The violence in Jos

FOR three days on end, beginning from Friday, December 2008, Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, was engulfed in yet another orgy of fratricidal violence, which claimed several innocent lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed property worth several millions of Naira. The occasion for the avoidable violence which took on the nature of gang rule, arson, murders and roaring brutality, was the election to local government councils in Plateau State.

According to sources, violence erupted when suspected members of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) got wind of the fact that their party was leading in the council polls for the Jos North Local Government Council, with about 50,000 votes but that the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) had allegedly upturned the results in its favour. Protests ensued.

And with reckless abandon, the chairman of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC), Mr. Gabriel Zi, proceeded to announce that the PDP had won the election in all of the 17 local government councils in the state. That was the immediate cause of the political storm, which quickly assumed ethno-religious dimensions, consuming hundreds of lives, including students and youth corps members, in its fury.

By the time the storm receded through the intervention of the armed forces, innocent lives, estimated at over 400, had been mown down, and property, estimated in terms of millions of Naira, had also been destroyed. Countless churches and mosques, including residential houses and numerous vehicles, were similarly razed down. When the dust finally settled, it was difficult for anyone, apart from the perpetrators of the mayhem, to establish the correlation, the nexus, between the unconscionable violence and elections to local government councils: According to Senator Gyang Dantong, who represents the area, "the crisis in the area is always premeditated, and perpetrators always wait for an opportunity to wreak havoc..."

Once in 2001 and twice in 2004, the lava of similar violent riots which erupted in Jos, similarly consumed hundreds of lives and destroyed churches, mosques and property. It should have been known to the State and Federal Government intelligence and security agencies that Jos is a veritable ethno-religious volcano, a flashpoint, where any socio-political event, such as an election, could fortuitously issue forth in fatal eruptions, having regard to the fact that the continued sour and uneasy relationship between the minority Hausa/Fulani Muslim "settlers" and the majority Birom/Afizire/Anaguta Christian indigenes of that city remains a sore point. In view of this fact, it should also have occurred to Mr. Gabriel Zi, the chairman of PLASIEC, that, declaring the controversial results of the elections in the heat of the protests would be productive of violence. In all of this, no regard was ever had to the security of lives and property.

Apparently, the Plateau State Governor, retired Air-Commodore David Jonah Jang, initially treated the protests with nonchalant unconcern, until it was too late. It was also reported that, but for the intervention of President Umar Yar'Adua, the Governor would have sworn in the "elected" local government chairmen while the victims of the violence were still being counted and the shards of the riots were still smouldering! That, we dare say, was the height of insensitivity.

But the Governor was quoted as alleging that a large posse of Nig�rien and Chadian terrorists was recruited by a group, presumably the so-called settlers in Jos, to foment trouble in the state. It would be interesting to know when the Governor became aware of this development, and what he did about it.

The police in Plateau State and the State Security Service (SSS) should have embarked on fervid secret information gathering, and compiled intelligence reports on possible criminal activities and common intentions of the hoodlums before and during the elections. All the security agencies condemnably shirked their responsibility until the State Governor officially ordered them to do what they revel in - "shoot on sight" anyone disobeying the curfew order, which was belatedly imposed in the wake of the civil disturbances.

According to reports, not a few of the slain victims of the riots fell to the bullets from police rifles. We dare say that the failure of the security agencies to effectively gather and co-ordinate intelligence reports, which would have nipped the violent riots in the bud, is inexcusable.

The recent senseless killings in Mumbai, India, coincided with the political and ethno-religious riots in Jos. In Mumbai, about 178 people were killed; in Jos, Nigeria, over 400 innocent citizens were slain. Overtaken by compunctions about what he thought his ministry should have prevented, the Indian Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, tendered his resignation from office. Nigerians do not behave like that. We, however, call on the chairman of PLASIEC, Mr. Gabriel Zi, the Commissioner of Police for Plateau State and the Director of SSS of that state, to resign their appointments forthwith. We appeal to the Federal Government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to look into the remote and immediate causes of the incessant Jos riots and make recommendations for their permanent elimination.

Meanwhile, the perpetrators of the heinous crime in Jos and their sponsors must be apprehended, tried and, if convicted, exposed to the severest sanctions under the law.