Sam Egwu
12 January 2009
The Kogi State police command has written a letter to its Plateau State counterpart informing it that the 26 men it arrested in Jos and accused them of being suspected mercenaries were actually vigilantes in the service of Okene Local Government, Daily Trust learnt in Lokoja at the weekend.
The police command's position appeared to support the statements made last week by the Chairman of Okene Local Government, Alhaji Yahaya Karaku, who said the men were vigilantes brought in from Bauchi to assist Okene local government council to curb highway robberies in the area.
Incidentally, the Kogi State government, which hotly repudiated the Okene LG chairman's position last week, back-pedaled at the weekend, saying it was only unhappy because he did not consult it before going public with his statement.
Speaking to reporters in his office at the weekend, the Kogi State police command's public relations officer [PRO] Mr. Innocent Inalegwu said the accused persons were members of the Miyetti Allah Vigilante Group based in Bauchi, who were brought into the state to assist in tackling armed robbery on the Lokoja-Okene-Okpella road, as well as to curb the activities of cattle rustlers in the area.
According to the Force PRO, the state police command utilized part of the security funds made available to it by the state government and gave N100,000 to members of the vigilante group for their welfare and logistics.
He said the vigilante men formed a team together with officers of the Police Mobile Force and they succeeded in greatly reducing robbery on the highway.
He also said the police command was so happy with the team's work that it requested the chairman of Okene local government to provide a bus to assist their activities, which he did. Inalegwu further said the team's leader traveled home to Bauchi several times before the Jos crisis.
While he sometimes informed the police command, he sometimes went without its knowledge, the PRO said. On the weapons allegedly found with the men when they were arrested in Jos, Inalegwu said the police are aware that they use 5 single-barrel shotguns while the Mopol men attached to them use AK-47 rifles. He said if they had any other weapons at the time of their arrest, the command did not supply it to them.
When Daily Trust contacted the chairman of Okene Local Government Alhaji Yahaya Karaku on telephone last night, he refused to comment, saying, "Let us forget about that issue. Since the state government has spoken, I have nothing more to say." He sighed and added, "I must leave everything to God."
However, the Kogi State government itself backtracked from its earlier position, in which it denied that the arrested men were in the service of Okene local government and queried the chairman for saying so. Speaking to Daily Trust on telephone last night, Special Adviser to Governor Ibrahim Idris on Media and Strategy Mr. Phrank Shaibu said, "The Local Government chairman is the Chief Security Officer of the local government, and he has all the powers to provide minimum security for his people.
The state government would only intervene if there is breakdown of law and order. The state government reacted to the issue because the newspapers quoted the chairman as saying that the state government was aware of the presence of the vigilante group, when in essence the police authorities have said that the employment of the vigilante group portrays the government...Most importantly, the local government did not consult the state government before it hired persons that will join the regular security forces to help maintain order in its domain."
In a reversal of the state government's harsh tone of last week, Shaibu said, "We even salute the courage of the chairman for his boldness in coming out to clarify his position as it relates to men of the vigilante group that were arrested, except that he did not consult the state government before going to the media."
When Plateau State police spokesman Abubakar Umar was asked last night whether his command received the letter sent by its Kogi State counterpart, he said he could not comment because he was attending a course outside the state.
The chairman's position also found support from an elderly Okene resident, retired Major Alih Abdulahi. Speaking to Daily Trust in Okene yesterday, Abdulahi said, "Does the government want these people killed? Those who helped the state in curbing rampant armed robbery cases in the state?" He said when the vigilante men first came to Okene on June 7, 2006, Alhaji Yahaya Karaku was not the chairman of Okene LG, and that neither the current SSG nor Mr. Frank Shaibu were in government. Major Abdulahi said the team was duly recognised by the then Kogi State Commissioner of Police CP, Mr. Samuel Adekunle.
Major Abdulahi said when the vigilante men first came to Okene, he provided accommodation for the leader of the team, Alhaji Yusuf Has-san, while the other members stayed at a hotel at Nagazi. He said a bus, "Confluence One" out of the state government's transport buses was given to the team to enhance mobility.
He also said the Ohinoyi of Ebira, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim gave them N50,000, while many mosques, churches and market women contributed to their welfare, because of their effectiveness in curbing the menace of armed robbery on Okene's highways.
The retired Major said, "Who is not aware of when police helicopter was coming to Lokoja from Abuja because of the menace of the robbers in the state?" He appealed to the federal authorities to as a matter of mercy release the 26 vigilante men accused of being mercenaries for them to go home, "after risking their lives for two and half years chasing robbers." He said the men have served the country by helping to curb robbery on the highways used by all Nigerians.
Last week, the chairman of Okene LG Alhaji Yahaya Karaku said the men arrested in Jos were actually vigilante from Bauchi in the service of his council, but the next day, the state government denied this, saying there was no such vigilante group operating in Kogi State.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
