Date Published: 01/20/10

Jos blockade: Irrate Youths take over check points

...7 Luxurious load of soldiers deployed to Jos.

Jonah Jung

Hundreds of commuters yesterday had their journies truncated following a 24 hours curfew declared by the Plateau state government.

By 9am local time when the announcement was made on Radio Plateau, it was obvious that their trips had to be cut short.
A combined team of military, police and the State Security Services manned the entrance to Jos city.

With used car tyres, heavy stones and woods, used to blocked the road at Mararaba Jama, 28 kilometers into Jos city, the security operatives sternly prevented entry into Jos.

An eye witness account said that the 24 hour curfew became inevitable following a renewed attack which began at 12 midnight on Monday.
It was learnt that governor Jonah Jang had earlier on Tuesday held a closed door meeting with two former governors, Solomon Lar and Joshua Dariye, and both men were unequivocal on the need for peace in the state.

By 3pm, no fewer than 400 soldiers were seen in 7 luxurious buses apparently headed for Jos to beef up security following reports of renewed clashes in a crisis that is beginning to assume the dimension of a religious clash.

At DU village, about 26 kilometers into Jos, about 6 Fulani settlements were set ablaze and the village in a tumult.

In deed even with the declaration of the all-day-round curfew, irate youths outside Jos metrolpolis took to the high way with machets, cutgels, bows and arrows, long knifes, cutlasses and axes. And it was nightmare for those who were turning out of the state as they were subjected to thorough search before being allowed to proceed or ordered to pack their vehicles. 

At Ryom, about 10 check points were erected by some youths carrying different types of local weapons to stop and check the very few car on the road. It was observed that the group include pregnant women who kept saying that they had to come out to protect their territory from any attack.

Ironically, at one of the points, even the police men, who kept a safe distance away from the youths, made up of both male and female, quietly told drivers to move gently and identify themselves to prevent problems.

The usually bustling and popular Irish Potato selling points around Abuja-Jos road were all deserted, just like the road.

Frustration was written all over the faces of the stranded commuters. Some of them who spoke expressed disgust that the government has no been able to put the situation under control. For in stance, one elderly man, who identified himself as Baba John, said that “the problem we are seeing is more than this. Some people have posed as soldiers only for them to be shooting and killing people.”

Mr Echigbo Ochan, who reechoed the same sentiment added that it is clear that the situation is beyond the government to handle. But of more concern to him is his wife and a new born baby who cannot go out to get food and himself who left jos and was stranded just a few kilometers to his residence.

For Promise Godwin, who just drove out of the city before the announcement of the 24 hour curfew, “the government should take the blame. They spend a lot of money on information so how come they did not know this was going to happen? There has been gun shot at Busi Buji and Ali Kazaure. With all that is going on, the unity of Nigeria is a huge joke.”

But at Gangare Kibo, another settlement on the way to Jos, 70 year old Hajia Asabe Yau condemned the mayhem. According to her, if the perpetrators of the violent attack claim to be good Moslems or Christians, then they should know that killing is a wrong thing.

Speaking through an interpreter, Hajia Yau said “ in this village, we live together, both Moslems and Christians and we cannot fight. Why? We are brothers and sisters. We cannot kill each other,” she said with her heads bowed ostensibly to demonstrate her emotional state.

At the time of this report, Forest, one of the popular junctions on the way to Jos from Abuja, was filed with commuters who were unsure of the next move. It was even gathered that some of the vehicles cannot move as most of the petrol stations along the way were shut as a result of the crisis.