The youth wing of the Pene da Bwatiye in Abuja has staged a peace protest in Abuja to express their worry over an allege military intervention and killing of about ten natives of the Kwatiye Community in Lamurde local government area of Adamawa State.
The group led by its President, James Dong Tabakenu, at the headquarters of the National Human Rights Commission, (NHRC) in Abuja, told journalist that they were out calling on the government and the minister of defense, Gen. Christopher Musa to institute an independent panel of enquiry in order to investigate the remote causes of the sad situation.
Tabakenu who urged the government at both state and federal level to assist in fishing out the perpetrators of the killing which he said has also left over thirteen other victims with various degrees of gun wounds and injuries at the hospital, also reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining a peaceful coexistence with the Choba tribe provided they are not being attacked.
“We are here to sign our grievances on the recent unfortunate development in Adamawa State. There was a communal clash between Bachama and Choba tribes in Lamurde LGA, Adamawa state, the military came to calm the situation, but unfortunately, they took sides”.
“What actually happened was that our women, our mothers were tired of seeing their children being killed, being attacked by enemies. So they now came out to stage a peaceful protest, holding leafs in their hands as a sign of peace. But according to the military, they claimed that they opened fire simply because the women deprived them from passing. Is that enough reason to open fire on innocent, unharmed citizens? I don’t think that is enough to warrant them kill innocent people. As I’m talking to you now, we have ten casualties because I was informed that one of the ladies passed on this morning, and we have over 13 people in the hospital. So, we are here to express our grievances. We are peace and law-abiding people”, he lamented.
In her analysis, spokesperson of the group, Drakaina Blessing Vinkoh who worried that the military are now denying taking responsibility for the wanton killing and injury of tens of people in their land, stressed that eye witnesses including victims who survived the attack confirmed that the killing was carried out by military officers who came to intermediate between the two waring tribes.
While emphasizing that among the victims was a ten year old child who was killed, Vinkoh questioned the rationale behind why an armed military officer can allegedly open fire on harmless women and children.
“It is very unfortunate that the military who are supposed to protect the citizens would be seen as the actual one killing the citizens. No matter what happens, there is nothing that justifies the military opening fire, on civilians to even start with. Not to talk of women and children. There is nothing. There has to be doctrine of necessity, proportionality.
“We are here at the NHRC especially today as the world celebrates national Human Rights Day to request that the government to probe this. We want to know who ordered for these guns to be shot? We are calling on the right people to speak. Everybody must sit down on this. Because if you ignore it today, it is going to haunt you to your houses. Today, it is the Bwate people, Tomorrow it could be another, if this is not resolved adequately”, she added.
A Bwatiye Elder and Veteran Journalist, Mr. Macauley Hunohashi, who argued that the military should be seen to be apolitical, urged the NHRC and the Defense minister to assist in restoring peace to their community. He said they are peace loving people and had accommodated the choba tribe which he said had been the people presently instigating the unrest in their communities.
The former senior special assistant on media to a former governor of Adamawa State, Bindow Jibrilla who requested that anyone found to be complicit in the killing be fished out by the military and court-martialed, also warned that his people cannot continue to harbour visitors on their ancestral settlement who will come for the purpose of killing and displacing them from their ancestral lands.
“We have the right to our land, God-given land. We have a right to exist, we have a right to life.We are peaceful people, we accommodate visitors, strangers but, we cannot continue to accommodate strangers and they come and take over our land. We have tolerated the Choba people for a very long time. And the military is supposed to be apolitical, it’s supposed to be neutral. But from what happened on the 8th, precisely on the 8th of December, clearly indicates that the military is complicit”.
“So, Human Rights Commission, this is a call, a call to action, that they must intervene to do something about this thing. Those that killed our people must be called to book. The Chief of Defence Staff, the new Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, has a pedigree and we trust him that they will take a look into this thing that happened and find a lasting solution because we want peace in our land and we want our people to go back”, he added.
It would be recalled that the national human rights commission had recently condemned the killings in Lamurde
In a circular signed by the executive secretary, of NHRC, Dr. Tony Ojukwu, the rights commission demanded an independent investigation into the killings requesting that perpetrators should be allowed to face the law.
