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Third Term:Cartoon Riot Is Mass Action
• Violence Spreads To Enugu, Niger Potiskum, Sokoto
• Military, Police On Alert In Kaduna, Aba
by our reporter
Former Head of State and 2003 presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) has described the spreading cartoon riots in some Northern states and subsequent reprisal attacks in the South as the beginning of mass action against the alleged third term bid by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Buhari's statement is coming on the heels of the spread of more violent protests in Enugu, Potiskum in Yobe, Sokoto, Niger and Bauchi states.
Barely 24 hours after the Niger state government issued a press statement calling on religious and community leaders to advise their followers against acts capable of disrupting peace in the state, reports from Kontagora said that no fewer than two persons have been killed and about 10 churches burnt as suspected Islamic fundamentalists went berserk in an orgy of reprisal attack over the cartoon on Prophet Mohammed.
Eyewitness account said trouble started at about 9 pm, when suspected Islamic fundamentalists mobilized themselves to accomplish their earlier threat to unleash pain on non-Muslims as they attacked churches in the area. In one of the churches, members were said to be having their night vigil at the time of the attack.
However, to prevent a further spread of violence, men of the Nigerian Army were placed on red alert in Kaduna and Abia States yesterday.
But to Buhari, the caricature of Prophet Mohammed by a newspaper in Denmark was not the major cause of the religious uprising in the country per se, but a protest against the third term agenda of the present administration.
Shocked, the Information and National Orientation Minister, Mr. Frank Nweke, however, told Saturday Independent on phone that Buhari's statement was rather unfortunate.
The former head of state had in a press release he issued in Kaduna at the weekend, lampooned the present leadership of the nation for its political ineptitude, corruption and insincerity.
Part of the statement read, "It (cartoon riot) was not the cause of the disturbances; it is the government's mad rush for third term, whether the country likes it or not.
"The nation is under siege by an incompetent, corrupt and insincere leadership. Its actions or inactions in the last seven years have put the majority of our citizens into abject poverty. The massive unemployment leaves many youths with no other option than crime and thuggery to vent their frustration.
"As if all these are not enough, there is a heightened level of desperation on the part of the leadership, particularly in the way the constitutional amendment is being handled. In their lust for power, they are prepared to put their selfish interests before the wider interests and well-being of the country. If they cannot get their way, let there be no Nigeria. This is how callous and irresponsible they are".
Buhari warned that the introduction of ethnic and religious coloration was aimed at diverting public attention from the real issues. "While the people are killing each other and these crises are given a sectarian basis, the leadership is surreptitiously trying to change the constitution for their selfish reasons."
He also argued that the hooligans perpetrating the dastardly acts are thugs hired and promoted by politicians who wanted to win political power by hook or crook during the last elections in the country. "Many of them (thugs) worked side by side with security agents in the last elections."
Meanwhile, the palpable tension that enveloped the Kaduna metropolis and environs on Friday was doused following the deployment of armed soldiers to major streets and flash spots.
Before the Jumat prayer, parents and guardians hurriedly withdrew their children and wards from schools while some banks shut their gates before 12 noon. Major streets were also deserted by motorists and commuters.
Armed soldiers and Air Force officers were seeing patrolling the metropolis with red bands indicating that they had orders to shoot at sight those trying to foment trouble.
Though relative peace and calm had returned, many residents could still not heave a sigh of relief because there were fears that Muslim fundamentalists would attack Christians in churches on Sunday. But In Enugu State, Christian youths armed with machetes, stones and clubs attacked Muslims on Friday and with a mob beating one man to death.
Potiskum, the commercial capital of Yobe State was on Thursday night engulfed in fire as hoodlums set ablaze about five churches and 12 shops in a reprisal action to the skirmish that occurred in Onitsha where Muslims were killed.
Saturday Independent gathered from eye witnesses that some youths took to the streets of Potiskum at about 8 pm chanting Islamic songs as they wrecked havoc on churches and properties belonging to non-Muslims.
The miscreants who were said to be irked by the reprisal attack on their brothers in the south eastern part of the country, burnt churches and shops while they barricaded major roads of the town with burning tires.
Most of the Christians and non-indigenes took refuge in the army barracks and the campus of the Federal College of Education (Technical).
It was also gathered that most of the students of the College of Education in the town had fled the campus as the institution has always been the number-one target in times of religious clashes.
Confirming the incident through a telephone interview, the Yobe State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Bulama Heusseini said the incident which the police had immediately quelled could not be described as religious crisis because "it happened in the night and no religious group could do that except hoodlums with criminal tendencies".
According to him, five churches and 12 shops belonging to non-Muslims were burnt while many were injured. The PPRO added that with the assistance of some Islamic Ulamas who volunteered to help fish out the culprits, over 100 suspects were arrested by the police.
ASP Husseini further stated that as at the time of the interview the situation in the town had returned to normalcy as a joint-police and military security beef up was in place.
Yobe State governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim had earlier warned that no religious rally be conducted in his state after the government and the Ulamas issued a protest letter condemning the act and calling on the federal government to ban the importation of Danish products into the country. In Bauchi State, 13 people who were involved in the religious crisis that recently engulfed the state have been arrested on the order of the state Governor, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu Muazu.
The suspects were alleged to have been involved in the killing, maiming and looting of people's properties during the religious crisis that affected the state capital.
Muazu gave this order when he paid an unscheduled visit to the Specialist Hospital where some of the injured victims are currently receiving treatment.
At the hospital, Muazu equally directed that a patient who was caught violating the dusk-to-dawn curfew who was shot by the police be arrested and prosecuted. The governor who was an eyewitness to the shooting explained that the suspectcould only be looting at that time of the day. In Sokoto State, violent protest also broke leaving one person dead.
Meanwhile, Governor Ahmed Makarfi of Kaduna and his counterparts in Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu have put the military and police on alert to check the spread of religious violence to the states.
Markarfi in a broadcast on Thursday, warned against acts capable of inciting the people or breaching law and order in the state. He urged religious, traditional and community leaders to advise the youths against engaging in such acts and warned against the spread of false rumours in the name of ``religious or ethnic sentiment''.
Kebbi state government has also tightened security to avert escalation of violence in the state.
The state governor, Alhaji Adamu Aliero, told visiting NUJ executive members on Thursday in Birnin Kebbi that security agencies had been put on alert.
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