Author: The Messenger Voice

By V. AL-PEA

The Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham announced that the government will revamp the Nigerian Standard newspaper.

According to Abraham, 228 million naira will be allocated for the purchase of a medium newspaper printing machine, 10 million for printing materials which will last one year, 21 million for 3 Hilux trucks and 1 Toyota Corolla.  Meanwhile 20 million will be used to purchase a 1,500kva power generator that will supply electricity to the press house. The investment, which totals 279 million naira, is to come from a bulk loan from Zenith Bank which will fund both media communication and the expansion of water supply.

Abraham said that investment was made so that the Nigerian Standard can defend the interest of the Middle Belt because of socio-political trends in Nigeria.

After careful investigations of the bombing which took place at the premises of St. Finbarrs Catholic Church Rayfield, Jos on March 11 2012, The Messenger Voice (TMV) is finally able to provide detailed report about the tragic event.

The explosion occurred at about 10:30 am when worshipers were observing the third mass, said an eyewitness who spoke with the TMV. According to the eyewitness, three people, who appeared to be dressed in female attire, approached the main entrance of the church in a Nissan car. When they were accosted by a Police officer and a team of Boys Scouts posted at the gate, an loud argument erupted. In the heat of the altercation, the Nissan car exploded, instantly killing all the parties.

After the explosion settled, six dead bodies immediately laid dead, according to another worshiper who witnessed the event. Meanwhile several persons were severely injured, but no specific number was provided by the eyewitness. The Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Dipo Ayeni reported that 10 people were killed and 27 others were wounded. Nevertheless 18 corpses, related to the bomb blast, were delivered to two separate hospitals; 7 at Plateau Specialist Hospital and 11 at the Jos University Teaching Hospital.  This makes it a total of 18 dead bodies, about double what the police chief claimed.

The loud explosion destroyed part of St. Finbarrs and some surrounding buildings, sending irate youths to the street of Rayfield, Jos. In a bid to quell the upheaval, soldiers shot two of the youths, making them openly chant their displeasure with the force. We prefer mobile police, cried the youth ferociously.

Plateau natives generally prefer the Nigerian Mobile Police Force because the army is disproportionally staffed by Hausa Muslims. Information sourced by TMV, though not officially confirmed, indicates that there are seven Hausa Muslim officers for every three Christians or agnostic deployed in Plateau State. Plateau natives believe this disproportionate ratio favoring Hausas accounts for soldiers senselessly killing non Muslims. This belief has radicalized the Plateau populous, making their youth now apt to mutilate terrorists whenever they are killed or captured. An example of this can be witnessed in the image below which shows youths burning corpses of the terrorist that were killed in the Finbarrs bomb blast.

The Catholic Arch Bishop, Rev. Ignatius Kaigama visited the scene to commiserate with the worshippers. According to Ignatius, Christians should not be afraid to propagate their faith even in the face of persecution. Later on Governor Jang and his aides visited the scene to console the worshippers. Before leaving Jang sued for peace and calm.

Meanwhile the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Shedrach Best and the State Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Philip Dafes condemned the attack. The Plateau Police Commissioner said that security agents are making concerted efforts to bring the perpetrators of the bombing to justice, but no arrest have been made.

Plateau natives have greeted the commissioner’s comments with skepticism, believing there is no disconnection between this wave of attacks and the new tenure of Major General M.D. Ibrahim, a Hausa Muslim. Since Ibrahim became the new Special Task Force Commander over 3 weeks ago, two signifiant attacks have been visited on Churches. One of the attacks was clearly assisted by an army officer, making many blame Ibrahim and his forces for the series of attacks.

A day after the St. Finbarrs bomb blast, Monday 12^th of March, 2012, Hausa youths attacked and killed two Christians who drove into their neighborhood about 9:30 in the morning. TMV gathered that the incident occurred at Fillin Ball when a commercial bus driver and his conductor drove through the Hausa settlement scouting for passengers. A group of Muslim youth, who likely identified them as Christians, flanked the bus, pretending to be passengers. When it stopped to pick them up, the men attacked the conductor, hacking him to deaths with knives which were concealed beneath their clothing.

The conductor’s scream prodded the driver to promptly drive away, but not before he had himself sustained a life threatening injury. The driver made it to his neighborhood drenched in blood. He thereafter died, another casualty of the ongoing jihad which Hausa Muslims launched against the Jos Plateau on September 7th 2001–four days before America’s Nine Eleven.

