“Spontaneous Riots” Put Kano on Life-Support – The untold story of a people in despair

The street and roadside hawkers have all returned to their trade displaying various wares. Similarly, some shops and schools have opened for business. At the big and small restaurants, satiated and hungry customers stream in and out. Three weeks ago, all these were a preciously unaffordable luxuries for the millions of people in Kano State. […]

The street and roadside hawkers have all returned to their trade displaying various wares. Similarly, some shops and schools have opened for business. At the big and small restaurants, satiated and hungry customers stream in and out.

Three weeks ago, all these were a preciously unaffordable luxuries for the millions of people in Kano State. With the reinstated freedom nonetheless, the reasons that hemmed the residents in, partly against their wish but for their safety, are still clear for everyone to see.

Almost all the major roads in the metropolis and their adjoining streets have little or big stories to tell about the frenzied violence that had swept across them on the April  18. In some areas, newly installed colourful traffic lights that gave the commercial city a beauty of its own have been smashed and torched. Others have all their power supplies burnt out. In other cases, gardens that bestrode roundabouts have been reduced to ashes.

Relics of burnt vehicles have taken positions along the roads and in front of residences of prominent figures.

New roads that were constructed at the cost of billions of naira, are now dotted with patches from burnt tyres thus reducing their life span. And then, billboards with portraits of highly revered and popular politicians have been destroyed on account of the political leaning of their owners.

Inside densely populated, mixed neighbourhoods several houses and worship places lie in ruins, while houses of some well-known politicians have been reduced to rubbles. While some few internally displaced persons still hang at barracks, many others who fear for their safety, are relocating to their states of origin.

John Oluwasegun Ayedun was at work when the crisis erupted in Kano about three weeks ago. He was on an assignment for his satellite TV company when he ran into a group of rioters who smashed his vehicle with objects. Luckily for the 32-year-old, he escaped the deadly scene alive and returned to the company’s office about three kilometres away.

In the company of his equally shaken colleagues, Oluwasegun received a phone call from a friend telling him that the crisis had enveloped some parts of Hotoro area, including where his residence was located. The news added to his fears and prevented him from returning home later in the day.

Like many other non-indigenes who among the local Hausa communities, the Ogun State indigene took refuge at nearby Bompai police barracks and was to return home two days later in the company of soldiers.

It was then he came face to face with the damage he personally suffered from the violence. The building housing his one bedroom self-contain apartment and two other apartments occupied by his Igbo and Bendelite friends had been completely burnt, thus leaving him with just the clothes he was putting on.

“When I entered the compound and saw what had become of my belongings, I sobbed and fainted. All that I had worked for in my life were destroyed in the fire; I did not salvage a pin from my house; everything went up in flames,” said Oluwasegun in an emotion laden voice.

The riot broke out in the morning on Monday, April 18,  and was quelled before evening. However, according to Oluwasegun, his residence was torched between Tuesday and Wednesday, as he could recall being told by a friend who got into the area earlier (on Tuesday) that the property was not affected.

“I had a feeling that there was going to be crisis during the elections, but I never thought, in my wildest imagination, that Kano was also going to be affected or myself in particular, will become a victim,” he stated.

The 32-year-old was brought to the state in 1982 (at the age of two) and has been in Kano since then, freely mingling with people, especially because his good command of Hausa language has helped him relax some barriers between him and his hosts.

He had lived all his life at Na’ibawa area before moving to Tsamiyar Boka in Hotoro quarters in January this year. And when the rioters came, not even the knowledge that the house he lived in (alongside two other fellows) belonged to a Hausa man would stop them setting it ablaze.

Left with almost nothing, Oluwasegun now stays in a hotel in Sabon Gari area and says no government official has yet contacted him on the issue of compensation. Nonetheless, his resolve to remain in Kano is unshaken, albeit due to a very strong reason. “I will not go anywhere because starting a new life elsewhere will require me spending money, which I don’t have. I will not therefore, go back to my home town because I don’t have anything to start afresh there. My belief in God gives me confidence that I will get back all that I have lost in the incident. It may take long though, but I have no doubt it will definitely come,” he explained confidently.

Like Oluwasegun, Mrs Felicia Nuhu Madaki has got every reason, even as she is on hospital bed, to be grateful to her creator for saving her and her five children; among them a five-months-old baby. But any intention to praise God on her part is now difficult to fathom, as severe machete wounds inflicted on her by her attackers has rendered her speechless. She can only communicate through a proxy, her husband.

