By KINGSLEY OMONOBI, CLIFFORD NDUJIHE, SAM EYOBOKA, JIMOH BABATUNDE, IFEANYI OKOLI, DANIEL ETEGHE, LUKA BINNIYAT,  DAPO AKINREFON, SUSAN EDEH, OLAYINKA LATONA & PROVIDENCE OBUH
ABUJA—BLOODBATH in some parts of the country following  last Saturday’s presidential electiontests against the outcome of the Presidential elections  continued for the third day running, yesterday, with at least 15 persons including four NYSC members, a clergyman and a female police corporal killed in Bauchi.

In Kaduna, the violence  spread to all the three senatorial zones of the State recording several deaths and destruction of property.

Addressing newsmen, yesterday, at the police headquarters in Bauchi, the state Commissioner of Police, Amama John Abakasanga, said that Police stations in Itas, Jama’are, Giade, Dambam and Misau were also torched by the protesting youths while over 200 suspects across the state have been arrested in connection with the rioting.

Similarly, about four INEC offices were burnt  in Bauchi, Dambam, Misau and Jama’are LGAs while 500 laptops used for the voters registration exercise were looted by the enraged youths who attacked the INEC offices as confirmed by the Bauchi State REC, Iliya Audu.

Bloodbath continues in Kaduna State

In Kaduna State, Governor Patrick Yakowa, yesterday, announced the extension of the 24-hour curfew imposed on the state as violence subsided in parts of  Kaduna metropolis but escalated in other places in the state.

The Governor, who toured where thousands were taking treatment and refuge at St. Gerard Hospital, 44 Army Referral Hospital and  Barau Dikko Hospitals in Kaduna, expressed regrets over the carnage, and promised to offset their bills.

The violence has now spread to all the three senatorial zones of the State. Police Spokesman, DSP Aminu Lawan, who confirmed this in a telephone chat said: “The Police, the Military and other sister agencies are all doing their best to contain the situation which has already got to normalcy  in Kaduna town.

“But right now, each of the 23 Local Government Area has some form of fighting going on. But it is worse in Zonkwa and Kafanchan in Zangon Kataf and Jema’a LGAs  and I want to tell you that the Army has already arrived there.”

Vanguard gathered on phone that heavy fighting continued in Kafanchan from around 8pm on Monday night till around noon yesterday. A source told Vanguard that suspected CPC supporters in the town had imported mercenaries who went around shooting PDP supporters and  non_Muslims and setting their homes and churches ablaze.

The source said in his hiding place: “I saw the body of a man beheaded after he was killed by these men.They are using grenade and rocket launchers, and the guns they are using are not mere AK47s.”

The Police in Kafanchan was unable to curtail the situation, after youths from surrounding  villages teamed up and entered Kafanchan around midnight to challenge the CPC armed men.

It was gathered that, with bows and arrows, cutlasses and sticks they managed to slow the advances of the attackers into some areas by their sheer number, but they were helpless as almost all the important churches and houses of Christians were completely burnt down.

In Zonkwa, irate CPC supporters set ablaze Faju Mali Hotel belonging to retired Col. Waziri Zonkwa. The response was swift from the opposing camp, who confronted them in a battle that saw heavy casualty on both sides, according to reports reaching our correspondent in Kaduna.

In Zaria, one Dr. Ali Obge of the Department of Guidance and Counselling, Faculty of Education, Ahmadu Bello Zaria, was one the scores of academics and students killed by the suspected CPC mob. A female unidentified student of ABU, Samaru Campus, Zaria, was killed, and her remains severed into two and dumped near a rail line. The picture of her gory remains was sent to Vanguard yesterday.

Kaduna State Chairman of the of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Bishop Sam Bakare in a telephone interview said that  in spite of the 24-hour curfew imposed by the state government, partysupporters armed with knives, sticks, bows and arrows moved about especially around 10:00 pm and 2:00am from house to house attacking  people and burning their homes..