Needless to say, the youth in the driver’s community immediately mobilized and headed for Fillin Ball to avenge the attack. Their actions created an upheaval which spread to Angwan Rukuba Junction, prompting intervention from Nigerian security personnel.

The Messenger Voice.

As we assume you already know, the Nigerian government was forced to initiate a shakeup in the military due to incessant attacks by Boko Haram. The shakeup brought Major General M.D. Ibrahim to Jos as he is the new commander of the Special Task Force (STF). Meanwhile the former STF commander, Major General Olayinka Oshinowo was reassigned to Enugu State where he is now the new General Officer Commanding the 82^nd Division of the Nigerian Army.

Many Plateau natives regard Oshinowo to be a successful commander because, according to them, terrorist attacks dramatically dropped under his tenure. They also claim that Oshinowo stopped collaborations between Hausa officers and their brethren jihadists.

The sudden resumption of attacks after Oshinowo’s departure has given credence to this sentiment especially because the COCIN headquarters bombing involved a Nigerian army officer. The subsequent attack on March the 11th at a Catholic Church in a suburb of Jos–Rayfield also feeds this sentiment because the assailants passed through a military checkpoint unmolested.

These two events impelled The Messenger Voice (TMV) to review a report titled “Faces of the Aug 15 Heipang Butchery.” While editing the report before it was published last year, TMV withheld information involving Military identification cards found at the scene of the crime after seeking advice from a security officer. When the officer was made aware that several military identification cards were found at the scene of the crime, he told TMV that publishing such information would compromise investigations. According to the officer, fringed members of the security forces would facilitate a cover up that would make it difficult to investigate any evidence found at the crime scene, if the information is made public.

Considering the officers feedback, TMV decided to not divulge any information pertaining to the military identification cards while publishing the report. Photographs of the identification cards were also passed to the Nigerian authorities for the purpose of investigation.

Besides considering the officers reasoning, TMV withheld the information because these questions had not then been resolved: Why were there several IDs left behind? In other words, did everyone of the assailants lose their ID at the same time and if so, what were the probabilities of such an event?

Since then however, our investigations have revealed that the assailants typically hand over their ID cards to one officer for safe keeping before carrying out their attacks. That would therefore make it possible to have several IDs left at a crime scene if the safe keeper gets tangled up in the attack because things did not go as planned.

As there are more and more evidence of military participation in the attacks in The Middle Belt and Northern Nigeria, TMV felt obliged to publish this information. Moreover, reports about officers handing their IDs to another team member for safe keeping is not far fetched. TMV also felt it was important to publish this information because the public believes it is not a coincidence that terrorist attacks have resumed at the departure of Major General Olayinka Oshinowo.

In closing, it is important to note that the identification cards were discovered in Heipang because a TMV reporter beat the Nigerian authorities to the crime scene. The attack had taken place earlier about 12 O’clock midnight on Monday August 15th 2011. Having beaten the Nigerian authorities to the crime scene, TMV gained access into the house and to a cornfield where several family members were butchered. Amidst the corpses of the victims were military IDs along with credit cards and bank drafts which had been apparently left behind by the assailants. Double click on the photographs to enlarge them for detailed viewing.

By V. AL-PEA

On Friday, February 24^th, 2012 the Plateau State government distributed vehicles worth hundreds of million of naira to citizens under the Tackling Poverty Together Project (TPTP). In a brief ceremony to mark the event, which was held at the Government House, the Commissioner for Works, Chris Hassan, who is also the chairman of the planning committee said the program was designed to remedy the ongoing transportation hardship and to empower the state citizens.

Hassan maintained that the 100 mini cabs and 14/18-seater buses procured by the state government have been numbered and assigned to specific routes within Jos and Bukuru metropolis. If the beneficiary deviate from their assigned routes, they will be arrested and prosecuted by security agents who have been briefed about the program. He also said that 70 percent of the mini cabs and buses have been designated to routes within Jos while 30 percent are assigned to the Bukuru area.

The TPTP program is a partnership with Zenith bank, with beneficiaries expected to open accounts and advance a 10 percent payment of the vehicle cost to participate. Thereafter they were given a one-month before starting an installment payment. The payment is expected to complete in two years, after which the beneficiaries will assume its full ownership. The cost of the bus was put at 5.75 million naira each, while the mini cabs are 2.7 million naira each.