Mrs Felicia’s case is pitiful, just as it is heartrending.  She was at home with the kids when her husband, Musa Nuhu Madaki, a retired staff of the Kano State Sports Council, learnt of the eruption of violence on that fateful day. On gathering that all was not well, he quickly put a call to her and enquired if she and the children were safe and to his greatest happiness, her response came positive. She promptly told him their Danladi Nasidi residential area was as tranquil as it had always been.

But soon, more reports of violence spilling across the state were reaching Nuhu in quick sucession. So he shut down his premises at Sharada, ordered his workers to go home and headed home himself. As he got home, his wife was entirely a different picture from the peaceful one she had painted over the phone earlier and all his children were nowhere to be found.

After rushing her to the hospital, Nuhu was later informed of the whereabouts of his children as well as how his wife fell victim in her own living room. When Sunday Trust spoke with him at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) where his wife is currently receiving treatment, Nuhu narrated that not long after speaking to Mrs Felicia on the phone, rampaging youths invaded the Danladi Nasidi quarters setting buildings on fire and attacking residents, particularly the ones that were believed to be connected with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those perceived as non-Muslims or non-Hausas. Nuhu’s wife is a Christian from Edo State, while he is a Muslim from the same area.

“I was told that as the rioters neared my house, a Good Samaritan and female teacher who was driving by, pulled over and rushed in to alert my wife. The woman helped my wife place a table by a wall separating the building from another house. She reportedly cross-over into the neighbouring house and pulled my children to safety,” he stated.

But before his wife could make it across, the rioters had stormed his house. “When they met my wife, they pounced on her with various types of weapons and clubbed her until she passed out,” said Nuhu. The attackers wanted Mrs. Felicia dead by all means, according to her husband, who explained that she was inflicted with deep machete cuts on the head and body.

“When they were done with the deadly attack, they pulled her out of the house, dropped her outside and set fire to her feet in order to confirm she was dead. But when she did not move or scream, they left with the feeling she was deady,” Nuhu narrated. The rioters equally destroyed all the property in the building.

It took Mrs. Felicia 24 hours to regain consciousness after the incidence and had to be on oxygen mask for several days afterwards, according to her husband. Even as she can now breathe without the support of the mask, her husband says she is yet to open her mouth and talk.

Violent riots and free-for-all attacks broke out across Kano metropolis on the April 18,  hours before the announcement of the winner of the April 16 presidential elections. Youths had taken to the streets in their thousands at different areas to express resentment at the then presumed victory of President Goodluck Jonathan in the weekend presidential election.

Although Kano State Police Commissioner, Dan Azumi Doma, has said no case of death was officially reported to the police, eyewitnesses account claimed that deaths were recorded on the first day of the riot in some parts of the state and two days after when non-indigenes in Sabon-Gari launched a reprisal attack.

Although the police said the crisis began on Katsina road, conflicting reports indicated that the crisis erupted when some youths chased supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan who took to the streets to celebrate the perceived outcome of the presidential poll in Sabongari area.

Less than an hour after a stampede in Sabongari, smoke began to envelope the town as youths took to the streets, setting bonfires. Vehicular movement in the town were soon brought to a halt as the bonfires took over the roads, while defiant motorists had their vehicles damaged. Also, a number of vehicles were set ablaze.

Our correspondents report that the affected houses, shops and vehicles were often looted before they were set on fire by the rampaging youths.

Early target of the rioters was the residence of former Speaker of the House of Representatives Ghali Umar Na’abba, located along Sharada road in Kano. Na’abba, perceived to be President Jonathan’s campaigner, was smuggled out of the burning house by armed security personnel.

Thinking that Ghali Na’abba might have sought refuge in his uncle’s house, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, the mob went to Tofa’s house and set it on fire alongside nine vehicles in the house’s car park . After setting the house on fire, the youths turned to an almost completed mansion belonging to Bashir Tofa on the opposite direction and destroyed its façade.

At the residence of Na’abba, the youths were seen removing water dispenser, rug carpets and other valuables before setting it ablaze.

Out there in Kano Municipal Local government, the house of an influential Kano monarch, Galadiman Kano, Tijjani Hashim, was set on fire. The royal father, who is an ally of Vice President Namadi Sambo, was said to have distributed some gift items to voters on the eve of the presidential election.

The emir’s palace was also not spared by the arsonists as they stormed the place when the emir, Alhaji Ado Bayero, was holding the traditional Monday court session. Many teeps belonging to his councillors were burnt while others were destroyed during the attack.

Violence along Court road was also recorded as the youths attacked some residences, whose occupants were perceived to be non-Muslims. On the same Court road, a large building of the PDP secretariat was burnt by the arsonists.

