My travails in hands of bandits – Sen. Yakwo
Senator Daniel Yakwo represented the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Second Republic. He was attacked by a five-man gang on Saturday, May 26, 2018 in his farm near Chikara village, near Abaji, along the Abuja-Lokoja road. He narrates his experience in this interview. Daily Trust: How did it happen? Senator Daniel Yakwo: Well, […]
Senator Daniel Yakwo represented the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the Second Republic. He was attacked by a five-man gang on Saturday, May 26, 2018 in his farm near Chikara village, near Abaji, along the Abuja-Lokoja road. He narrates his experience in this interview.
Daily Trust: How did it happen?
Senator Daniel Yakwo: Well, it was around 2:15 pm when I left my house in Abaji to see my co- workers at my farm in order to see how we can harvest the palm nuts. I was with two of the workers when five men with masks suddenly appeared from behind my farm house, all of them armed with A-K 47 rifles and they shouted that we should lie down. As two of my co- workers tried to escape, they used a big stick to hit them on their foreheads, while one of the bandits snatched a cutlass from a co- worker and inflicted injuries on him. They asked me to stand up and open my Tundra SUV, saying they would drive it inside the bush. One of them entered the SUV but couldn’t operate it, then they started hitting me with sticks and insisted that they had to take me along. As they took me, I told them I wasn’t well and considering my old age, I couldn’t walk. They said I was pretending, and continued hitting me on my legs, saying I must walk. They dragged me into the bush, but realised I could not actually go on trekking, they then dumped me there and continued hitting me with sticks. They asked one of their members the next thing to do with me and as they saw how I was bleeding, their leader said they should go, and they left me there. While all these were happening, they did shoot because my farm is just by the highway, and may attract the attention of policemen at the checkpoint. So I was there for a while, as I couldn’t walk, until after sometime, I saw some timber cutters coming out of the bush, not knowing that somebody had phoned them to leave the bush, that they saw some bandits attacking me in the farm house. So as the timber operators were coming, I started shouting for help. They stopped and came by the side of the hill and saw me bleeding. They assisted me back to the farm house. While there, those operators phoned the Ona’s palace in Abaji, and some vigilante members came to the farm. By then, the bandits had gone far into the bush. So they took me inside the Ona of Abaji’s brother’s car to the police station at Chikara. It was terrible, the first embarrassment I ever had in my life. It was only God’s intervention because I had lost hope of remaining alive.
DT: What did the police say or do at Chikara?
Sen. Yakwo: When they took me to Chikara police station, an officer brought a paper and asked me to put down a statement, which I did and they also sympathized with me. I think that was all.
DT: Did the bandits demand anything from you?
Sen. Yakwo: They demanded money from me and I told them I didn’t have money, as I don’t take money to the farm. So what I had on me, they searched my pockets and removed-my ID card, voter’s card, ATM card, my four mobile telephones including an Alcartel phone which my son bought for me from London about three weeks ago and a lot of other valuables inside my Jeep, including the vehicle’s particulars and my car and house keys were taken away but most important are the ID and voters cards which will take me time to replace.
DT: As a senator during the Second Republic, how do you view the present senate?
Sen. Yakwo: There is a big gap between the senate of the Second Republic and the present senate. During our time, the senate was very honorable because things were done according to the rules. But the present crops of senators with their allowances they allotted to themselves, is quite alarming, such never happened during our time. I hear a senator getS almost N14 million as allowances monthly, apart from their take home pay, just allowances. I mean this is very staggering, compared to our own. Today, the present senators are being given what they call clothing allowance or housing allowance. It is unfortunate that today we hear a member of the National Assembly getting up to N40, N50 million just as a beginner to buy furniture, to buy this, to buy that and so on. There was nothing like car loans during our time, as we were using our personal cars, while at the committee level, we were using only one vehicle to carry committee members for oversight functions and this vehicle belonged to the National Assembly. So we had no official car but today, you would find it within a tenure may be two or three times, they get different kinds of cars. So you can see that there is a very wide gap between our time and the present senators.
DT: There seems to be no cordial relationship between the present senate and the executive, did this happen during your time?
Sen. Yakwo: You see, the problem here is that the ruling party is supposed to have majority in the National Assembly, which the president ought not to have any problem but because of certain interests within the National Assembly, the president is having a hell of problems with them. As a ruling party you don’t expect to have any challenge as you will definitely have cooperation of members but that is not happening in this dispensation. So there are different kinds of political interests in the National Assembly, as the cooperation the president is supposed to have is not there. They reject his appointees, they continue to toy with the list of appointees and of course the president has stuck to who he has appointed in acting capacity. And they know why they are doing that because most of them have cases, especially with the EFCC, to answer. And it is very unfortunate at our level of political development, at the current level of development in the country, but we are not having any good rapport between the judiciary, the National Assembly members and the executive. You could see what happened to the judiciary, when some of them were keeping huge sums of money in their houses. How can you get justice with them keeping millions of naira in the house? If they were genuine money, why not keep them in the bank? We never had the word “billions” in our time but individuals are keeping billions as somebody will be sharing billions. I understand a former governor took N4 billion to go and offer prayers for Jonathan to win his re-election in the 2015 election. You can imagine this. The situation is terrible. I believe that the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari has helped this country, as we have got another direction. And if we continue in that direction, this country will be great again.
DT: Do you align with the allegation of a former INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, that the present senators are corrupt?
Sen. Yakwo: Attahiru Jega was very blunt and I like it. He gave his reasons, these people go in the name of committees for oversight functions but there, they demand another thing. I can’t imagine you going for an oversight inspection and yet you are asking for another thing differently. So Jega was very blunt and I support him 100 percent. We need people like Jega, Nigerians like Jega, as he said the right thing at the right time. So, as far as I am concerned, I give him 1,000 kudos for what he said about the senators.
DT: Do you share the same view with people who are saying that the face-off especially between the senators and the president is as a result of the way Bukola Saraki emerged president of senate?
Sen. Yakwo: Yes, I quite agree with that. How can an opposition member to be the deputy senate president? I have never heard it in all democracies. An opposition party to have the deputy of the senate, something is wrong and that is why they are having problems. And Saraki is responsible for his position, he should have given up because apart from sneaking his way in through the back door, he has been indicted by the CCT. In advance countries, he would quietly step down. But for him to put up a bold face, it is empty and that is why the current government is having problems. We thank God, God has been intervening and they are patching on, maybe we will see what the next government will look like.