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Plateau: Alli sacks 6 top shots
•Tarok leaders allege extra-judicial killings
MOSES EZULIKE, Jos
ADMINISTRATOR of Plateau State,
Maj. Gen. Chris Alli (rtd), relieved six top government officials of their jobs
even as Tarok elders of Langtang petitioned Army authorities alleging
extra-judicial killings by troops posted to their area.
A statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG),
Mr John Gobak, which also announced the restructuring of ministries and slash in
their number from 20 to 14, said the officers sacked included chairmen of the
state’s Board of Internal Revenue, Rev. Steven Marah and his counterpart in the
Water Board, Mr Tagni.
Others are the Executive Secretaries of
both the Muslim and Christian Pilgrims Welfare Boards, Rev. Jonah Dakwat and
Alhaji Dunlami Muhammed respectively, Secretary of the Relevant Technology
Board, Mr Nanle Gujor and his colleague in the Tourism Corporation.
No reason was given for their removal.
The SSG asked the sacked officials to hand
over to the next most senior official in their agencies "with immediate effect."
In the restructuring new ministries were
created.
The new ministries are Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology, Works, Housing and Transport, Information,
Tourism and Culture, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Women Affairs and Social
Development as well as Justice.
Others are the Ministries of Environment
and Minerals Development, Finance, Lands, Survey and Town Planning, Local
Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Water Resources and Rural Development,
Youths and Sports as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The ministries of Urban Development,
parastatals and Inter-Governmental Affairs were abolished.
"The function of the Ministry of Urban
Development reverts to Jos Management Development Board (JMDB) while the three
ministries listed as follows. Science and Technology merged with Education,
Tourism and Culture merged with Information, while Housing is merged with Works
and Transport ministry also", Gobak said.
In the restructuring, some officers and
agencies were also abolished, including the state Assets Management Agency which
reverted to the Ministry of Works and Transport with the General manager’s
office abolished.
Others affected in the restructuring
include the state Agency for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, the state
Sanitation Agency as well as the Directorate of Political, Economic Affairs,
Strategic Planning and Research.
In a June 21, 2004 petition titled:
"Breach of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedom by the Army in Langtang North
and South Local Government Areas (April 2004 - June 2004)", the Tarok elders
said that they were forced to off-load their troubles to Gen. Martin Luther
Agwai, the Chief of Army Staff "because all the complaints made through other
units of the constitution, had not brought the required results which could have
manifested in the form of justice to placate the worried and dejected families
of the victims of these extra-judicial killings, deprivation of fundamental
rights and outright brutality."
They gave graphic details of series of
incidents, time and venues of such alleged incidents, and the victims’,
identities.
According to the elders, one Lunfa Amos
was killed "in cold blood" on April 7, 2004 allegedly by the soldiers who also
allegedly carried out another attack on April 28 on Toyota Isuzu vehicle at
Rawaya which was driven by one Tanko Yallum from Wase council area at about 1.00
pm.
They also alleged a shooting incident at
Mabudi, headquarters of Langtang South during which two persons were allegedly
killed, while nine others were fingered by the soldiers.
They claimed that "there are so many cases
of forceful confiscation of property, rape, arbitrary assets for ransom, etc."
The elders who signed the petition
included Messrs Lohtim Mandum, Maikano Dassah, Nehemiah N. Fyend and Cirban
Dirbong.
The elders who urged the Army chief to
help restore the confidence of their people in the Army, demanded that those
behind the alleged extra judicial killings be brought to book.
They also demanded that the "Army
personnel that were responsible for the forceful collection of four rams around
the Langtang airstrip on June 18, 2004, must be made to return them."
The petition was coped to President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, Speaker of House of Representatives, Alhaji
Aminu Masari.
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