JOS CRISIS; MUSLIMS BLAMED PLATEAU ASSEMBLY, STATE GOVRNMENT

JOS CRISIS; MUSLIMS BLAMED PLATEAU ASSEMBLY, STATE GOVRNMENT
From our reporter.

The Ulama Elders Council in Jos has called on the Plateau State House of Assemble to trend with caution on its pronouncement on the on going crises in the state even as the state Government is further accused of deliberate policies aimed at marginalizing the Hausa/Fulani in the state.

The Council condemns the recent advertorial in some National daily’s by the Plateau State House of Assemble which it says is thinking along the same line with the Plateau State Government and call on them to note that Plateau State is not an island of itself.

Addressing a press conference in Jos yesterday, the spokesman of the Council Barrister Muhammad Lawal Ishaq notes with great concern fresh moves by the Plateau state Government to again over-heat the already heated situation in Jos Metropolis aimed at increasing hardship to the Muslim Ummah.

The Council also calls on the acting Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr. Ike Aduba to guide his utterances on the crises and further disagree with him on the death toll in Kuru Karama saying that he never invited the Muslims to summit the evidence in there disposal as regards to the killings that took place

“The Council of Ulama blames no person other than Governor Jang who, as the Chief Security Officer of the State, refused to act to stop the crisis. With due investigations, we will not be surprised if his direct complicity is established with facts and figures. Jang is no harbinger of Peace. He never hid his psychotic obsession to annihilate Muslims and the Hausas in Jos.
Jang has consistently displayed his bad leadership skill by refusing to cooperate with any attempts to find a lasting solution to this crisis. His flagrant confrontation against the Federal Government by refusing to accept the panel set up by the House of Representatives and the Abisoye Panel clearly shows him for whom he is. It is for this same reason that long before now, the Council of Ulama concluded that Jang is not capable of being an unbiased umpire. For the crisis in Jos to be resolve therefore, a neutral body interested in resolving conflict must get involved. Failure to do so, as it happened in the past, matters in Jos will keep going from bad to worse.”,
However the Council calls on the Federal Government not to relent on its effort in fishing out those who perpetrated the killings including innocent women and children who were previously untouched by the crisis but where encircled and mercilessly attacked.
Barrister Ishaq further alleged that through investigation conducted by the council “we discovered that the renovation of the Muslim house which was burnt during the previous crisis was used as a smokescreen, it was a trigger to a planned attack on unsuspecting Muslims” stressing that “this renew attack was well announced by its planners”.

He explains that “The presenters of memos before the (Abisoye) panel such as one Toma Jang Davou of Berom Parliament, one professor Nenfort Gomwalk of Plateau Indigenes Development Association (PIDAN), and one Adamu Bala who is the Plateau state CAN youth leader all declared that the crisis is not over yet and they are ready for war as long as the Hausa man continues to lay claim on Jos North, just before the crisis happened”.

The press conference which witnessed the attendance of Chief Imam of Jos Sheikh Balarabe Dawud, Sheikh Alhassan Sa’id, Deputy Chairman of council of Ulama JIBWIS, Sheikh Sa’idu Hassan Jingir, Chief Imam of Fibre Mosque Sheikh Kahlid Aliyu Abubakar and Chief Imam of Nuruddeen Abdurrahman Sunusi among others also decried the comments of Acting Commissioner of police who earlier stated that the death toll of Kuru Karama was 30 describing the statement as unfortunate.

Barrister Ishaq also added that the Acting CP should have contacted the council since they are stakeholders in the matter adding that “we here by take exception to his surprise denial of the death toll in Kuru, when he never invited us to submit evidences at our disposal of the killing over there. We feel that we should have been contacted since our doors are always open”.

“The irony in all these attacks on the outskirt of Jos is that the casualties are not the Hausas claiming ownership in Jos. They are not the people renovating their homes at Dutse Uku, they are innocent Muslims killed because of their faith”.

He therefore called on human rights groups and the International Criminal Court to set in motion an investigation machinery into the genocide in such places with the aim of bringing perpetrators of this dastardly acts to book adding that” for this crisis to be resolved a neutral body interested in resolving conflict must get involved, as it happened in the past, matters in Jos will keep going from bad to worse”.