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How I escaped death in Numan
How I escaped death in Numan
-Legal Aid boss
ACHILLEUS UCHEGBU, Asst. News Editor
and TONY AILEMEN, Yola
LEGAL luminary and
Chairman of the Legal Aid Council, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) last Tuesday escaped
death from rioters in crises-torn Numan, Adamawa State when his convoy ran into
them.
Chief Ojo who spoke to Daily Champion
highlighted the ethnic bitterness and brutality of the crisis and thanked the
Almighty God for saving his life.
However, uneasy calm still prevailed in
the Adamawa commercial hub, weekend, following the clash between Christian
Bachama youths and the Hausas which claimed at least 100 lives and led to the
destruction of property running into millions of naira.
The Legal Aid Council is the statutory
government agency that offers free legal services to indigent Nigerians.
The Council boss, Chief Ojo, who was on
his way to Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, on a tour, ran into the rioters,
who were protesting the erection of a mosque near the palace of Hamma Bachama.
Narrating his ordeal to Daily Champion,
Chief Ojo said the rioters, mostly Christians, mistook him for a Muslim as they
made to kill him.
According to him, the rioters, apparently
bent on "dealing with any Muslim in sight," had mounted road blocks on the major
highway and were checking passing vehicles for their proposed victims.
"When I arrived Numan with my team, we saw
the rioters. They blocked the road and were conducting checks.
"I was wearing a long Kaftan, like
a Hausa man. As my car passed, one of them saw me. He charged at me with his
spear while calling on the others.
"He actually held on to the door of the
car where I sat. He opened it, but I shouted at my driver to speed off. As he
sped off, the man still came charging with his spear, but thank God, we escaped
it," he said.
Chief Ojo said the "rioters mistook me for
a Muslim because of my attire.
"I saw them with spears, bows and arrows,
cutlasses and cudgels. Some had guns, and they were checking on every vehicle
that passed there," he recalled.
He was, however, full of praises to God
for enabling his escape from the rioters.
"I simply thank God. I just thank Him," he
repeated.
However, Numan remained a ghost of its
former self as at yesterday with scores of people who fled during the crisis yet
to return despite an appeal by Gov. Boni Haruna.
The clash between the Christian Bachamas
and the Muslim Hausas shook the historically peaceful state to its foundation
just as economic activities also suffered.
Gov. Haruna who visited the area, ordered
relief materials worth millions of naira to be distributed to the survivors last
Saturday.
In a broadcast, weekend, he called on
those who fled the area and the state to return and help rebuild Numan.
Several victims of the ethnic crises who
received relief materials at the Numan General Hospital, weekend, commended the
governor for responding promptly to their plight.
Shouts of "Nagode" (thank you)
filled the air as some composed songs and danced to show their joy with the
manner Gov. Haruna handled the crises.
Hundreds of fleeing Hausa children, the
elderly and women, some with their babies, had taken refuge at the hospital
close to the Numan police station to avoid being killed.
The governor also announced the removal of
the Hamma Bachama (traditional ruler) Sir Fredy Soditi Bongo.
He accused the royal father of taking
sides in the conflict.
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