• Reps seeks deployment of more personnel
• Borno releases 500 detained terrorism suspects
Suspected herdsmen have killed two persons in Gurjaje town and Dogon Kuka village, Fika Local Council, Yobe State, and razed 146 houses, thus leaving 1,686 residents homeless.
The House of Representatives has directed the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) to deploy more personnel to Yobe to reinforce security.
Meanwhile, Borno State Government has absolved 500 suspects of involvement in terrorism and released them from the Nigerian Army detention facility at Giwa Barracks, Maiduguri.
The pastoralists reportedly sneaked into the communities on motorcycles, armed with machetes, bows and arrows. Confirming the incident, yesterday, in Damaturu, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Tajudeen Abass, added: “We have deployed our men and officers to affected communities along Potiskum-Fika road; they are to restore law and order, as well as apprehend the fleeing herdsmen for alleged torching many houses.”
He noted that two farmers were killed while trying to protect their watermelon farms yet to be harvested for the forthcoming Ramadan fast. On the cause of multiple attacks, the police boss said: “The suspected herders are on a reprisal attack against the farmers,” explaining that setting of houses ablaze followed alleged encroachment of cattle on the watermelon farmlands.
“Our security personnel were mobilised to the affected communities, to prevent reprisals, following an intelligence report.” He said the displacement of over 1, 680 residents, who would be taking refuge in Fika and three other villages, led to the deployment of policemen to maintain law and order.
According to the village head, Usman Jidda, the aggrieved herdsmen, who claimed their cattle were rustled by some of the farmers, vowed to teach them a lesson.
Chairperson of the Caretaker Management Committee of Fika Council, Abubakar Idris, said the assailants attacked the community on Tuesday night.
When contacted, police spokesman, DSP Dungus Abdulkareem, said the attack happened as a result of a clash between the herders and people of Dogon Kuka in September 2023.
Mohammed Jajere (PDP, Yobe) at plenary, yesterday, said the state of insecurity in Fika and environs had assumed a worrisome dimension. Following a resolution, the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, mandated the Committee on Army and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance.
Borno Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs Zuwaira Gambo, disclosed the release of the suspects, while responding to a leader of some aggrieved women in Borno, Hajiya Gana, who alleged that some of their innocent men and children were being held at the barracks.
Gambo spoke during a question and answer session at a Public Presentation of Charters of Demand from Survivors, Victims and De-radicalised Women in Borno, organised by an indigenous non-governmental organisation (NGO), Allamin Foundation for Peace and Development. She said all those released in batches were handed over to the state government.
“Those in the latest batch released last week were 28 in number,” she said, assuring that those whose relations were arrested by the military in connection with terrorism should entertain no fear as long as such relations were innocent.
