A group under the aegis of Nyuwar Community Development Association has urged the Gombe State Government to institute a judicial commission of inquiry into ascertaining the true cause of attacks by gunmen suspected to be from Waja.
Disclosing this in a press statement signed on Thursday, by the National Chairman, Galiyos Zullum, titled ‘Nyuwar fourth unprovoked attack by suspected Waja militia’, the group bemoaned the perennial hardship its people were faced with.
Recall that on the 12th April and 13th 2021 the communities of Jessu and Nyuwar Districts were attacked by the same gunmen alleged to be Waja Militia where twenty lives were lost, over 2,000 houses were burnt down and property worth millions of naira destroyed.
According to Zullum, the recent event affected a military officer who came to quell the attack but was shot and had since been hospitalised and receiving treatment, leaving many others injured.
The statement read in part, “According to an eye witness, a Lunguda youth went to fetch water in the morning from a stream used for many years by both Waja and Lunguda situated at Tudun Wada in Gulyimora village Nyuwar, for the building of his house destroyed during last year April attack.
“However, he was chased away and he ran for his dear life with an injury he sustained from machete cuts, while his mud house was destroyed. The Lunguda boy was followed to a nearby secondary school where some students were harassed and they also ran for their lives.
“When the Army was alerted, they came to repel the Waja militia but they refused to leave, in the event, one soldier was shot but is now receiving treatment.
“They mobilised themselves outnumbering the security agents and started burning some houses at Lurkun of Chunyi village and Pandi in Gulyimora village Nyuwar, the African Church Pastorium was burnt down by the Waja militia at Chunyi village and a life was lost and many others injured.”
While lauding the deployment of security agents, the group noted that after last year’s incidences the two communities of Jessu and Nyuwar had expected that after Governor Muhammadu Yahaya visited them, a Judicial Commission of Inquiry would be set up to investigate the immediate remote cause of the attacks but that was not done, stressing that the Lunguda communities are peace-loving and law-abiding.
“Three months after, there was another attack on the 26th and 27th July 2021 and now Eleven months after, the fourth attack came as a result of lack of Judicial Commission of Enquiry into the matter.
“We pray that the Government should set up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry as done in other areas of communal clashes, to investigate the immediate remote cause of these persistent attacks and those found guilty should be made to face the wrath of the law.
“That a Technical Assessment Committee be put in place to assess the level of destruction and those affected should be compensated accordingly.
“That the condition of the internally displaced people old men, women and children be urgently looked into,” the statement added.
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