From John Adams, Minna
Shiroro youths of Niger State has have described as an insult a statement by the government that the mass killings that occurred at Galadima Kogo, in Shiroro Local Government Area Saturday last week were due to the locals not ‘alerting the security agencies when they noticed movements of the terrorists towards the town.’
Nine members of the Joint Security Task Force, four local vigilantes and an unspecified number of villagers were killed by gunmen in the afternoon of Saturday last week during an invasion by terrorists.
Several houses, vehicles and properties worth millions of naira were set ablaze by the rampaging gunmen, numbering over 100, all dressed in military uniform.
Reacting to the attack, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mary Noel Berje, had said: ‘It would have been unsuccessful if villagers from Galape and Kudodo in Allawa community had alerted the security agencies when they noticed movements of the terrorists towards the town.’
The governor in the statement urged villagers in the affected communities to endeavour to provide credible information to the Joint Security Task Force stationed in the area adding that security agencies can not perform effectively and efficiently without getting appropriate support and intelligence from the people.
This statement drew the anger of the mourning youths from the area, who stated that ‘as victims of this avoidable horrendous carnage, the claim by the government is an outright insult to our collective sensibility.’
The Shiroro Concerned Youths in a statement in Minna signed by Mallam Sani Abubakar Yusuf Kokki, Co-Convener, pointed out that contrary to government’s claim that ‘the locals were instead proactive to have informed the authorities concerned about the imminent attack haven gotten a hint about their (terrorists’) movement towards the direction of Galadima Kogo.’
The youths stated that ‘instead of the government beefing up security, it opted for the withdrawal of some security personnel and redeployed them to yet to be ascertained location.’
The decision to redeploy a sizable number of the security from the community before the attack, the youth claimed, ‘is unconnected with the perversive, unnecessary interference and undue favouritism commonly practised in the Nigerian decaying system.’
The youths accused the government of ‘resorting to blame game in a desperate move to put up a defence for failure, one of the indices of a weak, failed and non-performing government.
‘This is a futile attempt to cover up the visible mess perpetrated by government officials. A government that can not reconcile its differences and discrepancies should not be taken seriously,’ they stated.
The youths maintained that ‘it’s glaring this government has lost contact with available reality if the content of the press statement under review is anything to go by,’ stressing that the statement by the government was not only twisted and disjointed, it also misleading, ‘as both Galape and Kudodo are not in Allawa District as claimed and contained in the press statement but in Galadima Kogo District.’
Of concern to the youths was the disagreement between the Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development, Chieftaincy Affairs and Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar Bagna, and the Press Secretary on the redeployment of the security from the area before the attack.
The youths pointed out that ‘while the commissioner had during an interview with the Media vehemently denied withdrawing security personnel from the war theatre at Galadima Kogo, the Press Secretary to the Governor confirmed the withdrawal of the troops but cited bogus reason that their earlier withdrawal was tactical to re-strategise.’