In the aftermath of the incident that claimed the life an indigene of Abalamabie Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, the Northern Community in Bonny, especially, the Muslim Ummah, have come out to exonerate themselves from any culpability. They maintain that should the ongoing probe of the circumstances around the death of now deceased Iwarimie Longjohn implicate any Hausa, Muslim, or any Northerner at all, the law should take its course. They further informed that, in the wake of the unfortunate incident, their kinsmen, who were involved in the fracas, took proactive steps to alert the authorities to intervene to save the situation.
The Chief Imam of Bonny LGA, Yusuf Lamis, who advanced this position in an exclusive interview with Kristina Reports’ Security Correspondent, Susan Pepple, also lamented what appears to him to be an ethnic profiling of Northerners living in Bonny and what he perceives as discrimination, harassment and other unfortunate situations the Muslim Ummah are subjected to, urging the relevant authorities to intervene to douse the tension. Below are the excerpts:
Can you tell us what happened a day before yesterday at Coconut Estate?
When we heard about the issue we sent our delegates but from the Hausa Community leadership, which is headed by Alhaji Sanusi but in his absence, his deputy, which is in the person of Alhaji Ibrahim, and likewise one of our members, Alhaji Bara’u Musa, who was the former slaughter Chairman. They went to the scene of the event, which we thank God really. They reached there and they met with the Navy and likewise they reached the place where some of the bad boys wanted to invade. They (bad boys) even invaded the place which they call Burukutu, where they cook local beer. So, from the call I received, this thing has been happening, even before yesterday. It is already on the desk of the Hausa Community leadership. We are preparing to write a letter of complaint to the relevant authorities and the Palace and the Bonny Youth Federation. We have written before. What is really happening that is always alarming is whenever something happens that is wrongly committed by an Hausa man, the bad boys – I cannot really accuse the Bonny people – but the bad boys are taking it as an advantage, which is happening everywhere to be frank and candid. They misuse every opportunity. So, whenever something happens that has been committed wrongly or by mistake or by negligence or by driving as an okada, they will take that to apply to every Muslim, not even the Hausa, but every Muslim, which is very unfair. We have been complaining about it. We presented our paper that these things should stop. We are 100% in support that if a Hausa man did something wrongly he should be treated accordingly. If he can be prosecuted before the court of justice, he should be taken to the court. If the matter is a minor one that can be brought to the community leadership, we deal with him. We have leadership. Some we send them out; anybody that as an Hausa man that wants to cause problem we send them out. We have records of that, and even the police are aware. They are supporting us to pursue any bad person because of one person we cannot cause problem to the general society. So, now what happened is exactly the same scenario, we have some scrap people. Whenever they want to load their scrap to Port Harcourt, there are some bad boys that comes to challenge them, taxing them, very high tax. Some may even charge fifty thousand naira. Some of their leaders, then their boys will come and collect another additional money. We have records of those people that are the victims. They give me that testimony, about four to five different Hausa people that some of these bad boys are maltreating. The same thing was what happened yesterday, those boys came intimidating them with their lawful business. So, when the intimidation was so high, the Hausa people called the attention of the security personnel. When those bad boys saw them coming they became afraid and they took their boat, while running on the sea, one of them fell into the water. This is exactly the information gathered. So, we are not in dispute with the ongoing investigation to know what really happened. This is just hearsay, it has to be investigated. Whatever happens, we are in support that the person that committed any wrong should be punished. Yesterday, we had to take measures because they have even started attacking people at the burukutu place by the side of Oil and Gas Polytechnic. Those boys had to defend themselves otherwise it would have escalated beyond that point. The boys stood up and said, No, for what? What have we done to you? Because we are not indigenes. We really have to thank the Police Division Headquarter here for the action the DPO took yesterday, he went there in person. So, really the security agencies have really tried. Unfortunately, this morning, we heard that the corpse was found that it is really the boy that fell into the water and he has died. This is really what we have gathered, so far. We really don’t know the authenticity because we have to investigate. We are looking for the boys, even our boys but it’s like they have arrested some of them yesterday. If something happens the security agents have every right to make arrests till when investigation proves otherwise. That is why we are not able to access them to have the information from the real people concerned.
How has this affected the relationship between the Bonny people and the Hausa people?
