Kano, Ibadan and Lagos — OPC threatens reprisal attack on Northern leaders

Recrimination and threats continued yesterday to trail the last weekend violence in Kano as the state governor in the Second Republic, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of being the cause of the mayhem in which many lives were lost and property destroyed.

In Ibadan, a faction leader of the Yoruba militant group, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Frederick Faseun, warned Northern leaders to stop the killings of southerners in their domain or face reprisal attack on northern business interests in the southwest.

In Lagos, Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu warned Islamic community and Hausa leaders in the state to refrain from preaching provocative sermons to their followers.

Fielding questions from newsmen at Kano Government House yesterday, Rimi said that Obasanjo is responsible for the bloody religious riot that rocked the ancient city.

Rimi, who is the chairman of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSP-MC), said the Federal Government made an unguarded statement concerning the bombardment of Afghanistan by the United States of America (USA) and Britain.

"Obasanjo caused the riot. He made the initial unguarded statement supporting America over its reprisal attack on Afghanistan without consulting the National Assembly, without consulting traditional rulers, without consulting the state governments, without consulting anybody.

"It is irresponsible because Muslims are being killed in Afghanistan. And Nigeria is a country with a seizeable Muslim population. So the President shouldn't have arbitrarily made that statement.

"Nigeria is not under American control. We are not a satellite of America," he said.

Speaking further, the former Communication Minister advised the government to consult before making comments on sensitive issues.

According to Rimi, by their statements, both Obasanjo and the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Sule Lamido, made an avoidable mistake which led to Kano riot.

"Nigeria has taken a position stated only by Obasanjo. He believes as the President he knows Nigerian interest and can say anything on Nigeria but that's wrong as there are certain things that the President, even though he may have the power, should not have done without consultation," he said.

On the allegations by the Federal Government that some discredited politicians were behind the Kano riot, Rimi challenged the government to name the figures.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dubem Onyia, Monday said discredited politicians caused the kano riots. He did not, however, name the politicians.

"It is not surprising. But they should announce the names of those discredited politicians and arrest and charge them to court. These were allegations and these allegations shouldn't have come from the high authority," Rimi said.

"These are mere speculations. Let them say we have arrested so so and so person and we are interrogating them.

"The fact of the matter is that the Federal Government is not running its affairs correctly and properly. They are incompetent. They don't know how to maintain peace in the country. This problem has been happening. What about Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Sagamu and Taraba. All these happened.

"And any time the problem happened we would be told that there will be a commission of inquiry and those who caused the problem would be punished. Have you then seen any white paper in all those? Has anybody been punished? Tomorrow, the same problem will happen somewhere and we would be told people would be dealt with seriously. This is just an empty bluff. Because people know that the government is not true to its statement," Rimi added.

In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) monitored in Ibadan, a faction leader of OPC, Dr. Faseun, said that his organisation would in future target Northern elites and their business interests in the event of the killings of southerners including the Yoruba. He spoke against the backdrop of the mayhem in Kano and the ethno-religious violence in Jos two weeks earlier.

Said he: "The OPC frowns at the genocide that is going on in Kano, and we call for an immediate stop to it or our group will be forced to take retaliatory action in Yoruba land.

"Enough is enough, some common-sense should prevail in this country. This (Kano mayhem) was a genocide camouflaged under a solidarity for bin Laden and Afghanistan. We are not going to accept this. We are well aware of the antics of these people and our group is running out of patience with these antics. We will not hesitate to retaliate if the trend continues," he said.

Faseun specifically accused some Northern leaders (who he did not name) of being the "masterminds of the attacks, apparently for their selfish reasons.

"We know some people are behind this genocide, some Hausa leaders sponsored this and we have their dossier, when the time comes, they would not be spared in our retaliatory attacks in Yoruba land. We know how we can get at them and we will not hesitate to retaliate," he said.

According to Faseun, it was the duty of his organisation to protect the Yoruba anywhere they may be, stressing that OPC would only go after the masterminds.

"This time we won't go after the common people, we know those behind this and we will go after them," he said.

When asked whether OPC will embark on reprisal attack immediately, Faseun said that the organisation would wait and see if its warning would be heeded before retaliating.

"We don't want OPC to be seen as an aggressor, we will wait for it to happen again before we attack the financiers of these hoodlums," he added.

The OPC leader also condemned the police for what he described as their poor handling of the Jos and Kano riots.

"It is like they just left those Almajiris (street urchins) to have a field day, whereas these Almajiris have their goal, they are being sponsored and they know their target, look at the level of destruction within so short a period and you will see that they have their target," he said.

Addressing more than 60 religious and community leaders in Lagos, Tinubu said that the government was in possession of security reports which indicated that "some Manafikis [fake Islamic followers] are spreading rumours and distributing bin Laden's [Osama] photographs to cause crisis in the state".

Tinubu, who promised to fish such people out and hand them over to the security agencies, stressed the need for religious leaders to watch out for such evil-causing followers: "Men the Holy Prophet described as trouble makers among us".

He said it was sad that Muslims in the northern part of the country were reacting to an event happening outside the country, pointing out that, "We have forgotten that it is only Allah that can avenge, religious leaders must be careful as to what they preach at the mosque".

Religious leaders, Tinubu said, must desist from passing judgment.

"You are not the judge, leave judgment unto God. If we all do that, there is no need to preach hatred and pass judgment on one another through your dangerous sermons," Tinubu stressed.

The governor equally told them: "I want to implore you today to go out and preach peace and control your followers, we all must live together."

He warned perpetrators of violence in the country to beware as "none will be spared whenever the country collapses."

According to the governor, the children of those behind the Kano mayhem are schooling outside the country, noting that "violent actions make the poor poorer and the faithful early martyrs."

Noting that it was impossible to separate the adherents of Christianity and Islam in modern Nigeria, Tinubu exhorted Lagosians to go about their lawful bussiness with an assurance that they were safe. "You are safe. And we are on alert to deal with any situation," he said.

Responding, the Sarkin Hausawa, Alhaji Idris Dogara Yaro, commended the governor for his effort to ensure a peaceful co-existence among the various ethnic and religious groups in the state.

Idris, who pledged that he and his followers would continue to maintain the peace, appealed to the government to direct the chairmen of the 20 local governments to initiate regular discussions to avert religious and ethnic crises.

He, however, appealed to the government to look into the frequent disturbances by Area Boys on the Island.

Meanwhile, Kano State Police Command have prohibited all forms of streets procession in the state. Addressing newsmen in his office yesterday, the state police Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Yakubu Bello Uba, stated that anybody or group of people who flout the order would be dealt with decisively.

The commissioner noted that some unscrupolous elements were fond of hijacking peaceful demonstrations to foment trouble.

"The police command is hereby informing the general public that all forms of street procession within the state a0re banned," he said.

Last Friday, what began as a street procession against the bombardment of Afghanistan by US and Britain turned violent when faithful of Islam and Christianity clashed. The State Police Command said 36 people died in the clash with property including mosques, churches and vehicles burnt.

To contain the situation, Federal Government drafted soldiers to Kano streets last Saturday while the state government imposed a 7 p.m. - 6 am curfew. Already, the police have made 286 arrests out of which 185 were said to have been arraigned.