Weeks after the mindless
killing of hundreds of
residents in Dogo Nahawa
village in Plateau State, 20
of the 90 suspects arrested
for the crime were
yesterday arraigned before
a Federal High Court in Jos.
Charges levelled against
the suspects, who were
arraigned in three
different batches as the
court’s dock could not
contain all of them,
included murder,
terrorism, arson and
maiming. They were also
charged with conspiracy to
unlawful assembly,
economic sabotage,
causing death of innocent
citizens and unlawful
possession of arms.
The suspects, arraigned
before the presiding judge,
Steven Adah, however all
pleaded not guilty to the
charge and the judge
ordered that they be
remanded in prison.
Hundreds of people,
mostly women and
children, were hacked to
death or burned alive in
their homes in an early
morning raid on Dogon
Nahawa village, Jos South
local government area on
March 8, 2010.
Arraigning the subdued
suspects who are mainly
Fulani before the court, the
Federal Director of Public
Prosecution, Alex Adams
said the 20 suspects were
arrested in connection
with the killings and
carnage at Dogo Nahawa
community.
“The suspects were
arrested at different times
and locations, and
therefore had multiple
charges against them,” Mr
Adams said.
Counsel to 16 of the
suspects, Ahmed Garba,
prayed the court to grant
them bail saying that,
“their offences were
bailable ones.” Counsel to
the remaining four
suspects, H.G Bot, also
applied for bail for the
suspects.
The judge, in response,
told the Counsel to present
formal applications for the
bails and remanded the
suspects in prison. He
adjourned the case to the
15th, 20th and 21st of
April, 2010 when the case
will come up for proper
hearing in three batches.
Many more suspects
Speaking on the number
of suspects brought to
court, Mr Adams said that
it was impossible to bring
all the 90 suspects to
court. “It was not possible
to bring all the suspects to
court as some of them
were arraigned at the
Federal High Court, Abuja
yesterday,” he said. “We
could not get a
reproduction warrant to
transfer all of them to Jos.”
He, however, sought for a
short adjustment so that
all of the suspects could be
brought before the court.
The Nigerian police had
announced on March 21
plans to charge 200
people to court for their
role in the sectarian
clashes that killed
hundreds in Plateau State
earlier this month and said
some of them could be
sentenced to death if
convicted.
Over 400 victims of the
pre-dawn massacre were
given a mass burial in
three massive graves in
the village on March 9,
2010. The attack, which
lasted for about two
hours, began at about
midnight, and the victims
were completely
unprepared for the fury of
the marauders. The
intense gunfire and wild
use of cutlasses and other
metallic weapons left little
chance for the victims who
were hacked down and
burnt as they attempted
to escape the massacre.
The attack is widely
interpreted as retaliation
for early attacks on some
Fulani and Hausa
settlements in the early
days of the crisis.
The crisis between
different residents of the
previously peaceful city of
Jos has been on for close
to two years and has led
to the deaths of thousands
of people and loss of
property running into
millions of naira.
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