A season of bombs and tears

As worshippers trooped in a pensive mood to the eid prayer grounds, one could almost sense the pain in every step they took. However, faith and reliance on the protection Allah provides to His creation kept them going as they trooped out to give thanks to Allah for enabling them to observe the Ramadan fast […]

As worshippers trooped in a pensive mood to the eid prayer grounds, one could almost sense the pain in every step they took. However, faith and reliance on the protection Allah provides to His creation kept them going as they trooped out to give thanks to Allah for enabling them to observe the Ramadan fast and sparing their lives to witness the eid festival.
Others were not as lucky. Several fasting Muslims died in the twin bombing incidents that occurred in Kaduna in the last week of Ramadan. The first bomb was detonated along Alkali Road where Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi was departing from the gathering at Murtala Square that marked the closure of his 2014 tafsir session. It killed 75 people, injured several and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, the target of the attack, narrowly escaped. The second one occurred at Kawo on the main road out of Kaduna. The target of the attack was General Muhammadu Buhari, former Head of State and leader of the All Progressive Congress APC, who was travelling to Daura his home town for the Eid-el-Fitr. The casualty figure was not confirmed but three of his security officers were injured. Residents of Kaduna were shocked. The followers of the Sheikh and the General said the twin bombing incidents were the handiwork of agents of violence who wanted to throw Kaduna into chaos. The following day, irate youth mobilised to protest the incidents but the government moved fast and stopped it. It had earlier imposed a curfew in the city immediately after the attacks.  
In Kano, bomb explosions occurred at the Trade Fair Centre, at Hotoro Filling Station where women were queuing to buy kerosene and also at Kofar Nassarawa, in the heart of the city. Bombs were also discovered and detonated at several eid praying grounds in Kano and Maiduguri. The biggest catch was a car filled with explosives parked by a pedestrian path at the eid mosque near Alhaji Isiyaka Rabiu’s house.
This spate of bombings that occurred in Kaduna, Kano and Adamawa states during the last days of Ramadan and during the eid festival affected the celebrations.  For the first time in Emirates’ history, the traditional hawan sallah marked by horse riding and colourful processions were suspended in the northern states. That was a necessary security measure because it would have been impossible to control the crowd and protect the people during sallah festivities. We are in a state of emergency where people are at risk everywhere, in their homes, schools, mosques, churches, car park, markets and shopping malls.
Another violent incident that took a heavy toll on lives was the attack    by soldiers on members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, led by Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, in which 35 people were killed including three of his sons. They were staging a peaceful protest against Israeli belligerence on Friday 25 July 2014 when soldiers opened fire on them. El-Zakzaky said at a press conference that the soldiers had arrested some people including three of his sons who were taken alive and later killed. He said those killed were Ahmad, a Chemical Engineering student at Shenyang University, China; Hamid, an Aeronautical Engineer at Xian University, China; and Mahmoud who was studying in Lebanon; but another son, Ali, who was injured on the leg, was still alive. El-Zakzaky, however, appealed to his followers all over the world to remain calm and not to take laws into their hands, saying it was a plot to provoke and cause confusion in Zaria since a similar motive had failed to cause pandemonium in Kaduna.             
Condemnation has trailed this wanton act of aggression. Lagos-based Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) said in a press release signed by its Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, that it is ‘shocked by the manifestation of barbarism and excessive use of force by the black sheep among the Nigerian military in this deadly operation. We strongly condemn this unprovoked aggression. It is callous, cowardly and inhuman. It is appalling. It is a crime against humanity to mow down unarmed civilians. Soldiering is a noble profession reserved for heroes and chivalrous citizens. The Nigerian Army is blessed with disciplined officers and men of high integrity but the soldiers involved in this massacre are bad examples who are out to smear the image of our military.’ The members of the Islamic movement have been organizing this Al Quds Day procession for the past 30 years in Zaria, and have not been known to turn violent.  The Federal Government has promised to investigate the killings.
However, this is coming in the wake of public scepticism about the modalities for impartial investigations of such incidents and lack of political will on the part of government to implement reports of committees it set up to address current security challenges facing the nation, including the role of soldiers in fuelling the insurgency.
MURIC said ‘the Nigerian military is seeking to create chaos’ and it traced the emergence of the Boko Haram and the insurgency the nation is battling with to the extra judicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf 24 hours after he was arrested and shown alive on television. MURIC believes that the Zaria massacre ‘is an indirect invitation to the evolution of another guerrilla group. Today was born from the wombs of yesterday. MURIC is therefore constrained to ask the military to stop plotting the gradual destabilization of Nigeria. The Federal Government (FG) must confront this challenge now and find a lasting solution by re-engineering the military to subordinate itself to civil authority and stop involving the military in civil matters like elections and confronting peaceful protesters.’
MURIC demands ade-quate compensation for the injured and families of the dead victims of this military misadventure and unreserved apology from the topmost echelon of the Nigerian military. Those found culpable must be dismissed and tried in civil courts for mass murder. If the Federal Government fails to uncover the perpetrators, MURIC said it will take the case to the international arena.