More than 534 persons, including security personnel, were killed during different ethnic clashes in Nasarawa between December 2012 and September 2013, the Justice Joseph Gbadeyan Judicial Commission of Inquiry has said.
Mr. Gbadeyan is the Chairman of the Judicial Commission into the killing of security personnel at Alakyo Village in Lafia in May 2013. The killings were believed to have carried out by the Ombatse ethnic militia in the state.
Submitting the commission’s report to Governor Umaru Al-Makura, Mr. Gbadeyan said property worth over N2.3 billion were destroyed during the crises, adding that 40 persons sustained various degrees of injury.
According to him, the casualties included members of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security Services, SSS. He added that there were no available evidences on 143 others who were allegedly killed.
He said the commission received 22 memoranda from individuals, groups and communities and took evidences from 89 witnesses during its public sittings. He also said that 65 exhibits were tendered and admitted by the commission during the sittings.
Mr. Gbadeyan commended the support of the state government and all stakeholders to the success of the assignment. He expressed hope that the findings and recommendations of the commission would ensure justice and peaceful co–existence among all ethnic groups in the state.
Receiving the six-volume report, Mr. Al-Makura thanked the commission for a job well done, and assured that the report would be studied with a view to implementing its recommendations.
Mr. Al-Makura explained that the setting up of the commission became imperative following the killing of scores of security personnel and the incessant clashes in the state.
He said that the aim was to bring perpetrators of the killings to book to serve as deterrent to others, and to also dispel the aspersion being cast on the image of the state.
“No stone would be left unturned in the implementation of the commission’s recommendations,” he said.
The Nasarawa State Government inaugurated the nine-member Judicial Commission of Inquiry on June 26, 2013
The commission was to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the crises that led to the killing of scores of security personnel in Alakyo village in Lafia on May 7, 2013.
The commission conducted its public sitting between July 22 and November 11, 2013. (NAN)
