…begs for his corpse for burial.
A group, Coalition for Bagana Peaceful Co-existence, has tasked Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Buratai and Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to ensure the safe rescue or the recovery of the body of the Serikin Hausan Bagana, Alhaji Awudi Musa, from his abductors.
The Hausa leader was violently abducted from his house by some gunmen believed to be Agatu militia from Benue State. The abducted leader’s whereabouts can not be ascertained 30 days after and the kidnappers have not opened line of communication for negotiation.
Just as the ongoing military operations to rid the Agatu communities of hoodlums and militias has turned Bagana, in Omala local government area of Kogi State, and its environs into a hideout for the fleeing Agatu militiamen from Benue state with its attendant security threat to the lives and property of the people. The group called on the security forces to dislodge them from the community.
In a press release jointly signed by the President, Comrade Umar Ismaila Imam and Secretary, Atabor Julius, the group noted that the abduction of the Hausa leader, Alhaji Awudi Musa was a setback to the community and has caused mass exodus of the people from the town to neighbouring villages for the fear of reprisal attacks.
According to the group, the monarch, who was a peace loving personality whose passion was how to see to the development and peaceful co~existence of different tribal groups in Bagana, constantly decried of threat to security of the corporate existence of the community and this has always brought him to collision with perpetrators of violence within and outside the community.
“He was a man of integrity, he hates injustice and he always champion the cause that will bring development and prosperity to the people.
“He is a symbol of a marvelous leadership who knows no difference between the various ethnic and tribal groups in the community. We therefore call on the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and the State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to ensure his rescue or at worse the release of his body for the people to give him befitting burial”, they appealed.
The statement further appealed for the establishment of a Marine Police Station and that of the conventional police post to check the activities of militias and hoodlums using the creeks and River Benue to unleash terror on the community, pointing out that the recent attack on the village by the militia was made possible due to lack of security presence in a village with over twenty five thousands inhabitants.
The added that the re-establishment of School of Fisheries in the town, which was closed down immediately Kogi state was created in 1991 would create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths and it will enhance food and fish security in line with the change agenda of the present administration even as it will serve as a catalyst against youth restiveness.
“We are appalled by the recent hate messages for indigenes and settlers dichotomy. We are aware of the evils of such messages in Plateau and southern Kaduna with devastating effect. We have lived together in peace with our ethnic diversity as an advantage. We condemned the proponents of hate preaching whose aims was to corner all the economic and political opportunities to themselves
“We call on the governor to set up a high powered commission of enquiry to unearth the remote and probable causes of the anarchy in Bagana – whose returnee indigenes were being murdered on the streets on a regular basis – with a view to finding lasting and endurable peace in the town.
“In the same vein, the Omala Area Traditional Council should be courageous enough to call a spade a spade. The situation in which two hostile clans relocated their headquarters from their villages to Bagana is condemnable. We urge His Royal Highness Boniface Musa (Ojogba of Ife ) to use his good office to redress this anomaly for the sake of peace and posterity.
” We called on the member representing Omala state constituency and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Aliyu Akuh, the Chief Administrator of Omala LGC, Ibrahim Aboh, National Assembly members representing Kogi East and all peace loving people of kogi East not to treat our predicament with levity.
“We urge them to rise to the occasion at rescuing the Hausa leader from the unknown gunmen and to work assiduously for our people to return home and rebuild their properties which have serially been destroyed by the hoodlums and clannish bigots .
It would be recalled that since the influx of Agatu and fulani herdsmen, who were displaced from Benue state to Bagana, a borderline community in 2013 in the wake of Agatu/Fulani herdsmen crisis, has turned the village to a theater of war which led to the total burning down of the village and death of many innocent souls and the recent abduction of the Hausa chief has turned it to ghost town.
