Senator Ewuga Behind Ombatse's Killing Of 74 Military Men..Report...No,Its A Black mail..Ewuga

The commission of inquiry set up to look into the Alakyo killings of May 7, 2013,  and other related matters has indicted Senator Solomon Ewuga on the grounds of being one of the financiers of the Ombatse and for giving false evidence on oat before the commission.

His actions are punishable under Section 158(1) of the Penal Code Law, as applicable in Nasarawa State.

Excerpts from the report of the commission made available to newsmen in  Lafia yesterday states that 74 security personnel, comprising 64 policemen and 10 personnel of the Department of the State Services were killed  by the Ombatse militia group at Alakyo Village on May 7, 2013.

The report further stated that it was not any spiritual force that caused the death of the security officials as evidence revealed that the Ombatse militias used firearms, cudgels,  cutlasses and other lethal weapons in killing and injuring the affected personnel who were on lawful duty at Alakyo.

The commission’s report further said that a combination of factors were responsible for the spread of communal violence in the state, some of which include ethnic rivalry to achieve political dominance; youth restiveness due to non-profitable engagement such as the high unemployment rate;  manipulation of the youth by the political elite to achieve personal political objectives, and mutual ethnic suspicion and antagonism.

The document stated that the Ombatse group had been deeply involved in all communal clashes in the state and that there is a definite political dimension to Ombatse militancy.

It also noted the Fulani herdsmen had also been involved in the crises that have engulfed the state.

There is hardly any political dimension to the militant activities of the pastoralists”.

The federal government was not however spared by the report when it reported that “the Federal Government unemphatic concern over the Alakyo killings even when its agents were the victims has not helped in the containment of violence in the State. The Federal Government’s attitude has given room for tendencious  interpretations, largely of a political nature”.

The Commission notes also condemned the role played by the “Eggon Traditional Council and its elders in the tacit support of the activities of the outlawed Ombatse group” noting that “the Commission would have recommended the outright sanction of the council, but however “strongly recommends the formal admonition and reprimand of the Council and its elders in the interim, for their moral failure to call the Ombatse and such affiliated Eggon groups to order when they exceeded the bounds of reason”.

His Reply

 

Senator Solomon Ewuga, indicted by the White Paper of the Justice Fola Gbadeyan-Panel that investigated the Ombatse killings in Nasarawa State, yesterday denied complicity.

But Ewuga, Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, faulted the White Paper.

Ewuga, who represents Nasarawa North, said in Abuja that wholesale criminalisation of Eggon elite in the White Paper was unacceptable.

He noted that the White Paper also indicted the Eggon traditional council.

Ewuga said he was sure that his visibility in the state’s political affairs accounted for his indictment.

The senator said the panel invited him as a witness and not as an accused.

He said he was never cross-examined.

“I have not seen the White Paper on the panel’s recommendation. But my response today is based on what I saw in the newspapers yesterday.

“I was invited as a witness to the panel and not as an accused.

“I was not cross-examined, which by virtue of the provisions of the constitution breaches my rights to fair hearing.

“My invitation as a witness was supposed to establish the credibility or otherwise of what I know within the purview of the events related to whatever circumstances the Ombatse is involved in.

“I am Eggon and by extension the White Paper indicates that Eggon elite were abetting or hedging the sect.

“So it is presumed that every member who is Eggon had a disposition towards Ombatse.

“Not only did it stop there, it even indicted our traditional council and yet the report at one point said it is not every Eggon person that is in Ombatse.

“So, there is criminalisation. The only thing is the identity of some people must be established because of their clear visibility.

“I think this is where I fall in. I am very visible, I have a political role in Nasarawa State and I am sure this accounts for what has happened.

“The second thing is that it talks about false statement that is perjury.

“The issue of me financing the Ombatse is a very curious position.

“Gracefully, it is not a law court because I am supposed to be prosecuted so it is good to establish the import of whatever the criminality is going to be.

“The last one was the issue of suspicion. Our laws have a different orientation from what I am hearing of being suspected.

“I don’t know whether our law allows suspicion to be a ground upon which you classify anybody in this country.

“I think these are the issues that I understand from the limited knowledge that I have now.

“I would want to make a very formal statement once I get the White Paper.”