‘What we lost in the post-election crisis’
Weekly Trust met a family whose house was burnt along Federal Low Cost, Bauchi. They were evacuating the remaining property from their destroyed house to a safer place; the woman was crying and refused to talk to newsmen. In Zaria, Reverend Olugdamisola Shoebeinbe was attacked Monday morning of 18 April, when he was getting set […]
Weekly Trust met a family whose house was burnt along Federal Low Cost, Bauchi. They were evacuating the remaining property from their destroyed house to a safer place; the woman was crying and refused to talk to newsmen.
In Zaria, Reverend Olugdamisola Shoebeinbe was attacked Monday morning of 18 April, when he was getting set to move out for his routine activities Rioting youths stormed his residence at No. 27 Cemetery Road Sabon Gari, carted away his valuables and set his house on fire. This has left Reverend Shoebeinbe and members of his family with no other option than to move to the Army Depot Barracks as refugees.
As at the time Reverend Shoebeinbe was attacked, he didn’t know why. It was later in the day that he learnt the attackers were protesting the presidential election result being released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“We are living in the Barracks now. Life has not been easy since after the incident but we have to thank God that we came out of the fracas alive. It was only my Dad who was wounded on the leg but myself, wife, three children and two relatives escaped unhurt. Our target is to see how we can gather the pieces left for us and return to our normal lives,” Reverend Shoebeinbe said.
The ripples of the violence also had its toll on the FCT as rumour went round that there was violence in some parts of the capital city. The worst hit by this untoward rumour were the traders. Some of them spoke to Weekly Trust on how it affected their business that day. “We usually go to the abattoir early in the morning to get fresh meat,” said Malam Ado Inusa, a trader in Utako Market. “Many of us had returned to our respective markets where our goods were already displayed when we heard chaotic noise and people running helter-skelter. I lost a lot of the meat in the process with some falling to the ground and I was too scared to bother about them. I again lost some more due to lack of preservation. I never had to preserve that much meat because no matter how bad my day goes, I sell at least eighty percent of my stock before the end of day. The left over from that, we consume at home or freeze till the following day. But on this occasion, no less than N60, 000 worth of meat went down the drain.”
It was a similar experience for Austin Izuh who sells second-hand clothes in the same market. “Mondays are the days we open bales. I was in the middle of this when I saw people running towards the market from Arab Contractors Junction. Without knowing what was going on, my customers immediately started running away. Some went away with my goods in their hands, others made incomplete payment, and some others just dropped the things and went off. For now I can only estimate my losses in how much I would have made if I had sold as I usually do which comes to about N80, 000.”
Mrs. Imuetinyan Osagie, who trades in provisions in Wuse Market lamented as she was unable to sell anything on the eventful day. “I was on my way to my shop when I received a call warning me of the situation. Since I was almost there, I decided to continue on. On getting there, I realised I should not have bothered to go because the entire market was shut and cordoned off by policemen. All of us traders hanged around the market in the hope that we may be able to open up for business at some point in the day. But this was not to be. So I came back home not being able to transact anything.”
Alhaji Sanusi, who sells fruits in Utako Market, said: “I saw people running. I asked what was going on and I was told that riot is happening. I didn’t flee because the police arrived to calm us down.” He wasn’t able to raise the amount of money he normally makes in a day because of the event. The amount he made on that they was just N500 as compare to other days that he made as much as a thousand.
While some were being tyrannical in the society, a hero of sorts was going about doing his best to save as many lives as he could. He made his home a temporary refugee camp of some sort irrespective of background, religion or tribe. Muhammed Ibrahim Gashash, who spoke to Weekly Trust said as at when the crisis started, no fewer than fifty persons fled to his house seeking refuge and he accommodated them. This was not difficult to do, according to him, because his home is an estate. “I am not a politician and people know this but I cannot stand and watch people suffer. I took in both the Christians and the Muslims. Some of them were classmates of my kids and had nowhere else to turn to for safety.”
Gashash advised people to divorce themselves from religious bias. “It was a political protest but people took the opportunity to turn it into something else, which is not fair. As long as we continue to have bias for other religions, we will never move forward in this country.” He also blamed government because, in his opinion, “as long as there is injustice, poverty and no jobs, this kind of thing will remain big challenges. People would appreciate if the government looks into these issues, it will go a long way in solving some of these problems we have on ground.”
As for Madam Rose whose shops were burnt, she begged government to compensate them as well as provide adequate security to their lives and properties. “Compensating only politicians is just to say we are not relevant and it’s not fair,” she said.