23 policemen killed in Nasarawa ambush
- Details
- Category: Lead stories
- Published on Thursday, 09 May 2013 05:01
- Written by Hir Joseph (Lafia) & Isiaka Wakili (Abuja)
Governor, Tanko Al-Makura
Twenty
three policemen and operatives of the State Security Service were shot
dead and nine others critically injured when they were waylaid on
Tuesday evening by worshippers of a deity at a shrine near Lafia,
authorities said yesterday.
The incident happened as a detachment
of riot police and SSS men were headed to the shrine of Ombatse, a
deity of the Eggon people, at Alakyo, 10 kilometres from the Nasarawa
State capital, police commissioner Abayomi Akeremale said.
The security forces were on their way
to raid the place and arrest the chief priest following reports that
they were torturing and forcing people in churches and mosques to swear
to an oath of allegiance to the Ombatse deity, Akeremale told
journalists in Lafia.
Followers of the deity laid an ambush
and opened fire on the police vehicles transporting 60 personnel,
killing 23 of them. Only 19 of the security personnel returned to base,
some of them with critical injuries. The remaining unaccounted policemen
were thought to have been abducted by the Ombatse people.
Police commissioner Akeremale said the
Ombatse worshippers had earlier tortured and compelled an inspector of
police to swear allegiance to the deity but he was later freed.
“We decided at the state security
council meeting, because of the frequent attacks on churches and mosques
by this particular group, who are forcing people to swear an oath at
the shrine, that we carry out an operation and arrest the perpetrators
for prosecution lest it turns into a religious crisis,” he said. “The
people, some call them Ombatse, but they call themselves cultural
people, ambushed our men and opened fire,” he added.
Spokesman for the state police command
DSP Michael Ada confirmed that 23 policemen and men of the SSS were
killed and their corpses burnt, while eight patrol vehicles were also
burnt.
“The casualty we confirmed is 23. They
killed and burned 23 policemen and SSS. They also burned eight patrol
vehicles. But our rescue team is still in the bush, and has not returned
to give update,” Ada said.
Police commissioner Akeremale said
nine people were hospitalised with gunshot wounds, a number of officers
still missing in the bush, while others earlier abducted were later
released from the shrine.
The commissioner did not say if any
arrests were made, but said the police were still after the persons
“administering the oath forcefully on people.”
This is not the first time members of
the mystery group attacked security agents, but the latest incident
recorded the highest casualty yet.
In an incident late last year at
Nasarawa-Eggon, the group members shot and injured some soldiers and SSS
personnel who stormed one of the shrines at Alogani Hills.
Also last year, the Ombatse group
attacked Agyaragu near Lafia, killing 10 people, soon after which
Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura outlawed Ombatse.
Yesterday, Al-Makura held an emergency meeting with Vice President Namadi Sambo over the Ombatse attack.
“I am here to… brief (Sambo) about the
security situation in my state. Just yesterday, we have a very bitter
security problem that has caused the death of some security officers in
the state,” he said.
“Since January, this thing has not
abated and in the past two weeks, it took a total different dimension.
This escalated and is causing serious concern for the state. We decided
to hold security meeting to find a way of solving the problem.
“The solution was to go to the shrine
and pick on the cult leader so that the problem will be solved once and
for all. As the security operatives were approaching the shrine, unknown
to them ambush had been laid for them, these people attacked them and
resulted in the death of more than 20 policemen.”
He said the banned group had been
attacking places including churches and “taking people from that
particular ethnic group to come and take potions that are meant to
empower them to do what they want to do.”
“Already, the group that is from Eggon
extraction and called Ombatse has been proscribed since the beginning
of this year because of the activities of the members. They go from one
place to another, harbouring arms, attacking any area that has any
conflict with any of their members,” he added.
But president of Eggon Cultural
Association, Chris Mamman, blamed the attack on activities of criminal
elements using Ombatse to extort from other Eggon people.
“We call on the government and
security agencies to go after these miscreants and arrest them for
prosecution. They should not criminalise the Eggon nation,” he said in
Lafia. Ombatse, meaning “time has come” in Eggon, is a spiritual group
of the Eggon people of Nasarawa, said to be borne out of the traditions
handed to them by their ancestors.
According to Eggon News, a local
newspaper, Ombatse was founded by six leaders, namely Sgt Alaku Ehe,
Zabura Musa Akwanshiki, Shuaibu Alkali, Hasuna Musa Zico Kigbu, Iliyasu
Hassan Gyabo and Abdullahi Usman, with Zico, a former Jerusalem pilgrim,
and Akwashiki as chairman and secretary respectively.
The newspaper report said Zico, who
claimed that the group has over 50 branches scattered all over Nigeria
particularly in Eggon land of Nasarawa, was born from a revelation
through a dream where the ancestors directed the male natives to rise up
and cleanse the land of societal ills including adultery fornication,
drunkenness, theft, killing and others condemned by both the Bible and
the Quran.
Many killed in Benue’s Agatu
Also addressing State House
correspondents yesterday, Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam alleged
that some Fulani herdsmen attacked Agatu Local Government Area of the
state, leaving “high casualties including women and children.”
“You must have heard that there are
serious altercation between the Fulanis and the local farmers. This time
it happened in Agatu Local Government, which is one of the local
governments the Senate President represents; they almost overran the
local government,” he said.
“There was a lot of killings, a lot of
property destroyed and I felt that I should come to brief the Vice
President, who is holding forte for the President. I also discussed
other sundry issues relating to the general security situation in the
country,” Suswan added.
“We have arrested 10 of them with
heavy weapons and many rounds of ammunitions and they are with the
police now. The casualty is high, I don’t want to be misquoted as per
the numbers, but it is high casualties. The Fulanis normally come when
people are sleeping; so they killed both women and children and
everybody.”
He also spoke on the killing of
policemen and soldiers elsewhere, saying “where people kill uniform
people with impunity is totally unacceptable and when there is a
situation like that and the security agencies react and people say
they’re excessive, it is not right….
“So I don’t support people who say
that security people are excessive at times in the action that they take
because they must make sure that such a thing must not repeat itself.
Where 20 policemen were killed by a cultist group within the country, I
don’t think that should be acceptable.”http://so maxim muzik ent/index.php/top-stories/54137-23-policemen-killed-in-nasarawa-ambush
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