That confidence was shattered on Thursday when the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps in the company of Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi State addressed about 600 corps members who had been evacuated to the state capital following the violence that greeted the outcome of the presidential election.
Four of the corps members were confirmed dead while 20 are missing on account of the mayhem.
Gen Tsiga called the attack on the NYSC members as “barbaric, criminal and a wanton act which must be condemned.”
He offered to “organise a convoy of vehicles that will take you to the nearest safe place” to your homes so that you will be reunited with your parents.
His speech was punctuated by shouts of ‘we want to go home; we want to go back to our parents” by the fear-stricken NYSC members who had become targets of attacks by hooligans who claimed to be protesting the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan as winner of the presidential election.
The State Police Commissioner, Mr. John Abakasanga said his men rescued 26 of the 51 corps members posted to Jama’are, Giade, Misau, Azare, Dambam and Itas while 20 others are missing.
Victims count losses
The riots were particularly bad in Bauchi State and other victims are still counting their losses.
One Chukwuma, a trader said he escaped being slaughtered by the hoodlums.
“I packed my car in front of the house and went inside the house. The whole town was rowdy, there was confusion everywhere. A group of people came straight to the car and started to destroy it. I heard the sounds.
They were saying in Hausa, ‘where is the man? Where is he? We will kill him, Where is he?’ Before we knew what was happening they had set the car on fire. I wanted to go out but my wife stopped me. We managed to escape through the window, went into another family’s compound because the car was already on fire.”
The hoodlums then entered the house and made away with electronics, laptops and other valuables.
He was later assisted out of the danger zone by a Muslim. “He said I should not bother myself. I should wait.
Then my pastor was courageous to come and with him and some other friends, I was rescued with members of my family. We were taken to Deeper Life Bible Church in Bayan Gari where we are now staying.”
A woman who lives in Bayan Gari in Bauchi metropolis and does not want her name in print, told of how she lost one of her sons. She had sent him to Muda Lawal market to collect some items from her shop only to be slaughtered by the protesters.
“ I leave vengeance to God, who will avenge my son’s death. As a matter of fact, I don’t feel like talking, just go,” she said.
The Bauchi State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said it lost 32 of its members and 82 churches across the state to the mayhem.
Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society in the state, Adamu Abubakar told newsmen that, in Bauchi metropolis alone “we took over 20 injured people to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, and we have recorded 4000 displaced persons who now lives in Barracks while another 500 are taking refuge at the DIC camp in Gudun Hausawa village while as I am talking to you more displaced persons are coming to the camps.”
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