 At the inauguration of the program, the state governor, Jonah Jang noted that the poverty level has risen 25% since 1990. He also said that the beneficiaries were selected irrespective of political party affiliation, religious or ethnic backgrounds. Jang also announced a waiver of the 10 percent advance payment for the beneficiaries who could not come up with the money. Jang also announced that the state government would soon embark on major road construction projects which include a fly-over bridge at British/American junction, Secretariat junction, Old airport junction and Miango junction. Meanwhile Governor Jang said that his poverty alleviation plan will include other critical sectors of the economy including agriculture, health and education.

The Messenger Voice 2/29/2012:

Sunday, February 26th, 2012 was another dark day in Plateau State as terrorists detonated a bomb at the Headquarters of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN). Investigations carried out by our team discovered that this bomb detonation was a well-calculated attempt that involved the Military personnel, which provided access to the heavily guarded place.

The bombers showed up dressed in Military attire as church service began, wanting to gain access to the compound. As member of the Boys Brigade (BB) denied them access, a military officer posted to the church interceded, demanding that access be granted. When the BB refused, the officer overruled them and forcefully opened the gate, letting the men in. Once allowed in, the men proceeded to locate their vehicle close to the church, where members were worshipping in the basement, since the church was under construction.

Suddenly the vehicle they drove in exploded, instantly killing one of them and leaving the other partially wounded. The crowd descended on the injured bomber, beating him. At the same time, the crowd turned their attention to the military officer who granted the bombers access, beating him as well.

Meanwhile, a contingent of the Nigerian Military guarding the Central Bank, which is not far from the church made their way upon hearing the blast. As they saw members of the military being beaten, they fired shots into the air and rescued the officers. Apparently, that was how the second bomber was rescued by the Military, since they believed he was one of them because he was wearing a uniform.

Reports also indicate that a worshipper at the church was killed, beaten to death as he was also suspected to be a bomber. The Plateau State commissioner for information also got caught in the commotion, as the crowd apparently turned on him when he tried to diffuse the situation.

We should note that Plateau State has experienced a period of calm under the tenure of the former STF commander. Many are now suspicious that his replacement, a Hausa Muslim, has opened the way for terrorist attacks to resume. When interviewing Plateau natives, many believe that the new commander made it possible for these attacks to take place. We should also note that Mosques remain heavily guarded by members of the Nigerian Military, while the churches are left open with little to no guards.

We originally posted that this video took place in Nigeria and was carried out by Boko Haram. Other new reports brought to our attention clarify that the man slain was a Somali Christian who was beheaded by Al-Shabaab, and is believed to have been created in 2008. As our goal is to be truthful and honest, we wanted to break this new finding to set the record straight.

It is worth being mentioned that three pastors, Sabo Yakubu, Sylvester Akpan and George Orgi were beheaded in a similar fashion in August of 2009.

By V. AL-PEA

In spite of growing violence committed by Islamic militants on Nigerian Christians in the Middle Belt and North, Plateau State has been enjoying some relative peace. However, it has not been immune to lesser-known forms of attacks—abductions.

Patience Vou Jonathan, an eighteen year-old Berom native in Riyom local government area of Plateau State was the target of a common tactic where kidnappers pose as taxi operators and abduct passengers. While narrating her experience to TMV, Patience recounted that on Sunday, 12th February, 2012 at about 2pm, she stood by the road at the Building Material market in Jos South local government area. She boarded a painted taxi on her way to the Church at COCIN RCC Jiye. There were two male and one female passenger in the car. Unfortunately for her, the journey that would have lasted not more 10 minutes took the whole day.

“Immediately I boarded the cab, I became oblivious of time and my environment as though under a spell. When I finally alighted from the cab and was ordered by my captors towards a duplex ahead of me, I noticed everywhere was pitch dark; it was nightfall”.

As patience obediently walked into the duplex, she heard the screams of women, children, and some elderly who had their heads clean shaved. As she walked past the wailing victims into another adjoining room, she saw weird looking faces of men chopping into pieces what appeared to be human beings. Suddenly acting from an impulse she blindly ran out of the building and hid in a nearby bush.

Wielding torchlights to find her, Patience’s captors found and dragged her back into the building where she was brought before a giant grotesque man. After staring at her intently, he shook his head and told her captors in Hausa that he doesn’t need such people. They then took her somewhere outside the building, dispossessed her of her phone and left her to her fate. After hours of wandering aimlessly in the bush she came across a good samaritan who brought her back to Jos.

Father of the victim, Mr. Jonathan Tinja Zam, a civil servant with the State Fire Service Department reported to the police at the Biye out station when he discovered his daughter had not returned home. He was advised to report to the Divisional police ‘B’ headquarters at Anglo Jos, which he promptly did.

