Service chiefs
in Cross River state have debunked the report that 150 persons were killed in
the clash between Wanikade and Wanihem communities in Yala local government
area recently.
Speaking when
he received the Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), who
was on a fact finding visit following the reports, in the company of all the
security commanders in the state, Inuwa said going by details of their findings
in the aftermath of the communal clash, the alarming figure of 150 persons
reported killed were false as nobody in both communities could give names of those
killed nor show graves of those that were claimed to be killed and buried.
“What they
told us is that their cultural practice is to bury immediately anybody that is
killed at battle fronts but when we insisted to see the graves of some, only
one grave was shown to us. And as for the number of houses destroyed, the
figure was also false because the totality of the houses in the communities can
be sum up to only about five hundred and not all the houses were destroyed, so
we wonder where they figure of over 1200 houses being destroyed were gotten,”
he said.
The Brigade
Commander of the 13th Brigade Army in Calabar, Brigadier-General Ismaila Isa,
corroborated the briefing by the Commissioner of Police saying that
incidentally he was around the area when the news broke.
State Director
of the Department of State Security Services DSS, Mr. Fubara Duke, also
speaking along the same lines said, “if the number of death is to be put going
by the single grave shown us, then it’s only one. Though houses were destroyed but
certainly not the figures given because the total number of houses in the two
communities are far less than what is said to have been destroyed.”
The Minister
was also briefed by heads of Immigrations, Customs and Civil Defense in the
state before he proceeded to pay a courtesy visit on the state governor,
Senator Ben Ayade.
At the
governor’s office, Lt. Gen. Dambazau told Ayade that the Federal Government
heard news of the communal clash and the alarming number of deaths which
prompted his coming to the state.
He said that
though reports he had gotten showed that the figures were not true, every life
was important, hence he will visit the communities himself to see how both
short and long term measures would prevent a reoccurrence of such clash.
Cross River
State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade thanked the Federal Government for the prompt
response.
He said the
President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo,
have shown love and concern for Cross River State.
0 comments: