Kano bombings: Igbo reject mass burial
Senate yesterday pleaded with the presidency to end the recurring loss of lives to bomb blasts even as it urged President Jonathan to consider other security options in tackling insecurity. This is coming even as Igbo leaders insisted that the victims of Monday’s blast at the Luxury Bus Park in Kano should not be given mass burial. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over Wednesday’s plenary, described the explosions as “unfortunate and regrettable”.
His words: “We must do everything as a country to end this carnage. The life of every Nigerian means a lot to all of us…We must do everything to put a stop to what is happening. All the relevant committees should find a solution to what is happening”. Following the suicide bomb attacks in which five luxury buses were targeted, killing more than 22 people, the leadership of the Igbo in Kano have demanded three remedial actions from the Federal Government. Igbo leaders in the North tacitly passed a vote-of-no-confidence in Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, over his inability to commiserate with the victims 48 hours after the unfortunate incident.
The remedial actions sought by Igbos are: Rejection of mass burial for the victims ; setting up of a committee to collect and manage compensation funds and that Federal Government should beef up security around Ndigbo and other endangered groups in the North. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, made these known on the floor of the Senate yesterday. Shortly before the plenary, Chukwumerije raised Order 43 (personal explanation) of the Senate Standing Rules (2007, as amended). Unlike other motions, Chukwumerije’s motion was not opened to debate as stipulated by the order.
Chukwumerije stood ramrod straight in his all-white attire and told the Senate that based on the deluge of phone calls from Ohanaeze and the leadership of Igbo in Kano and eyewitnesses, the dead were between 100 and 120, while 80 per cent of the victims were Igbo. Besides, Chukwumerije said, “Ndigbo will not continue to be the sacrificial lamb of Nigeria’s fractured history. “The point of what happened in Kano, the multiple explosions, that aroused our concern is the fact that the target, this time, seems to be unquestionably ethnic/regional. Most of the former targets had been vaguely religious, had been vaguely the masses.
But from the feedback we got from Kano and from the consequences of the bombings, it now seem that the attack is ethnic/regional and we believe this must be addressed at the earliest possible opportunity because we know that the social fabric of this country suffers from two fault lines: ethnicity and religion. “These are fault lines enemies of the state can exploit in order to cause tension within the country. A total of five buses were involved. After the first bus which was heading to Lagos was involved in a head-on collision which became engulfed in fire, a second bus heading towards Port Harcourt was also hit, which set three other buses on fire.
“Far more than that, the first two buses were fully loaded and put together, both buses had 155 passengers, excluding the drivers and attendants were affected. Going by the estimate of eyewitnesses, they said the dead were at least 100 and 120 and from the perception of one ethnic group, 80 per cent of those killed were Igbo. The remaining 20 per cent is made up of different ethnic groups were other southerners and some northerners who were hawkers… “In our country, the two most sensitive areas which our history has shown up always are tribe/religion…The group perception of Igbo all over Kano was that the attack was targetted primarily at them because they lost so much property and human beings.
“They expected the governor to come and say: ‘Sorry, please.’ They said that would show that the governor cares for them. The (state) government has lost an opportunity of isolating the terrorists as marginal on the fringe of society. The victims would have the impression that everybody is involved; they are all against us which is not true! “The least the people expect now are three: Government must do all it can on security, not only for the Igbo in the North, but for all citizens: the Igbo in the North are saying that let the Federal Government manage whatever compensation funds they want to give for this. The people say they do not trust such funds in the hands of Kano State Government; and three, they don’t want mass burial. They want to quietly take their people home and give them decent burial…”
On his part, Chairman of the State and Local Government Administration, Senator Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, who represents Kano South, bemoaned a situation where some states are better policed than Kano which had been the victim of Boko Haram attacks. “Mr President, it is appalling that we have only 8,000 policemen in Kano to monitor security in the state when Lagos has 33,000, Kaduna has 13,000 and Port Harcourt also has 13,000 policemen! From history, Kano State has been business partners with other tribes in Sabon Gari but some forces are being deployed to fan embers of disunity. “Some people are working against the unity of this nation.
Yet, government is not doing anything. Nobody lives in peace anymore and people are afraid to move around. The latest report I got now is that our children are even afraid to go to school because of what happened in Maiduguri. Are we going to continue like this?”, he querried. Ekweremadu however, shot down attempts by Senators to conribute to Chukwumerije’s and Gaya’s comments. He reiterated that the extant order cited by Chukwumerije did not allow for debate on the floor. Senate thereafter observed a minute silence in honour of the victims.
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