Jos: Death toll hits 19, fresh bloodbath averted

Hello Friends!

Updates on intended killings in Jos: Courtesy Punch Newspapers:
The timely intervention of security operatives prevented another bloodbath in Jos on Monday following Sunday’s bombing of the St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church, Rayfield, even as the death toll rose to 19.

Tension mounted as the hostilities between Christian and Moslem youths that started on Sunday, escalated on Monday with unconfirmed reports of the disappearance of residents and silent killings in various parts of the city.

A bus conductor was said to have been attacked at Tina Junction, Jos, and when the driver who escaped with injuries reported to his people, they mobilised for a reprisal.

Residents of Tinna Junction, Fillin Ball and Duala areas had to run for cover as security men shot into the air to disperse scores of rampaging youths – Christians and Muslims – who were advancing towards each other for a showdown. Traders hurriedly shut their shops and parents rushed to pick their children from school.

The Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ishaya Pam, confirmed the rise in the death toll of the Sunday bombing. In an interview with our correspondent, Pam said seven additional corpses were brought to the hospital on Monday.

Pam said, “Seven more bodies were picked up from various parts of the town and brought to the hospital. A soldier was stabbed at Angwan Rogio in the head with a knife and it stuck. The knife was removed by our neurosurgeon, in what has been adjudged as a medical feat.”

He also confirmed that one of the injured persons on admission died on Monday morning while the others were responding to treatment.

Similarly, the Medical Director of Plateau Specialist Hospital, Dr. Bitrus Matawwal, told our correspondent that 10 corpses had so far been deposited at the hospital morgue.

The Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Oluseyi Petirin, was in Plateau State on Monday to access the security situation.

Accompanied by the Commander of the Special Task Force, Major General Ibrahim Mohammed; and Deputy Inspector General of Police, John Haruna, Petinrin visited the bombed church, some of the victims of the attack. He was also at the Government House to see Governor Jonah Jang.

Speaking after a closed-door meeting with Jang, Petrin assured that the military would surmount the current security challenges the way they surmounted other security challenges in the country in the past.

He said, “Suicide bombing is an admittance of defeat. It means you are not doing very well, that is why you now allow members of your organisation to start killing themselves.

“Otherwise, if you can achieve your aims without getting your members killed you will do so. But because the terrorists behind all these acts have discovered that they have no a other means of inconveniencing the society, they resort to suicide bombing.”

Petinrin said that by resorting to suicide bombing, the bombers had admitted failure in their bid to break the resolve of security agencies to track them down.

“Let me assure you that the same way that we surmounted other problems that they brought in the past, we will also surmount this one. We will strategise to prevent this people from achieving their aims,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Youths Service Corps in Plateau on Monday denied reports that newly deployed corps members in the state were fleeing the camp following Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a church – the second attack since the batch “A’’ of the 2012/2013 corps members reported to the orientation camp.

Sources close to the camp told the News Agency of Nigeria that there were reports that fear-stricken corps members, mostly from the Southern states, had fled the orientation camp.

The sources also claimed that some parents had been making distress calls, asking their children to return home.

But the NYSC authorities dismissed the claims as “mere rumours.”

“No one is fleeing. All you hear are rumours,’’ the NYSC spokesman, Mr. Sam Nwokocha, told NAN, adding that adequate security had been provided for the corps members.

“It is only a rumour that corps members are fleeing the orientation camp. We have policemen and men of the military Special Task Force maintaining security in the camp.

“The said rumour should be discarded as there is nothing like that. In fact, the corps members are in high spirits and going through the orientation course without fear,” Nwokocha was quoted to have said.

According to a NAN report, men of the joint Special Task Force were stationed at strategic points around the camp to ensure security.

Also, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Emmanuel Ayeni, said on Monday that calm had returned to the troubled city after Sunday’s suicide bomb attack.

“Our men are on top of the situation in Mai Aidiko, Ungwar Rukuba, Bauchi Road and other hot spots in the metropolis,’’ Ayeni told NAN in Jos.

Ayeni, however, said no arrest had been made, but gave the assurance that security agencies were collaborating and “painstakingly going after the attackers and their sponsors.”

He said, “But I can confirm to you, for sure that there is no threat to the peace anywhere in the town, as security personnel are fully on ground to prevent the escalation of violence.

“We are holding a security meeting over the situation in the state to re-strategise against further attacks and other threats to the peace.”

The police chief advised members of the public to go about their lawful activities, but warned them against taking the laws into their hands in the form of reprisals.

In a related development, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum on Monday in Lagos called on Nigerians to shun religious sentiments and regard the Boko Haram sect as a common enemy.

This, it said, would facilitate the eradication of the sect’s menace.

Reacting to Sundays’ bombing of St Finbarrs Catholic Church, Jos, the AYCF President, Alhaji Yerimma Shettima, said Christians and Muslims must join hands to fight “the terror group.”

“Only a collective action by Christians and Muslims can aid security operatives in fishing out the sect’s members. The first challenge is for us to rise against religious sentiments and identify the sect as a common enemy.

“The Boko Haram sect is evil and must be seen as evil brought in to divide the nation, if allowed,” Shettima said.

The Forum said in a statement on the Sunday that all Nigerians must “stand up” to its “common enemy” and stop it from causing a conflict between them.

ACF National Publicity Secretary, Anthony Sani, said all hands must be on deck to checkmate the nefarious activities of the Boko Haram sect.

The statement reads in part, “The Forum is seriously disheartened by a situation whereby innocent young men are indoctrinated to kill themselves and other innocent persons.

“The ACF and Northern leaders reiterate that all Nigerians of all religions, all the regions and of all ethnic extractions must stand up and deny the common enemy the pleasure of knocking our heads and unleashing religious conflict—which will do no one any good. Standing up to terrorists requires patriotic courage, some measure of risk and sacrifices.”

The ACF spokesman warned Nigerians not to keep silent in the face of the plans by groups whose major objective was the destruction of the Nigerian nation.

Last Words: I sincerely wonder if it's the same God that I pray to and believe in, that these killers also pray to! I don't think so...

xoxo
Simply Cheska...