But the violence turned more gory in the densely-populated Kawo, Dakata and Badawa areas where several houses and churches were also burnt. Few kilometres away from Kawo, the violence was another turmoil at Kano eastern bypass, popularly known as Ring road. Our correspondents counted at least three corpses lying by the roadside, while a chemical company, IDE Foam was razed. Along the road, there are seven burnt vehicles, one of which had itsoccupants killed.

At the Danladi Nasidi Housing Estate, Sunday Trust gathered that many people were killed while several houses were torched. Eyewitness in the area said a woman was slaughtered and burnt alongside her two children.

In Hotoro Danmarke, many houses were burnt in the area. A landlord of one of the affected houses, Umar Sani Marshal, told our correspondent that his house was razed down in his presence despite his persistent appeal that he is a supporter of the CPC.

Na’ibawa also received its shave of violence as many houses were set on fire. A Kano correspondent of Vanguard newspaper, Alhaji AbdulSalam Muhammad, was attacked. His wife and children were injured, while his car was damaged by the youths.

Even police stations were also not spared in the dastardly mayhem as Dandawaki police station was torched by the irate youths, who chanted anti-Jonathan slogans and hailed CPC’s presidential candidate as a hero.

The rioters had made an attempt on the official residence of the state governor in Nassarawa Local Government, getting as close as a few metres from the entrance, when they were repelled by soldiers and riot policemen with the support of an armoured tank. However, all roads leading to the residence, had their surface scarred by bon fires. More so, about fifty metres to the gate, the rioters have broken some of the street lights in the government house garden. Across the road, they had burnt some tyres right at the gate of the deputy governor’s house. But along Sokoto road, the rampaging youths torched the Kano State Pension Board office.

Police and government officials all said the outbreak of the violent protest took them by surprise. While addressing a press conference on the tragic incidence at the state police command headquarters in Bompai, CP Doma noted that the violence erupted ‘spontaneously’ all over the state.

He explained that it first started with angry youths setting bon fires on the streets and then snowballed into burning of houses of influential persons, before degenerating to indiscriminate attacks on places of worships and homes.

The commissioner disclosed that over a hundred rioters were arrested and that some of them have already been charged to court and have been remanded in prison custody, promising that the command is going to fish out the sponsors of the crisis no matter how highly placed they may be.

The police boss equally dismissed as false, a highly-circulated picture of a lady who was allegedly cut in two by rioters in Badawa area of Kano, explaining that the woman in the photograph was actually killed by a train in Kaduna, some two months before the Kano riot.

It is believed that the image of the slain lady had helped spark the reprisal attacks launched by non-indigenes in some parts of the state.

On his part, the state commissioner for information, Barrister Haruna Isa Dederi, attributed the cause of the riot to poverty and some unguarded pronouncements by some political figures, saying however that the state government never envisaged such turbulence because the state has been free of all forms of violence in the past eight years.

Expressing surprise, Barrister Dederi maintained that the state government had been able to rid the state of such upheavals through its societal reorientation program, through which he said, the attitude and behaviour of the people in the state were reoriented.

The hoodlums who attacked many houses went about stealing people’s belongings, observed the commissioner, who said the general poverty in the country was partly responsible.

As debatable as its causes can be, the riot has also generated a lot of arguments as to whether or not it was triggered by certain religious objectives of the perpetrators. One of its Muslim victims, who is also a staunch supporter of Buhari, disagrees it was religious.

When the uprising started in the morning, Bashir Kabir, 36, was at Bompai GRA, far away from the flashpoint. But when his relation received a call inviting him to Goron Dutse inside the city, he could not resist the urge to accompany him.

As they got to an area near Mummbayya House at Gwammaja, they met a team of soldiers and policemen who intimated them about the danger of proceeding on their mission. The two were however under the illusion that the rioters were out for anti-Buharis, so they pleaded with the security men and moved on, believing all will be well.

“As we proceeded, we started coming across armed youths barricading the road and setting bon fires. Gangs after gang would stop us and ask for details of our background. I kept telling them we are with you; we are equally supporters of Buhari,” he recalled.

Whenever he associated himself with Buhari, the angry protesters would allow them to go ahead. But Kabir’s decoy was to come to an end when they were sighted heading towards the residence of a renown Islamic cleric, he stated.

“Our destination was the residence of Sheikh Ishaq Rabi’u. To our consternation, nobody came to open the gate for us and the place looked deserted, even though we could see tyres burning with the compound. My brother made a phone call and within a short time, someone came and tossed a parcel at us across the fence,” he narrated.