Some emirs in the north have now run to Abuja for fear of being attacked by youths  protesting the results of the presidential elections especially after houses of top traditional rulers were burnt.

“Abuja is now the biggest palace in Nigeria,”one observer said after meeting some emirs at Hilton hotel. The protesters alleged that the traditional rulers in the north worked for the PDP and saw this as political mismanagement of their domain. Protesters had singled out some PDP members and torched their houses.

At least 33 killed in violence

Reuters noted yesterday that the post-election rioting had killed at least 33 people in major cities alone, according to a tally from witnesses and rescue workers, but the overall death toll is believed to be much higher.

It said its correspondent saw five charred corpses lying in the Gonin-Gora neighbourhood of Kaduna, where the local government said it had already collected 12 bodies. A resident said two more bodies were lying outside his house.

The Red Cross confirmed at least six dead from Monday’s riots in the city of Kano further north and eight dead in Katsina. There were also fatalities in the town of Zaria and in Sokoto in the remote northwest but the toll was unknown.

IG redeploys 300 MOPOL officers from Lagos

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Abubakar Ringim, has ordered the immediate redeployment of about 300 Mobile Policemen from Lagos to Kaduna.

Vanguard gathered that the decision of the IGP to redeploy the Mobile policemen followed the argument that since this is a democratic dispensation and Nigerians have just come out of an electioneering process in which they freely exercised their franchise, resorting to the use of the military so soon, might be misinterpreted.

A senior police officer told Vanguard: “The situation calls for drastic action hence the action of the IGP.”
Asked what will happen to Lagos if such a huge number of MOPOL personnel was moved out, the officer said they would be replaced immediately adding that the Police had envisaged such crises in an election period.

Contacted on the development, the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Olusola Amore confirmed the redeployment saying it was to reinforce the security of lives and property but added that it was a strategic action that ought not to be an item for the media as it may expose the police officers to danger.

Buhari, Bafarawa sue for peace

Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Maj General Muhammadu Buhari and 2011 presidential aspirant on the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Dr Attahiru Bafarawa yesterday called for an end to boiling post-election violence, describing it as unfortunate and sad.

Insisting that the mayhem  was  totally unwarranted, Buhari dissociated himself and his party, the CPC, from the violence, which has claimed many lives and destroyed properties worth billions of Naira.

In a statement, by Mr. Yinka Odumakin, his media spokesman, Buhari said: “In the last 24 hours, there has been a spate of violence across certain parts of the country. What started mainly as a political protest reportedly included the burning of worship places. This is sad, unfortunate and totally unwarranted development.”

The CPC presidential candidate, while condemning  the ongoing violence stressed the need for restoration of peace and tranquility in the crisis-ridden states, noting: “I must say that this dastardly act is not initiated by any of our supporters and therefore cannot be supported by our party.

I would, therefore, like to seize this opportunity to disassociate myself and the Congress for Progressive Change from any such act. I must emphasise that this is purely a political matter, and it should not in anyway be turned into an ethnic, religious or regional one.”

In like manner, Bafarawa in a statement titled: “Stop the violence now,” said the irony of  arson, killings and looting “which is lost on those causing this mayhem is that the people whose properties are destroyed are their kith and kin. The people killed and maimed are our brothers and sisters.”

CAN warns perpetrators

CAN, yesterday, warned perpetrators of the violence against plunging the nation into another catastrophe few weeks after the resolution of a devastating experience in Cote d’Ivoire.

National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor in a terse letter, appealed to all politicians, Christian leaders and Muslim Ulamahs in every part of the country to eschew violence in all ramifications, saying that those who are not satisfied with the outcome of the presidential elections should seek redress through the nation’s legal system.

Oritsejafor said: “This appeal has become necessary because the Nigerian nation has come of age where young people should not just be used as guinea pigs who must be offered for sacrifice while the children of the politicians are studying in choice schools in Europe and America.”