KANO BOMB ATTACKS : Northerners Take Refuge At Security Formations In Onitsha ... Tension envelops Kaduna, JNI insists on amnesty

Northerners, especially Hausas residents in Onitsha in Anambra State, have fled to various security formations in the state and neighbouring Delta State capital of Asaba for fear of possible reprisal attack following Monday’s Kano bus blasts in Kano in which many Igbo have been killed.

 

The fears came after the news of the bomb blast filtered in and so northerners hurriedly closed down their shops at bridge head in Ose Okwodu and other parts of the city and take refuge at the 302 Artillery Regiment Barracks and other police stations.

 

Although nobody or group was said to have carried any reprisal attack on members of Arewa community in Onitsha or any part of the state, they became frightened that given the degree of the bomb blast and its intentional nature, members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and other people in the state will take up arms against them.

 

However, a security source who pleaded anonymity said they got information that there could be violent attack on non indigenes in the commercial city of Onitsha and all security outfits mobilized to safeguard the lives and property of the northerners in the state.

 

But leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra ( MASSOB) Chief Ralph Uwazuruike has dismissed any possible reprisal in the entire southeast and called for calm.

 

Uwazuruike told newsmen that there will be no retaliation attack on Hausa residents in various cities across the southeast. “We are not known for bloodletting and Ndigbo cannot be cowed into shedding blood but we want an end to this senseless bloodletting of Igbos in the north in whatever name  it is called”, he said.

 

Boko Haram: Tension envelops Kaduna, JNI insists on amnesty 

There was tension in Kaduna on Tuesday  as  a result of  Monday’s bombing  of a Lagos-bound luxury bus in Kano,  which left 70 people dead and scores of others with various degrees of injuries.

Operation Yaki, the state security outfit, intensified patrol on major streets in the metropolis just to ward off trouble makers.
At the  Barnawa complex  area  in the southern part of the state, there was heavy presence of combat-ready soldiers.
Also, in the northern part of metropolis, there was stop and search conducted by soldiers at checkpoints, while the road leading to the Mando motor park was manned by heavily armed Air Force personnel
Meanwhile,  the umbrella body of Muslims, the Jama’atu Nasril Islam, on Monday insisted that to curb the insurgency in parts of the North, there was the need for the Federal Government to enter into a meaningful dialogue and  grant the insurgent groups amnesty.
Secretary-General of the JNI, Dr. Khalid Aliyu, while reacting to the bombing on the telephone, described the development as unfortunate and uncalled for.
He noted that the  incident underscored the point that security agencies in the country had yet to brace to the challenges in their hands.
He added that the JNI was deeply worried that the government had yet to come up with concrete  steps to tackle the security challenges in the region.
According to him, the Federal Government has been treating the issue of dialogue with insurgency groups with kids glove.
“All over the world, governments adopt amnesty or clemency as a veritable alternative to peace in the wake of any crisis,” he said.