“As we drove towards a gang of demonstrators, they stopped our car. Thinking that my excuses would be accepted, came down to explain. I didn’t know I was in for trouble.  They refused to believe I was a pro-Buhari again, and insisted that we are members of Sheikh Rabi’u household. Without warning, some of them started attacking our car with cutlasses, axes and all manner of weapons,” he said.

Before Kabir could realize what was happening, his partner had zoomed off with their car almost leaving him in the dangerous situation. He therefore gave the car a hot chase, with the armed youths in tow, until he managed to get into the car as the driver slowed down to dodge burning tyres.

“All the vehicle’s glasses were smashed to the extent that we were all seated on and covered by glass splinters, while I was compelled to stick my head out and look out for the driver as he could not see through the cob-webbed windscreen. All the stones and objects they were throwing at us scored direct hit as we meandered about bon fires,” he said.

After running for about 200 meters, the vehicle was prevented from going further by some burning truck tyres covering the road. Before their chases could catch u with them, Kabir went to the gang manning the latest checkpoint with the Buhari story. After a few words, he got them convinced, but before they could turn and go, their pursuers had arrived. Under the cover of the ensuing melee, a motorcyclist appeared from nowhere and whisked his partner away.

“I did not lose hope until when I saw the gang leader of the second group being hit on the head with a stick for daring to offer explanation on my behalf, that I was not a member of Sheikh Rabi’u family. As his head bled, the leader of the other group accused him of allowing my second, whom they labelled as a biological son of the cleric, to escape,” he narrated.

“They turned and pushed me into our car, trying to set it ablaze. As I attempted to come out, one of them threatened to shatter my head with an axe. But when I imagined the pains of burning to death, I protested. Meanwhile, they were already pushing the car towards a burning flame. So I protested, asking them why they should do this to me when I’ m a supporter of Buhari.

“My entreaties got into the ears of their leader, who asked me out of the car. And after some questioning amidst insults that I was a sellout by his followers, he ruled that I should not be killed but beaten severely for hobnobbing with the rich.

“Within seconds, I was being clubbed and bludgeoned from all angles. While still on my knees, someone struck me with a cutlass on the back, sending me flat on the ground. When the leader saw blood spurting from underneath my clothes, he asked who stabbed me and his boys told him it was one Kanabaro. As I remained on the ground, I could still see when he ordered for the arrest of the said guy, who took to his heels,” Kabir recalled. He equally ordered another group to set their car on fire, which they did, said the victim.

Though he has since been treated and discharged from the hospital, Kabir has one problem disturbing him.  Glass fragments are embedded in his body, so that whenever he sits on a hard surface, the blood oozing from the tiny holes they (the fragments) are held, stain his clothes. Doctors tell him, his situation is serious.

The first two days after the violence saw a new dimension brought into it by non-indigenes who resorted to launching reprisal attacks on people believed to be Muslims and Hausas. During the counter attack in Sabon Gari, for instance, some almajiris (child beggars), labourers, water vendors and achaba riders, were said to have fallen victims, with some of them reported to have been killed and others seriously injured. Sunday Trust gathered that about 11 motorcycles were also set ablaze. Dozens of injured children from the attack were reportedly taken to the Mohammed Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital in Kano by plain-clothes securitymen for treatment.

Similarly, Sunday Trust gathered that some displaced persons taking refuge in police barracks mobilized and attacked a nearby motor park and burnt seven vehicles belonging to Hausa men.

Nigerian Red Cross officials said six camps were set up for more than 21000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bukavu Barracks, Air Force Base, Bompai Police Barracks, Mobile Barracks and some other places to cater for the victims of the crisis.

The Branch Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Musa D Abdullahi, however told Sunday Trust that the numbers have since reduced drastically as some of the affected have returned to their homes, while others have been reunited with their families.

He said only about 29 number of families now take shelter at Hotoro Mobile barracks, adding that securing affordable accommodation is proving to be difficult for them as landlords have increased house rents in the area. The Red Cross scribe described the condition as pathetic and stressed that the violence was uncalled for in the first place.

It was however gathered that some victims are still yet to return to their houses either because the homes have been destroyed, or due to fear, thus taking refuge at the premises of some churches within the state. Our correspondent also learnt that many non-indigenes fled the state even before the gubernatorial elections last week.

When the news of the death of Al-Qaeda’s leader and founder, Osama Bn Laden, hit the airwaves earlier in the week, the fragile peace prevailing in the state was almost shattered, as panicking people ran back to military and police barracks as well as Sabon Gari for fear of violent reactions.

Some of them had to be convinced by the police to return to their houses, and when they did, nothing untoward happened. Nonetheless, the initial panic over Osama’s death underscored the tension in the state, which may take time to heal.