Gbagyi people of Issah community in Jere chiefdom of Kagarko Local Government in Kaduna, North-West Nigeria, have faulted Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yaro’s comments in favour of the chief of Jere, Dr. Sa’ad Usman, who was attacked last week and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

Speaking through its chairman, Ayuba Daro Kakaraka, the community alleged yesterday that most of the comments made by the governor through his Director General Media and Publicity, Ahmed Maiyaki, are “biased and not borne out of facts.”

Kakaraka alleged that the governor’s comments on the attack favoured the chief of Jere without proper investigation. The comments, according him, led to the unlawful arrest of 15 innocent members of the community, among them an Igbo trader, Friday Nwodo, who was returning from Ida Market.

Giving what he called the correct story about the incident which occurred last Friday, January 3, Kakaraka said trouble started “when Mr. Ayuba Barde was physically and grievously attacked on his farm by the chief of Lere in the presence of his bandits without any provocation from Barde who had no alternative than to attack him back in self defence. In the process Barde was shot and fatally wounded and left in the pool of his own blood to die. He was later taken to hospital where he is under intensive care.”

Continuing, the chairman said: “The truth is that if the chief of Jere had not gone to Barde’s farm and attacked him thereon, there would not have been any breach of peace.

“From the happenings, it was clear that the chief of Jere and his armed bandits went to the farm to murder Barde in order to frustrate the suite at the Kafanchan High Court and thus conscript his land to satisfy his insatiable greed for land.

“Since the unfortunate incident, the police have embarked on a one-sided and indiscriminate arrest, torture and detention of innocent Gbagyi youth who know nothing about the attempted murder of Barde by the chief of Jere. We demand the release of all Gbagyi youth in detention in respect of this matter or they be charged to court forthwith.”

Among the six-point demand by Gbagyi people is for the Kaduna State Government to create Dnata chiefdom as a panacea for permanent peace. They also called on the government to stop the chief of Jere from selling Gbagyi land and to stop any development on the said land till a permanent solution is found.

•Photo shows Governor Yero.

Update news