“I got to the Divisional Police ‘B’ Headquarters at about 11 a.m. of Monday 13th February, 2012 and the officers on duty told me that until it had been 24 hours since my daughter was missing, they could not take action— so I had to wait at the station until 2 p.m. before they took my statement and promised they would send radio messages all round police stations in the state”.

Few hours later after he had left the station, Mr. Jonathan, who had tried to call his daughter’s phone, received a call from the Good Samaritan that helped her, instructing him to pick her up at the Plateau Riders Motor Park.
He went there and found her, but the Good Samaritan had left. With this near death experience, Mr. Jonathan is calling on the government to intensify efforts towards looking into nefarious activities like these.

Patience may have been lucky to escape alive without being physically harmed, but many victims, mostly Christian ladies, are never found. For the few that make it home, the story doesn’t typically end well either. One example is an incident that occurred early last year. Two indigenous female students of the University of Jos, whose names are withheld, were forcefully taken to Angwan Rogo, a predominantly Muslim settlement in Jos North local government area. They were abducted after the taxi they boarded swiftly changed course, taking them to a compound they could not identify. Unfortunately for the girls, they were subjected to dehumanizing sexual abuse as several young boys repeatedly raped them. After two weeks of adduction the girls were released, but one of them later died and the other tested positive for HIV.

These types of injustices are frequently visited upon Christians by jihadist in the Middle Belt and Northern Nigeria. Unfortunately, the government has a nonchalant attitude towards this type of ugly crime.

By V. AL-PEA

The Plateau State Commissioner for Environment, Mrs. Sarah Yusuf, welcomed 400 Christian who were seeking refuge in Jos after fleeing systematic killings by Hausa jihadists in Yobe State of Nigeria.

While presenting over 8 million naira worth of relief supplies to them, Mrs. Yusuf lamented about the hardships they had endured. According to her, “I wished the displaced people were in the comfort of their homes–which is better than giving them these items.” Mrs. Sarah Yusuf then announced that the state government is using the former Tati Hotel at Gada Biyu as a temporary venue to house refugees.

Meanwhile she stressed the need for all Nigerians to appreciate and tolerate one another irrespective of religion as she handed the relief. Receiving the supplies on behalf of the victims, the President of the Church of Christ In Nations (COCIN), Rev. Soja Bewarang appreciated the kind gesture from Plateau State, thanking the governor for demonstrating a “practical Christian love”. Also expressing thanks was a representative of the refuges, Dr. Adamu Sule who quoted a biblical passage that spoke about Christians fleeing persecution to seek refuge in neighboring lands. Sule further expressed thanks to the leaderships of COCIN, ECWA (Evangelical Churches of West Africa) and some individuals who provided accommodation.

One of the refugees, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Messenger Voice that the situation in Potiskum and Damaturu local government areas was worse, though their experience was also bad. According to him, houses and businesses belonging to Christians were selected and the occupants shot or hacked to death.

Items donated by Plateau State included 100 pieces of mattresses, 100 pillows, 250 pieces of blankets, 100 bags of rice, 10 bags of sugar (50kg each), 10 cartons of maggi cubes, 10 cartons of toilet soaps, 10 cartons of laundry soaps, 10 cartons of lotion, 110 bags of salt, 10 bags of tissue paper, 1 carton of matches, 1 bag of per person of tomatoes, onions and hot pepper, 20 cans of palm oil, 20 cans of vegetable oil, 15 bags of garri (cereal grain), 1 carton of smoked fish, three 25 liter containers of kerosene, 15 bags of beans, 80 bags of maize, cooking pots, sweeping brooms, plastic buckets, plastic plates, cups and spoons.

By V. AL-PEA

The governor of Plateau State, Dah Jonah Jang has proposed a vision for developing agriculture into a self-sustaining economy, which he encapsulated in a 10-point agenda centered on mechanized equipment, water resources and rural development.

This program began in 2008 when Jang signed a joint venture agreement with SEC Equipment and Communication, an Israeli Company specializing in agricultural development. The venture aims to establish Agricultural Services and Training Centers (ASTC), which will increase agricultural productivity by providing diverse field services and technical training of staff and farmers.

Comprehensive farm centers are slated to be established in the three senatorial districts of Kassa, Vom Northern Zone; Mangu, Central Zone; and Shendam, Southern Zone, where each ASTC will provide mechanized agricultural services and farm inputs, such as tractors and fertilizers.

By using advanced agricultural technology, the department strives to encourage market driven production. Seminars are also to be conducted to inform participants of the benefits of modernized agriculture available through the ASTC.