PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Nigeria court jails 15 over ethno-religious crisis
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Nine months after Nigeria's central city of Jos erupted in an ethno-religious violence that the police said
left 55 dead, a Nigerian court Thursday sentenced 15 persons to 10 years imprisonment each for the roles in the crisis.
A federal high court in Jos found the convicts guilty on the three count charges of conspiracy, possession of firearms and
acts of terrorism.
Justice A. L. Allagoa said the prosecution counsel, Mr Charles Maduenyi, proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were guilty
as charged.
''Considering the evidences before this honourable court, the accused are as guilty as charged,'' he said. ''Jos crisis has left several people
maimed and killed and several others wounded while property worth millions of naira were destroyed. It has caused Nigeria a lot
of embarrassment before the international community.''
Though the police said 55 persons died in the violence, journalists who were taken on a tour of the affected parts of the city reported that at least
150 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the dawn attack.
Spokesman for the Plateau state government - of which Jos is capital - Gregory Yenlong, also said as many as 500 people died in the attack,
a figure corroborated by Christian leaders in the state.
In what were believed to be reprisal attacks, following January's sectarian violence that left 326 dead, Muslim Fulani pastoralists reportedly launched a
dawn attack against the Christian villagers, burning their homes while hacking and shooting those who tried to escape.
Age-long disagreement over fertile farmlands between the migrant Fulani herdsmen and the largely Christian villagers, who are subsistent
farmers, has been blamed for the recurring violence in the once-peaceful state.
-0- PANA SEG 16Dec2010
left 55 dead, a Nigerian court Thursday sentenced 15 persons to 10 years imprisonment each for the roles in the crisis.
A federal high court in Jos found the convicts guilty on the three count charges of conspiracy, possession of firearms and
acts of terrorism.
Justice A. L. Allagoa said the prosecution counsel, Mr Charles Maduenyi, proved beyond reasonable doubt that they were guilty
as charged.
''Considering the evidences before this honourable court, the accused are as guilty as charged,'' he said. ''Jos crisis has left several people
maimed and killed and several others wounded while property worth millions of naira were destroyed. It has caused Nigeria a lot
of embarrassment before the international community.''
Though the police said 55 persons died in the violence, journalists who were taken on a tour of the affected parts of the city reported that at least
150 people, mostly women and children, were killed in the dawn attack.
Spokesman for the Plateau state government - of which Jos is capital - Gregory Yenlong, also said as many as 500 people died in the attack,
a figure corroborated by Christian leaders in the state.
In what were believed to be reprisal attacks, following January's sectarian violence that left 326 dead, Muslim Fulani pastoralists reportedly launched a
dawn attack against the Christian villagers, burning their homes while hacking and shooting those who tried to escape.
Age-long disagreement over fertile farmlands between the migrant Fulani herdsmen and the largely Christian villagers, who are subsistent
farmers, has been blamed for the recurring violence in the once-peaceful state.
-0- PANA SEG 16Dec2010