Really, Bonny people are accommodating. We cannot really say anything negative against the Bonny people. I am telling you this from the bottom of my heart. Not only me, all the Muslims in Bonny, not only the Hausa people. People in Bonny are accommodating but our problem is that the senior ones and the good amd responsible citizens should be able to understand the scenario very well. Let there not be anytime that any Hausa man commits something wrong by mistake or by act of negligence and it is transferred to generality of the Hausa or Muslim Community. It is very wrong. We want to assure you that the Hausa and Muslim Communities are in support that any child of ours that commits something wrong should be punished accordingly. If it is in the eye of law let him be taken or if it is not up to that level let him be brought to the Hausa Community level. This is really the alarming for the other innocent, responsible people. Let them understand the picture. We are not really happy, I can’t lie to you. We are not really happy with the conduct of some people, when they heard something like this one they start fabricating somethings, which is bad. It is not new to us, it has been happening. Somebody among those boys was telling one of our brothers, Alhaji Bara’u Musa, that because he took the appropriate approach by informing the security agencies, he was informed that one of the leaders of the bad boys was telling him that ‘you are intimidating us with the security personnel, for what?’ If not security who can you report somebody of that manner, we have to report and we are now planning to make a proper letter of complaint to the various community stakeholders as we have done before. Something of this nature happened some time ago. They scattered our bike, they injured them we suffered but at the end, we thank God for the composition of the Allison Compound leadership. We have to appreciate them because of the love they showed to us. We wrote this one, we visited the palace; we wrote ‘Forgiving Letter’ because they wanted to settle us. They realized that the problem came from their children. At another time, at big market while they were struggling with a thief who wanted to steal our property and that boy had to defend his property. As a citizen, he has the right to defend his property; while defending his property, the indigene got injured and then they said Hausa man has injured a Bonny man. There was one that also happened in relation to sugar cane at Ama Hausa, the same thing happened. Are we not all citizens of Nigeria? Why are our people being treated differently? If an Ogoni man did something wrong or Igbo man they are not treated like that. It’s discrimination; we take it to be discrimination, I can’t hide this from you. This is the reason we are not happy and we have started reporting to our people in the North that this is the only challenge we have, because our leadership asked us. In terms of social co-existence we don’t have problem with Bonny people. They are tolerant and they do the needful. But in terms of when information comes they don’t verify, they say no indigene. We are all equal in front of the court of law, so let’s be treated accordingly.
In the light of what you have explained now, what will be your advice to the general public in order not to record a recurrence of this incident?
My advice, I have to stipulate it as I already mentioned, people should be able to verify information. I am very happy with the way you came, this is how we ought to do. You see somebody from America bombarding on Facebook because of the Hausa man, are we mad? Even though we are Nigerians we know this is not our hometown. We try the best we can in terms of admonishing our boys. They cheat them in different ways. I am telling you. Apart from that, they visit the suya people and they collect N3,000, N5,000 worth of suya and refused to pay. What kind of maltreatment is that? As for our bikers, if not because of how we have been preaching to them, going to Ama Hausa, Akiama, Workers’ Camp; we, the leaders, admonishing them, advising them, even if you are cheated of N50 what is N50? We underrate it, it’s not right but we suppress them. We enjoin them to be patient. ‘You have left your hometown, you have to be more patient because people are not the same. Some are ignorant, some are using that opportunity to cause havoc.’ What we are trying to establish here is the issue of verification of information when received, not the moment a Hausa, because it’s inevitable. I can’t promise you that the Hausa man can never commit wrong in the future. We are here and we are in thousands, so, you can’t promise such. But when something happens we should verify first and we should arrest the person in question and not to escalate it to make every Muslim to be a victim including the Yoruba they attack them the moment they appear as Muslims. So, we are trying to transform the religious sentiment, which is that if a Hausa man does something, let it be treated accordingly. Let me give you an example, the people that invaded the burukutu place are Christians. You know Muslims, we don’t drink but they are our brothers from the North. But they invaded the place. Is it because we are Northerners? Which is not good. We don’t give bad testimony against Bonny to be candid. Let there be a kind of communication like what you have done. This is very fantastic! At the peak of the matter, let it be verified. Our call numbers are always available. I am here for all Muslims, not only Hausas. Then we have the Muslim Community leadership. At least, we have three contacts so that whenever something happens we can narrate exactly what happened based on our knowledge. We can’t lie. So, this is exactly what I can advise if you can follow the footstep of verification and even prosecution we are in support, the Hausa Community and the Muslim Community are in support because nobody can accommodate a criminal. Thank you.
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