crises (2)

Vice chancellor averts religious crisis at Ibadan university

But for a quick intervention of Olufemi Bamiro, the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, the academic community would probably have been engulfed in religious violence from the end of last week.

A 400-level law student of the institution, Seun Bunmi Adegunsoye, was said to have almost provoked tension, as she intruded on a Jumat service going on at a mosque within the university community, shouting ‘accept Jesus’.Photos:VC Univeristy of Ibadan & Islamic Mosque

Ms Adegunsoye, a Christian evangelical and a student of the Law faculty, nearly disrupted the ongoing service led by the institution’s chief imam, Abdulrahman Oloyede, as she continued screaming, “Except you accept Christ in your life, you are not safe. All of you here, no matter the number of the congregation, accept Jesus Christ. Allah is not God; Jesus is Lord”.

According to an eyewitness, her conduct attracted the fury of some male Muslims, who waited around the premises of the mosque almost an hour after the service, to deal with her for the “unwarranted provocation”.

Mr Bamiro, however, saved the day. He came to the mosque immediately he was contacted, to apologise to the Muslim students, describing the incident as “very surprising and unfortunate”.

He also pledged a full investigation into the incident and promised to prevent future occurrences.

Though effectively curbed, the incident is already threatening the peace of the institution and that of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, since it occurred last Friday.

Its effect resonated at the institution’s Obafemi Awolowo hall of residence on Sunday, as Muslim students gathered in front of the hall in the morning to engage their Christian fellow students in a verbal war. The mounting tension arising from the encounter was only quelled by security operatives drafted to the scene.

Already, the matter is dominating discussions among notable Islamic leaders and Hausa community leaders in the city, who considered it strange, particularly as it came on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

Planning a protest

A source also informed us that Muslim students of the institution are planning to stage a protest to the office of the vice chancellor and that of the dean of the faculty of law.

We further learnt that they would be demanding a stoppage to the examinations of the law faculty, scheduled to start today, until Ms Adegunsoye is brought to justice.

Addressing journalists at the weekend, Zakariyah Giwa, President of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria (MSSN), University of Ibadan branch, alleged that the incident was a ploy to “perpetuate religious crisis in Nigeria, starting from the campus of the University of Ibadan”, describing it as unfortunate.

He said Ms Adegunsoye’s action was a clear effrontery, alleging that, for the first time in history, she dressed like a Muslim to detract a jumat service in the month of Ramadan at the time the Chief Imam was leading the prayer.

“To our dismay and to the surprise of the whole Muslim community, we learnt that the girl has been released to her parents, the following day, by the university authority, without any reference to the Muslim community, due to the purported intervention of two senior officials of the university. The terrorist is let loose despite the heinous crime she had committed,” he said
Read more…

Lead Image

Herdsmen raid Jos village, kills hundreds


Less than two months after hudreds of people lost their lives in two days of ethno-religious crises in Jos, Plateau State, another 500 have been reported killed in a night raid on Dogon Nahowa village, Jos South local government area, yesterday. Another source said over 200 were kiled. Both figures could not be confirmed last night. The villagers said their attackers were Fulani herdsmen who swooped on them while they slept.

Reports from the village said the attack, which lasted all of two hours, began at about midnight, and the victims were completely unprepared for the fury of the marauders. The intense gunfire and wild use of cutlasses and other metallic weapons left little chance for the victims who were hacked down and burnt as they attempted to escape the massacre.

A resident of the village, Peter Jang told Reuters news agency that, “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses and then when people came out they started cutting them with machetes.” As at press time, fear and suspicion has spread throughout the city of Jos, and anxious residents mostly kept to their homes, especially when reports spread that the mood in Mangu Local Government in central Plateau was tense. The attackers were said to have departed the scene of their mayhem unscathed; arriving and departing with such speed that neither the villagers nor the police could mobilise fast enough to stop their escape.

Sad and shocking

Addressing journalists yesterday, the state commissioner for information, Gregory Yenlong, expressed the government’s shock, especially as this last orgy of violence is coming so soon after the last crisis, at a time when the government was still battling the security challenges created by the last breakdown of law and order.

Describing this latest attack as “ethnic cleansing” directed at the Berom people, Mr. Yenlong called for the arrest of Saleh Bayare, a former journalist who is a Fulani from Bassa Local Government Area of the state, and who the commissioner said addressed a press conference in Kaduna last week, and have issued several threats to individuals and groups since the outbreak of the last January crisis.

Mr Yenlong said preliminary reports show that last night’s attack was well coordinated, and the planners were barbaric in the manner in which they orchestrated the killings, which left a disproportionate number of children and women as casualties.

In the village, the dead bodies of women and children littered most of the compounds and many of those rushed to hospitals have been inflicted with machete cuts. Robin Waudo, a Red Cross spokesman, said volunteers were assisting victims. According to him, “We know that early this morning (Sunday) there was some fighting in the south part of the city and it seems like these were reprisal attacks from what happened a few weeks ago. Right now, the fighting has calmed down and the military have been deployed to come and control the situation.”

A call for calm

Meanwhile, the Gbong Gwom Jos, Jacob Gyang Buba, described the attack as “heinous.” He said he had received anonymous calls the previous day threatening his person.

The traditional ruler who spoke in Berom during his visit to the village described the massacre as ‘‘inhuman’’ and called on the victims and others not to think of revenge. The police spokesman in Plateau State, Mohammed Lerama who confirmed the attack, said the police was still investigating.

Dogon Nahowa village is near Shen Tim Tim, a community of mostly Hausa speaking people, whose village was destroyed during the last January crisis. Both villages are a few kilometres from Du, the village of Governor Jonah Jang.

Litany of crises

In January, about 326 lives were lost in a similar crisis according data from the Nigerian police. Goodluck Jonathan, as vice president, had deployed troops to intervene in the violence that broke out in Jos North local government after some youth protested the renovation of a building damaged during an earlier crisis in 2009 in which 200 lives were lost.

The National Security Adviser, Abdul Sarki Mukhtar, had announced the troops’ deployment and the directive from Mr Jonathan that the Inspector General of Police and others involved in maintaining the peace move to Jos immediately to assess the situation and report back to him.

Mr. Jonathan later held a meeting with security chiefs who briefed him on the situation before he undertook a one-day working visit to the state capital on January 26 to ascertain the extent of damage from the sectarian crisis. He met with Mr Jang and some senior government officials, and received further briefings on the security situation from the GOC 3 Armoured Division, Saleh Maina, a Major-General, and head of other security agencies.

The panel raised by the Federal Government to probe the last crisis is headed by a former governor of the state, Solomon Lar, and has not completed its assignment when yesterday’s violent attack occurred

Read more…

Blog Topics by Tags

  • in (506)
  • to (479)
  • of (339)
  • ! (213)
  • as (166)
  • is (157)
  • a (156)

Monthly Archives