The
Adamawa State Police Commissioner, Mohammed Ghazzali has been criticised over
his comment and handling of the Fulani herdsmen attacks on Kodomun, following
the discovery of eight more corpses.
Youths
from Kodomun who brought out the corpses of the slain members of the community
from the bush said, the recovery of the additional bodies had raised the death
toll from the attacks which started on Friday to 30.
The
incident, came on the day the Adamawa State Governor, Mohammed Jibrilla,
visited the paramount ruler of the area, the Hama Bata, HRH Alhamdu Teneke, and
held a security meeting with him at his palace with other service chiefs in the
state in attendance.
Ghazzali,
who visited the area on Monday shortly after the attacks by herdsmen, had
reportedly claimed no life was lost.
Ghazzali’s
denial of any casualty resulting from the attacks, while addressing
journalists, after the security meeting, elicited anger from those present at
the palace.
Ghazzali
explained that his refusal to deploy policemen to Kodomun, which had come under
attacks, from Fulani herdsmen, earlier on Friday and Saturday, before that of
Monday was done so as not to make him look like “taking sides”
He
said, “My men were on the ground. We would not risk our men to be there just to
give security to one side so that the other side will not think we have taken
side with one side.
“There
are two different people involved in these clashes: the herdsmen and the
farmers. And we have to be very careful in handling such type of communal
clashes.”
It
was, however, the police commissioner’s insistence that no life was lost in the
Monday attacks which sparked the uproar.
The
angry youths who threatened to unleash mayhem in the aftermath of his comment
were dissuaded from their action by the elders in the palace.
The
monarch, who said his people had been killed in the attacks, challenged the
security chiefs to visit Kodomun, to find out for themselves if indeed there
were “no deaths”.
He
said, “A lot of people have been killed. Today they would go and see for
themselves the corpses of those slain in the attacks some of which they would
find in the town and those yet to be brought in lying in the bush.”
But
Martins Babale, who represented the state governor, distanced the state
government from the utterance of the police commissioner, saying” This is his
own opinion. His professional opinion.”
Babale
said he would visit the razed community after the military might have combed
the area and recovered the corpses of those killed in the attacks.
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