SAFAR 25 1431 A.H.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 9, 2010.
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Jos crisis: Muslim Parliament seeks compensation from statutory allocation
From Sule Aliyu, Bauchi
The Bauchi Muslim Parliament has urged the federal government for the immediate payment of full compensations to all victims of the crisis from the statutory monthly allocation of Plateau state government to serve as clear message to any state governor that allows destruction of lives and properties of helpless residents in his area of jurisdiction.
Speaking to newsmen in Bauchi, the President of the Parliament, Imam Rabi’u Shehu equally called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency constitute a high-powered committee of inquiry with a clear mandate to investigate the 17th January Jos genocide targeted at Hausa/Fulani Muslims.
The parliament also called for the immediate prosecution of Governor David Jonah Jang of Plateau atate at the International Criminal Court for the genocide targeted against innocent people in Kuru Karama, Bukuru, Foron, Dorowa,Gembos, Barikin Ladi LGA, Waram, Riyom LGA, VOM, Jos South LGA and Bassa LGA.
‘’ More than siding with the perpetrators, the crime of genocide that was committed in the recent Jos crisis showed clearly that the governor is indeed an accomplice if not the brain behind it.
‘’Genocide by its nature is an organized crime that will succeed only with government's involvement, in virtually every village that Berom youths went to massacre innocent people, they said they were sent by Governor Jang. Let the perpetrators be fished out and let justice be done.’’
The President of the Parliament, Imam Rabi’u Shehu cited the religious crisis that resulted from election in Jos North LGA in 1991 ,the 2001 religious crisis in Jos which claimed over 1000 innocent people and the 2003 disturbances in Langtang-Kurgia LGA of the state.
Others, he said, were the February 17th 2004 crisis which claimed over 30 people including a secondary school principal in Wase , Alhaji Isiaku Adamu, the February 24th 2004 civil disturbances at Yelwan Shendam where over 700 innocent people were massacred as well as that of Wase on March 28th, 2004 in which over 5o people were killed.
Imam Shehu also cited the April 26th 2004 crisis in Quanpan LGA in Plateau state , the May 18th 2004 mayhem in Jos which led to the declaration of the state of emergency in the state, as well as the November 28th, 2008 genocide in which over 500 people were killed with over 10,000 displaced persons and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed.
‘’The perpetrators of the crisis are claiming ownership of the land and identified a section of the community as ‘settlers’ who have no right of existence and other human rights. These had been the causes of the past and the present crises in Plateau state . They feel that the only way to assert their dominance as ‘indigenes’ is to massacre all the innocent people even as they are selective in who they call a settler,’’ he said.
"The perpetrators of the Plateau state crisis were only targeting a section of the community as settlers. Had the perpetrators been Muslims, government would have taken severe measures against them. Therefore, we are seeking for full compensation of the Muslim community in Plateau state in addition to bringing all the culprits to book'', he concluded.
