Jos: 16 Killed In Students’ Protest

Posted by admin Plateau, State News, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua (2007-10) Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Sixteen lives were lost yesterday in Jos as armed youths took on soldiers in a free for all. The crisis was a fallout of Friday’s shooting of 15 students of the University of Jos.

Also, filling stations, shops and several houses were burnt yesterday in the Farin Gada area.

Speaking to newsmen in Jos, the assistant secretary of the Ulama Council of Elders in Jos confirmed that 16 persons were killed. He added that four filling stations belonging to Muslims were burnt down.

As early as 6am, a thick smoke billowed from burnt facilities as agitated women and youths of Farin Gada neighbourhoods took on the soldiers of the Special Task Force by shooting catapults at them. In the ensuing battle, four filling stations were burnt down as the youths, most of them aged 15 and 18, led by agitated female students of the university, went berserk on hearing that two out of the 15 students that were shot by armed soldiers had died from the injuries they received in the hands of trigger-happy soldiers of the STF codenamed Operation Safe Haven.

As at press time, parts of Farin Gada in Jos North local government area of the state were still in flames.

Our correspondent who visited the neighbourhood saw two corpses lying face-down, while those who received bullets wounds were being rushed to Jos University Teaching Hospital and Birmingham University Teaching Hospital for treatment.

Throughout the city, armed soldiers and police anti-riot squad were patrolling in their numbers.

Speaking to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, the commissioner of information, Mr Gregory Nyelong, described the shooting of students as very unfortunate. He said the state government was monitoring the situation and called on all law-abiding residents of Jos city to remain calm.

He said: “In view of the security breach which occurred yesterday and today at the permanent site of the University of Jos and Farin Gada-Bauchi road axis in Jos metropolis, government condemns these acts of terrorism and unprovoked attacks on citizens by hoodlums and miscreants and hereby directs the Special Task Force on security to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice.’’

The president of the National Association of Plateau Students, Comrade Seti Mwansat, in an interview with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, confirmed the death of two students and wounding of 14 others. The university’s vice chancellor, Professor Sunny Tyoden, told newsmen that 14 of the wounded students were receiving treatment at Birmingham University Teaching Hospital.

Tyoden, however, noted that no student died in yesterday’s protest. He added that the university authority would, on Monday, decide on whether to close the institution for now or allow the session to continue.

Yesterday’s protest between agitated residents and students was a reaction to the shooting of some students of the university by armed soldiers of the STF when students took to the streets over the stabbing of two students by some hoodlums on Friday .

The students were said to have been stabbed by a group in a bus. However, the encounter led to the stabbing of another two by the hoodlums. This angered the students and they went on a rampage in front of the Village Hostel.

The STF was said to have rushed to the scene of the protest to restore order, but the pandemonium that ensued led to the shooting of some students. Eyewitnesses said that the injured students were rushed to the school clinic for treatment.

Spokesman of the STF Captain Charles Ekeocha told newsmen that he was yet to get details of the incident even as residents of Jos, on hearing of the sound of fresh shooting in the Tin City, scampered to safety while night crawlers quickly abandoned their relaxation joints and rushed home to avoid being victims.

-Leadership

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