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Atiku fingered in removal of Numan monarch, denies involvement
Senan John Murray and Yomi Odunuga, Abuja
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has been fingered in the recent removal of the Bachama paramount ruler, Hama Bachama, Mr. Freddie Soditi Bongo, who was recently deposed by the Adamawa State Governor, Mr. Boni Haruna, and banished from his domain following the outbreak of religious violence in Numan Local Government Area of the state.
Abubakar, who hails from Adamawa and Haruna, his political godson, were the subject of discussions among some Bachama elites, comprising serving and retired military generals and top politicians in Abuja who met over the weekend to review the Numan crisis that led to the death of over 17 persons last Tuesday.
The Bachama, a Christian ethnic group in Numan were last Tuesday involved in a violent clash with the Hausa/Fulani Muslim community in the area over the town�s central mosque sited behind Bongo�s palace.
The reconstruction of the mosque, which was destroyed during a similar religious clash in the town last year, had ignited passions among the native Christians who thought that the building the mosque�s minaret higher than the Hama Bachama�s palace was an assertion of dominance in the town.
Some Bachama youths who were not happy with the mosque minaret which towered feet above their paramount ruler�s palace were said to have demanded its demolition and relocation, a demand that was rejected by the Adamawa State Government.
Passions, however, boiled over last Tuesday when some persons mounted the mosque�s minaret to resume construction work on the controversial edifice, but were reportedly ordered by Bongo to discontinue the work, a directive that sparked off a new orgy of religious violence in the town.
Following the violence, the Muslim community in the area renewed its call for the removal of the Bachama paramount ruler or a declaration of emergency rule in the local government area as a solution to the protracted hostility between the Muslims and Christian Bachama.
Haruna, who visited Bongo immediately after the crisis to commiserate with the traditional ruler over the loss of lives and property in the conflict, promising his administration�s support in a quest for a final solution to the crisis.
However, barely 24 hours after his visit to the area, Haruna in a statewide radio and television broadcast announced the deposition of the traditional ruler and his banishment to Mubi town, located near the Nigeria/Cameroon border.
The Bachama opinion leaders who were shocked by the governor�s action attributed the removal of their Second Class traditional ruler to pressure from the vice president who they believed ordered the action to appease the angry Muslim community in Numan.
The vice-president who denied playing any role in Bongo�s removal, however, endorsed Haruna�s action.
Abubakar, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Media Matters, Dr. Onukaba Adinoyi Ojo, told our correspondents on the phone on Sunday, that Haruna sought his advice in handling the crisis, insisting, however, that he did not instigate the governor into taking the decision.
�Boni Haruna does not need to be teleguided by the vice-president to know what to do.
�As the governor of the state, he is capable of taking any decision on affairs affecting his state. The governor is constitutionally empowered to protect lives and property, � he stressed.
�But the vice-president was fully briefed by Boni Haruna and he (Abubakar) even offered to build an alternative mosque on another location.�
The PUNCH, Monday 14, 2004
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