Military to launch operation against violent herdsmen; Miyetti Allah Chairman assassinated

0

The Nigerian Military will soon launch an operation to tackle security challenges posed by herdsmen across the country, the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, has said.
Abubakar made the disclosure at an interractive media session in Kaduna on the role of the media in national security.
“We are coming out with another operation code named “Operation Accord” to address the issue of herdsmen clashes,” Abubakar said.
He disclsoed that the military had carried out 13 operations to ensure peace and order across the country.
The defence spokesman assured that the military would not allow any individual or group to destabilise Nigeria.
“We will not spare any security threat in any part of the country, we will contain it; national security will not be compromised.
“Today, no Nigeria territory is under the control Boko Haram, no illegal flag foisted on our land.
“We will synergise with other security agencies to secure the remaining Chibok school girls, and everyone who is under Boko Haram custody.”

He urged the media to support the military in the course of its duties in protecting Nigeria’s territorial integrity and its people.

Abubakar stressed that the media remained a veritable tool of mass mobilization and enlightenment of the populaces on what the military was doing to secure the country

“Media is an important organ that we cannot ignore especially during security operations.

“The essence is to collaborate and synergise to make citizens understand what the Armed Forces is doing to keep Nigeria one as a nation.

“National security is not about guns and uniforms, it is beyond that, our concern is the safety of our citizens and their property, so that one can move freely without any security threat.”

He therefore tasked journalists to be professional and patriotic in the discharge of their duties, and desist from promoting hate speeches capable of incting violence.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Kogi State chapter of Wuro Miyetti-Allah Association, Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar, has been assassinated by gunmen who invaded his residence in the early hours of Saturday.
The gunmen, numbering about eight, invaded the Peace Community, Road 3, Ganaja road, Lokoja residence of Abubakar about 2:05 am to carry out the dastardly act.
Residents of the area, who spoke with newsmen, said they were gripped with fear when they started hearing gunshots from the residence of the chairman of Fulani socio-cultural group in the operation that lasted over an hour.
They said that the gunmen passed through “unfamiliar routes” to gain access to the deceased’s residence beating the ‘C’ Division Police Station route where they could have been spotted and questioned.
A neighbour who identified himself simply as Musa, said there were some strange faces in the vicinity much earlier before the incident, not knowing they had a sinister motive.
Musa said the gunmen shot at the door to the room of one of the deceased’s two wives and gained access into  the house, macheted the deceased on the neck and other parts of the body and later shot him severally.
A medical practitioner with the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, Dr Sam Alhassan, who lives a stone throw from the victim’s residence said: “I was in my room which is just steps away to his house and I started hearing gunshots.
“Then I rose up from my bed and looked through the window. I saw a group of bandits in two lines. At least, I saw eight people, and they started shooting, shooting and shooting.
“The next thing that I saw was that a bullet hit the overhead tank and water started running down. Later I and my family went quiet for a while; then the wife of the deceased came out shouting, ‘they have killed my husband.”
Alhassan said that he later came out with his landlord and went into the deceased’s house to ascertain the truth; only to find him lying in the pool of his blood with machete cuts and bullet holes in his lifeless body.
The medical practitioner said it was unclear if the gunmen took cash or property from the house.
He, however, called on security agencies to be proactive in crime prevention and detection mandate to avoid loss of innocent lives.
Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Williams Aya, said that the command had got the report, adding that the incident was a clear case of assassination.
Aya said investigation into the matter had commenced, adding that the Police was yet to make any arrest in respect of the assassination.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.