GOVERNOR ORTOM SPEAKS AS ARMY ARRESTS AIDE FOR ‘MASTERMINDING’ BENUE KILLINGS
GOVERNOR
ORTOM SPEAKS AS ARMY ARRESTS AIDE FOR ‘MASTERMINDING’ BENUE KILLINGS
Governor
Samuel Ortom will allow the law take its course after the Nigerian Army
arrested one of his aides for allegedly masterminding recent killings in Benue
State, his top adviser has told REPORTERS.
Aliyu
Teshaku, head of Benue Livestock Guards, was arrested on Friday by the the
Army’s 707 Special Forces Brigade in Makurdi on suspicion of his involvement in
some of the deadly attacks recorded across the state since January 1.
The Army
said Mr Teshaku was a Boko Haram suspect and his arrest had input from the
police and the State Security Service (SSS).
Some of
the allegations include his alleged involvement in the attack on a Catholic
Church on Tuesday in which at least 15 worshipers were killed, including two
Catholic priests.
But some
Benue activists are seeing his arrest as a persecution for his fierce
opposition to herdsmen activities in the state.
Leaders of
Miyetti Allah have repeatedly called for Mr Teshaku’s arrest, accusing him of
enforcing the anti-open grazing law and leading a militia allegedly raised by
the governor.
While
announcing the arrest, Olabisi Ayeni, spokesperson for the Nigerian Army in
Makurdi, said security agents moved in in time to prevent attacks that were
being hatched by Mr Teshaku and his cohorts in Bauchi, Borno and Yobe and
Nasarawa States.
The Army
described him as Aminu Yaminu (a.k.a.: Tashaku), but REPORTERS findings
revealed that the suspect’s name is Aliyu Teshaku.
He was
once detained at the Force Headquarters in June 2011 when he turned himself in
after being declared wanted as a Boko Haram suspect. But he was later released
by the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), then headed by Babagana Monguno, now
the National Security Adviser, in September 2011.
The police
said they released Mr Teshaku to the DIA in the spirit of inter-agency
cooperation after the agency requested for him.
Mr Teshaku, however, denied the
allegations in an interview with REPORTERS in March, saying the DIA
released him because there was no evidence to establish his connection to Boko
Haram.
The arrest
is seen by some Benue officials as a setback for the Ortom administration’s
efforts against the activities of herdsmen in the state.
Mr Teshaku
became the head of Civilian Joint Task Force tasked with checking herdsmen
attacks in Benue and Nasarawa States in 2013. But his group later changed its
name to Benue Livestock Guards following the introduction of anti-open grazing
law in Benue State last year.
The
Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Benue State has long accused Mr
Teshaku of terrorising herdsmen and other Benue residents of Hausa or Fulani
origin.
Following
the January 1 killings of over 100 people in Logo and Guma Local Government
Areas of Benue, Mr Teshaku was accused of being the head of a militia allegedly
raised by Mr Ortom.
In
January, Nigerian soldiers arrested nine suspected killer herdsmen on the Benue
border with Taraba State. They accused Mr Teshaku of providing arms to the
suspects.
But in an
interview with the Nigerian Tribune shortly after the allegations, Mr Teshaku
accused the military of trying to frame him. He also said the military was
carrying out the agenda of Miyetti Allah which remained vehemently opposed to
the anti-open grazing law.
He added
that Benue Livestock Guards had about 2,500 members and eight of them were
killed in the January 1 attack in Guma because they were not armed.
Mr Ortom
also denied the allegations of raising any militia, saying the Nigerian
security agencies should rise to their duty and end killings of his people. He
inherited Mr Teshaku’s group from former Governor Gabriel Suswam and kept it in
place because of continued attacks by suspected herdsmen.
‘No foul play’
Paul
Hembah, security adviser to Mr Ortom, said no ulterior motive was suspected on
the part of federal government, even though he acknowledged the longstanding
opposition of Miyetti Allah to Mr Teshaku.
“The
governor has said he will not support any criminality from anyone, no matter
who the person may be,” Mr Hembah, a retired colonel, told NEWS REPORTERS by
telephone Saturday morning. “The governor will not interfere in his arrest or
his release.”
“The
governor is working to end the killings so if anyone is caught, the law should
take its cause,” he added.
“We don’t
suspect any foul play. We don’t think the federal government or the army is
doing this to persecute him. But he would be arraigned in court and I am sure
the security agency will bring out any evidence they have against him,” he
said.
He
indicated that the Benue Livestock Guards would not be disbanded as a result of
the arrest.
“Naturally,
someone else would be appointed to replace him because the Benue Livestock
Guards would not be disbanded,” he said.
On why the
governor did not take action despite all allegations against Mr Teshaku, Mr
Hembah said Mr Ortom found it was inappropriate to act based on allegations in
the media rather than established wrongdoing.
In the
view of David Ogbole, a Pentecostal preacher and head of the Movement against
Fulani Occupation in Benue State, Mr Teshaku is being arrested for constituting
a major threat to the Miyetti Allah agenda in the state.
Mr Ogbole
told NEWS REPORTERS that Mr Teshaku’s group had done more to check killings and
anti-open grazing in the state than the security agencies.
“When the
‘Exercise Ayem Akpatuma’ soldiers were first deployed here in February, the
first action they took was to arrest eight members of the Livestock Guards,” Mr
Ogbole said by telephone Saturday morning.
The pastor
acknowledged that Mr Teshaku has a controversial history, but said he had since
repented and his latest actions have been to the service of his people on
Benue.
“It is
okay for the government to extract his nuisance value and he has been
protecting the people of Benue from killers,” he said. “This is what the
Nigerian security agencies could not do.”
Mr Ogbole
said herdsmen activities have gotten worse since military launched its
exercise, saying soldiers and policemen have no directive to go after killers.
“Hundreds of villages have now been taken over by herdsmen whose cows are
barrelling towards farmlands and eating yams and cassava,” Mr Ogbole said.
“This is because the killers had cleared the villages by killing people and
sending hundreds of thousands others into the IDP camps.”
“The
Nigerian people should know that the military did not arrest the actual militia
but only carrying out the agenda of Miyetti Allah who had long demanded the
arrest of a man who has been working to protect Benue people from invaders,”
the pastor added. “They should go after the killers in their hideouts, not
someone who poses a threat to the actual killers.”
Mr Ogbole
also condemned the military for obscuring Mr Teshaku to fool the public, saying
the failure to identify him as the head of Benue Livestock Guards was
calculated to deceive the public.
Mr Ayeni
did not respond to NEWS REPORTERS requests for clarification about why Mr
Teshaku was identified as Aminu Yaminu in a press statement even though
official documents and long time news reports about him showed his real name is
Aliyu Teshaku.