Nigerian toddler asks U.S. police to curb Kwande killings
AFIVE-year-old Nigerian girl resident in the United States (U.S.) has drawn the attention of the American police to the killings in Kwande Local Council of Benue State.
The toddler, Iyuana Tushima, who hails from Kwande but lives with her parents in Maple Glen, Pennsylvania, in the last week of June called the local police to arrest the perpetrators of the violence in Kwande.
According to her father, Tushima, little Iyuana called the emergency phone 911 to report the killings in Kwande.
This happened while the father was away and the mother was busy doing laundry.
"She told the officer who talked with her that some bad people were killing her people and she wanted the police to go and arrest them," Tushima said.
When the officer asked where this was happening, Iyuana reportedly said it was in Nigeria. He then asked how old she was and the girl said she was five.
"At that point the officer demanded to talk to her mum," the father said, explaining that the police wanted to be sure that the girl was not talking about domestic violence.
After the mother had explained the issue to the police, they sent an officer to the house to explain to the girl that they had no powers to go to Nigeria and arrest the fighters.
Tushima, who emigrated to the U.S. in 2001 to study at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, said his daughter obviously picked up the issue of the political killings during their family prayer sessions.
During the sessions, he said the family regularly prayed that the violence in Kwande should stop, the wounded should be healed and the culprits be held accountable.
"I didn't realise that my daughter understood everything," he remarked.
Tushima said his wife travelled to Nigeria immediately after the police incident and he had observed that his daughter was now praying regularly for the mother's safety in Nigeria.
This, he noted, indicated that she was aware that the place her mother was visiting was not safe.
The Tushimas hail from Jato Aka, one of the towns destroyed in Kwande by a military group identified as the Tiv Defence Corps.
Tushima said an uncle and an aunt of his were killed in the violence.
The violence started with the cancellation of the March local council elections in the area, which the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) claimed to have won.
