Leadership (Abuja)
3 January 2009
Barely weeks after the last crisis that virtually turned the once bubbling city of Jos into a ghost town, tension again enveloped the city yesterday, as security personnel took over almost every part of Jos.
This followed the arrest of 26 men suspected to be mercenaries on a mission in the city, by men of the Plateau State police Command.
According to reports from Jos last night, a combined team of military men and the police has taken over almost the entire city, wearing an unfriendly look and apparently ready to deal with any trouble that might arise. The suspects, who were said to be travelling in a bus with Okene Local Government Legislative Council written on it, and wearing military uniform, were intercepted by a police patrol team.
They were arrested by the patrol team, which recovered charms, guns, ammunition and several other dangerous weapons from them.
The suspects were said to have entered the city from Kogi State, enroute Bauchi, before luck ran out on them.
A letter, requesting the release to them of vehicles for their use and allegedly signed by the Bauchi State government was also found on the suspects, even as the state government has denied knowledge and existence of the group
Meanwhile, the Jama Atu Nasril Islam (JNI), youth wing has accused Governor Jang of exhibiting high degree of partisanship, and bias against the Hausa muslims in the state.
The group, in a press briefing in Jos accused the governor of taking sides and as such he can not morally be qualified to constitute an investigative panel to unravel the cause of the November crisis
Barrister Ahmed S. Garba, secretary of the youth wing of JNI, meanwhile, has said that the setting up of a judicial commission to investigate the Jos crisis by Governor Jang was a diversionary tactic.
Saying the group would not appear before the state's commission of inquiry, the youth accused the governor of involvement in the crisis, hence their preference for the commission's set being set up by the federal government.
"The latest action of the governor confirms our belief that he is deeply involved in the crisis, hence his attempt to hide the skeletons in his cupboard by setting up the commission," the group said.
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