Isiaka Oyibo
7 January 2009
LOKOJA — THE Chairman of Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Karaku, gave clarifications yesterday on the arrest of last weekend of some gun men by the Joint task Force, dispelling reports that they were mercenaries hired to foment another ethno-religious crisis in Jos, Plateau State.
He also added that the arrested persons were members of the Ali Kwara vigilante group from Bauchi State seconded to Okene to assist in maintaining Joint Police patrol.
Addressing newsmen at the premises of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists [NUJ] in Lokoja, the chairman said it could not be true that the persons arrested were mercenaries as they were "known vigilantes from Bauchi State whose presence in Kogi State was known to government and all security agencies."
He said "they are known to be of good character and had assisted in no small measures in curbing the menace of armed robbery and other social vices in the state, especially the dreaded Lokoja-Okene-Auchi-Benin road.
"We want to put on record that the vigilante men were on their way to Bauchi for the New Year break when they were apprehended by the Joint Task Force drafted to quell the crises in Jos"
Commenting on the legislative bus used by the group at the point of arrest, Karaku asserted that the vehicle was temporarily given to them to solve their mobility problem as the one given earlier by the state government was burnt.
The chairman who said he had already been summoned by the Plateau State commissioner of Police to shed more light on the development noted however that "Okene council will never intervene on any crises within and outside Kogi State ."
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