…As Lagos residents accuse police of vandalising 200 vehicles***
The Jama’atu Nasril Islam, under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Thursday lambasted the Federal Government and security agencies for the handling of the abduction of 110 Dapchi pupils.
The school was attacked on February 19, 2018, while 110 pupils were yet to be accounted for.
The group said the abduction of the girls “is the most potent action to frustrate the girl-child education.”
“No parent now is comfortable, especially in the North-East, to allow his daughter to go to such callously unprotected schools; and the North is the loser,” it added.
The Secretary General of the JNI, Dr Abubakar Khalid-Ailyu, in a statement in Kaduna on Thursday said a serious government would have “by now sanctioned those implicated in the Dapchi girls’ travails.”
The JNI warned that government must not spare anyone found culpable in the abduction of the Dapchi girls.
It kicked against any probe, noting that such always ended up in waste baskets.
The JNI lamented that after four years of the unresolved Chibok girls’ abduction, the country was witnessing “yet another unfortunate and avoidable abduction of Dapchi girls.”
It blamed the lapses on the government and security operatives, saying, “There is apparent lack of synergy between security operatives in Yobe State, or there is active connivance with the insurgents, especially if reports of media altercations between the army and the police are anything to go by.”
The group wondered why the abduction happened months before the 2019 general elections, saying it was a replica of the Chibok girls’ abduction of 2014.
The group said, “Are there orchestrated plans somewhere to make a case for more security votes?”
Schools in Dapchi, in the Bursari Local Government Area of Yobe State, have remained shut 11 days after pupils of Government Girls Science and Technical College were attacked by Boko Haram insurgents.
The Secretary General of ‘Dapchi Abducted Schoolgirls’ Parents,’ a body created by parents of the missing girls, Mallam Bukar Kachalla, conducted one of our correspondents round the empty schools in Dapchi, saying the schools were shut on the directive of the state government.
The heavy presence of army personnel in the town was said to have done little to make the government open the schools.
The closure was said to have also affected private schools in the town.
Kachalla said the primary concern of the parents was for the return of the girls.
“Our prayers are for the girls to be brought back to us safely. We are calling on the Federal Government and the international community to assist in the rescue of the girls.
“Parents are traumatised; so the government must act fast to help these distressed parents.
“We don’t know the condition of the girls; we don’t know whether they are eating or not. As parents, we are deeply worried,” he said.
Efforts to get the Yobe State Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Mohammed Lamin, for comment on the closure of all the schools in Dapchi failed as his phone was switched off.
The Peoples Democratic Party has commended the House of Representatives for “its swift response to the PDP’s appeal to open an independent investigation into the abduction of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls.
The party said the action of the House in setting up an ad hoc committee to investigate the abduction underscored the legislators’ consensus for a non-aligned inquest, particularly against the backdrop of speculations of conspiracy theory, conflicting reports and disagreement among government officials and agencies on the matter.
Meanwhile, Residents of Idi-Oro, Mushin, have accused operatives of the Lagos State Police Command of invading 14 streets and vandalising no fewer than 200 vehicles.
However, the police command denied the allegations, saying hoodlums resisting police arrest damaged the vehicles with stones.
But residents who spoke to PUNCH Metro on Thursday alleged that the operatives aside from damaging vehicles parked by the roadsides, also entered into mechanic workshops and destroyed the cars they found there.
At least 40 generators belonging to residents were allegedly taken away by the policemen, whom residents claimed wanted to avenge the death of a police sergeant, Abam Mohammed, who was killed during a shootout with drug dealers.
PUNCH Metro had reported that a drug dealer had taken delivery of hemp valued at N7m on Monday.
On Tuesday, a police team from the Area D Command, acting on intelligence, stormed the community and recovered the hemp.
Hoodlums and some residents allegedly attacked the policemen with broken bottles and stones, as the operatives retreated and returned with reinforcements.
In a shootout that ensued between the two sides, the police sergeant and three others were killed.
On Wednesday, some residents alleged that policemen invaded their streets, looted property and damaged their vehicles.
The affected streets, according to them, are Alhaji, Ogunmokun, Awoyejo, Umoru, Elegba, Alhaji Lasisi, Smith, Amodu, Ibrahim, Akala, Ojo, Anuoluwapo, Opeloyeru and Adegbite.
When our correspondent visited the area on Thursday, the residents lamented their loss.
A trader on Alhaji Lasisi Street, Kike Ajiboye, who sold drinks, said her car was vandalised and three coolers of drinks emptied.
She said, “My car is my moble shop. I use it to sell drinks at parties. The policemen, who were in uniforms, came in around 7.30pm on Wednesday. There were many trucks. I was surprised when they started breaking windscreens. They vandalised my car and took all the wines in three coolers. After they emptied my coolers, they punctured the four tryes. The money I made that day, which was in the car, was stolen.
“I took my goods on credit from LAPO (microfinance bank). How do I pay back over N100,000? There is an armoured tank and a police patrol van at the junction and I thought that would guarantee our safety. They threw bottles at us because they knew we were watching from inside.”
Another trader, Mrs Adebisi Adetula, alleged that the cops damaged her Ford car and ruined her family business.
She said, “We could not come out. My Ford car that was destroyed was my family’s means of livelihood. My son, who graduated four years ago, uses it to supply gas in the neighbourhood. Now, what will he use?”
A transport worker, Taofik Ojedele, whose bus was vandalised, claimed that he saw the policemen with knives with which they punctured vehicle tyres.
A food seller on Elegba Street, Jelila Kareem, showed our correspondent her store, which she alleged was razed by the cops.
“As we were trying to put out the fire, they chased us away with guns. Everything was burnt,” she added.
A mechanic, Semiu Jimoh, said seven vehicles, including Lexus, Mitsubishi, Kia, Toyota Corolla, Toyota RAV4, belonging to his customers, were vandalised.
Jimoh, who said he was initially arrested by the policemen, alleged that they broke into a workshop where he kept some of the cars and damaged them.
“They were more than 200. They were broke into houses and took property. They came to my house and arrested me as well. They broke the fence of my workshop and damaged the four cars there. I don’t know what to tell the owners of the cars. I am in serious debt,” he added.
He said many residents took away their cars because the policemen threatened to return.
A trader on Amodu Street, Bintu Rosulu, alleged that her noodles shop was burgled, saying drinks and phones were taken away.
An 80-year-old woman, Alhaja Rabiu Titilayo, said her house door was broken down by the policemen around 9pm.
“When they came in, I told them not to take away my grandchildren who were taking care of me. They asked me to sit down. They collected my torchlight and some phones in the house. One of the children they arrested was released after we paid N8,000,” she added.
Punch
