerian Army to probe allegation of collusion of Nigerian soldiers in the pogrom going on in some parts of Taraba State, where Fulani herdsmen have allegedly been killing farmers and innocent villagers, reports ITRealms.

 At a press conference in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday, JDAN National President Chief Bako Benjamin said the panel's report, falls far short of expectations and can at best be described as a shoddy job fit for the waste bin.

He lamented that rather than give hope of justice, to the families of the innocent farmers and other villagers hacked down by the herdsmen, the Army merely engaged in "empty rhetoric" of setting up of panels to cleanse themselves of wrong doings, a practice, for which he said, they are becoming notorious.

According to him, the Nigerian Army yet again missed another opportunity to cleanse itself of allegations of gross abuse leveled against them not only by Gen. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma but by a number of other human rights organisations including Amnesty International (AI).

“The Nigerian army panel did a very poor and unprofessional job and wasted the opportunity to scribble their names in gold. The report is unacceptable to Jukun people and therefore it is hereby rejected in its entirety,” he said.

It was in response to the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai’s remarks on the 10-member committee set up to probe former Defence Minister Maj.-Gen Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma’s allegation of military’s involvement in the pogrom going on in Taraba. Buratai had said there was no truth in the allegations, urging the people to have confidence in the soldiers posted to the area to defend them against the rampaging Fulani herdsmen.

 He wondered why the principal characters (Fulani herdsmen) accused of precipitating the crisis that gave birth to General Danjuma's allegations was never mentioned in the report.

The panel, he further stated, almost completely avoided the main subject of the matter which is the attacks and killing of farmers and innocent villagers, but was addressing porous borders and past misunderstandings between brothers in a deliberate attempt to stir up tempers and portray Jukuns as historically troublesome.

 “It is also curious that the panel deliberately refused to use a single material out of the hundreds of documented paper works, audio and video recordings of eye witnesses, community leaders and youth groups with shocking and gruesome evidences of ethnic cleansing and genocide in more than 20 villages across southern Taraba,” he said. 

Benjamin said Amnesty International’s claims and conclusions against the Nigerian Army are not far-fetched. The Nigerian army must come to terms with the enormous responsibility that rest on their shoulders to keep this country united, it must also realise that it owes Nigerian citizens a duty to be unbiased and thoroughly professional under a democratic government. It must completely shun the temptation to play to the gallery.  

According to him, Buratai’s defence has gone to confirm that it is increasingly likely that the Nigerian Army does not know where to draw the line between defending the nation and enforcing and controlling indiscipline within its ranks.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Jukuns back Gen. Danjuma, demand inquiry on Army's atrocities

ITREALMS:

The socio-cultural organisation of Jukun people, Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN) has thrown its weight behind its elder kinsman General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd), who at the weekend, called on his people to rise and defend themselves against rampaging Fulani herdsmen and their colluding military partners, reports ITRealms.

National Presidentm JDAN, Chief Bako Benjamin said in Lagos, alongside top executive of the association on Monday, that majority of Nigerians are unaware of the calamity and atrocities that has befallen Jukun people in the last four years and the nation's press does not pay enough attention to report to the world the silent ethnic cleansing and genocide ongoing in southern and central Taraba.

Also, he said rather than lampooning Danjuma for his candid view which was coming after a thorough analysis of the situation, the Nigerian military should have launched an investigation into the weighty allegation and fish out her culpable members.

JDAN, he said, demands for a Commission of Inquiry to look into several cases of atrocities, human rights violations and banditry committed by some security forces in Jukunland  against the innocent people, who are being killed by herdsmen, whose homes and farmlands are being burnt with wanton impunity and whose lives means virtually nothing to the very people who have sworn to defend them and the nation against aggression.

On developments in some parts of the country, especially Taraba State, Bako said the retired General was speaking exactly the minds of his people and out of frustration, stressing that Danjuma statements was a reflection of what presently goes on in Taraba and elsewhere around the middle belt, where several villages and town have been sacked and indigenes chased away by Fulani herdsmen who invaded their communities with the full backing of security operatives. 

"Rather than carpet our revered elderstatesman, the Jukun people have been anxiously waiting for the time when Fulani herdsmen who have killed entire villagers in our land will be arrested and paraded. We are peace loving people, but our people are being arrested in our land and been killed by those who otherwise came for pasture for their cattle," he said.

Bako lamented that parading Jukun youths on Sunday, barely 24 hours after Gen Danjuma’s criticism of their handling of their roles for taking pictures of the ongoing violence in their land, is simply exposing the ugly underbelly of the Nigerian military and heir complicit in the whole tragic saga unfolding in Taraba State, adding that where that is the case, the pople would be left with no choice than to defend themselves. 

“We are anxiously waiting for when Fulani herdsmen that have killed and wiped off entire villages in our land would be paraded. We have not travelled to anybody's land to look for trouble, but our people are been arrested in our land for snapping pictures. What Jukuns expected is for the Nigerian military and the federal government to launch an investigation into the weighty allegations that  General Danjuma raised not to be beating about the bush in denials without substance,” he said.

Bako further alleged that there are widespread reports of glaring bias and nepotism by the Nigerian military's Operation Ayem Kpatuma particularly in Takum and Ussa local government areas since they arrived.

For example, he said, there was no single presence of Fulani herdsmen in the two local government areas for over a year now since their last mass killings of the people, which saw them abandon the area and flee until the soldiers arrived on the same day with them in the name of Operation Ayem Kpatuma.

“No sooner had they arrived in the peaceful communities that burning of houses and killings resumed. As if that's not enough, the soldiers went about unleashing a campaign of terror and intimidation against Jukun people, breaking into homes and confiscating hunting dane guns, cutlasses, bows and arrows, and left the Fulani herdsmen fully armed with their weapons to continue their campaign of terror in the countryside.”

We have evidences where severally attempts by our youths who were driven out of their villages to defend their communities against the herdsmen by soldiers until the herdsmen are done.

“Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN), is eagerly waiting for a commission of inquiry into the atrocities that was committed against our people in Takum and Ussa local government areas to  clear the good name of the Nigerian Army and bring the collaborators and perpetrators to book,” Bako insisted.  

Benjamin observed that close to 50 villages in southern and central Taraba exist only in name as Fulani herdsmen has wiped out the indigenous population and are presently commandeering the villages.

He said persistent plea on the government to come to the rescue of the people have fallen on deaf ears and atrocities got worse with each passing day.

 “When operation Ayem Kpatuma was launched by the federal government, Jukun people jubilated and thought their misery has come to an end, only to discover that military operatives of the program started arriving together with thousands of Fulani herdsmen that had fled the area previously with their cattle.

“Our fear was confirmed when no sooner they arrived in the peaceful communities that burning of houses and killings resumed.

Ayo Midele/GEE

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