A Survivor’s Account on How Irigwe Youths Attack Left 26 Muslim Travelers Dead in Jos North

At around 12 noon on Saturday when I was listening to the Annual Muhammadu Sanusi II Colloquium online, my network got interrupted by a call from a Jos-based friend. He was panting as he told me about an attack on travelers in Jos. He said he had no additional information, only that corpses are been brought to the Jos Central Mosque in blood.

I immediately began to make calls, hoping I could speak directly with a survivor if at all there’s any, but to no avail until the early hours of Sunday when I received an SMS from my source in Jos with the phone number of a survivor, Haruna Muhammad. He’s ready to be interviewed.

Haruna, 36, the only man from Ogun state who joined other 53 Ondo and few Kogi State-based Muslims to travel to Shaikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, a renowned Islamic Scholar of the Tijjaniya Sufi Order in his home in Bauchi state. The 54 Muslim faithful traveled in a convoy of 5 hummer busses from Ondo state through Jos and arrived at Bauchi in the early hours of Friday “for a Friday litany with the Shaikh,” said Haruna.

CAN Condemns Killing Of Muslim Travellers In The Plateau

“We left Bauchi for Ondo at around 7 o’clock in the morning through Jos.” The journey was all peaceful until around 10 am when “we arrived at a place block by some youths searching every car that’s passing. And when it came to our turn, we were asked to all step down of the cars.”

The youths began asking the drivers questions as to where the convoy is coming from and where they are heading to. “It was obvious they didn’t trust us,” Haruna said, but above all, the youths were irate. Before Haruna or any of his brothers speaks, the youth began shouting, hitting them with sticks, and suddenly, all the convoy dispersed into the nooks of Rukuba for their lives. “None of us has any idea where he’s running to, but we had to try and save our lives,” Haruna recounts.

While in hiding, Haruna watched in dread how some of his friends were massacred, with sticks and stones. A video shared online by an unknown perpetrator that went viral shows how stones were used to smash and shatter the heads of the victims on the road. Haruna also heard a gunshot but could not identify who was shot at the moment. At the spot, 25 people were killed before the military came to the rescue of those in hiding like Haruna and 25 others. 1 other sustained a severe injury and died later at Plateau Hospital, according to Haruna.

The State Director, Fityanul Islam of Nigeria, Mallam Adam Hamza who supervised the preparation and burial of the deceased confirmed that they’ve buried 26 bodies at Dadin Kowa Cemetery in Jos South – a 19-minute drive from the Jos North Central Mosque – while other injured victims are still at the hospital receiving treatment.

The burial of 26 corpses killed at Rukuba Road, 14 August 2021

I asked Haruna why they chose to follow Rukuba Road this time since that wasn’t the road they followed to Bauchi. “One of us proposed that Rukuba Road would be better,” he said, “and then one of the drivers said he too knows the road. So, he led the convoy.”

None of the 5 drivers, however, sustained an injury. All 5 were non-Muslim Yorubas from Ondo state. Before the military arrived at the scene, Muhammad confirmed that one of the cars was set on fire and another driver was able to drive off his car to safety. As of this morning, that driver set off for Ondo. Haruna and other survivors are still in Plateau State, kept at a hotel under the protection of the state government. He assured me they are well taken care of under the supervision of Fityanul Islam of Nigeria.

All this came appeared to come to the authorities with shock, according to Mallam Adam. Some of the government officials who were able to attend the burial include Secretary to the state government who was said to have represented the state governor, Simon Bako Lalong. Others were the state police commissioner, CP Edward Egbuka, and General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Jos 3-Division, Gen. General Ibrahim Ali. The CP and GOC also visited the scene of the massacre on Saturday.

All efforts to speak with one of the government officials were not successful. However, in a press statement, the Plateau State Government in response to the massacre and avoidance of counter-reprisal, imposed dusk-to-dawn (6 pm – 6 am) curfew in Bassa, Jos South, and Jos North local governments at 3 am on Sunday. But unconfirmed reports coming from Jos North this morning says the atmosphere is intense. It’s no wonder that the state government through its Director of Press, Dr. Makut Simon Machan released another statement at exactly 11:02 am today that imposing a 24-hour curfew in Jos North “to contain further security threats”.

It could be recalled that on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, an attack on travelers was recorded where a truck full of animals was set ablaze at Gada Biyu, a trekking distance from Rukuba Road. That attack was said to be a reprisal as Fulanis were said to have attacked Irigwe houses and destroy farms in other villages of the state.

One would say the attack of yesterday, 10-days after, which resulted in the killing of 26 people could also be a continuation of the previous reprisal. This is a red alert for the Plateau state government to as a matter of urgency, look into the root cause of these killings and ensure justice is served. All necessary actions should have been taken, days ago to avoid the happening on Saturday.  But it’s still not too late. Any delay could return Jos North to its gory days when people are killed sporadically if they (mistakenly) entered a territory that isn’t theirs by ethnicity or religion.

Haruna Muhammad urged the Federal and State government to ensure the arrest of all who were responsible for the merciless killings of his innocent brothers on the 14^th of August 2021. He said whatever misunderstanding is going on between the tribes in Plateau state, his brothers know nothing about it and their killings shouldn’t go unaccounted. The killings yesterday left 26 people dead and 33 survivors including the drivers.