Hon. Simon Madwakon is a member of House of Representatives, representing Barakin-Ladi and Riyom Federal Constituency of Plateau State. Madwakon, who is one of the survivors of last Sunday attack on mourners at a burial procession that led to the death of Senator Gyang Dantong and Hon.Gyang Fulani, shed light on how the attack was carried out, in this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO.
Excerpts:
There was an attack on close to 10 villages last Saturday before the attack on the burial procession in Matse the following day leading to the death of Senator Gyang Dantong and Hon. James Gyang Fulani, what really happened?
On Saturday, I went to Kakum to see the extent of damage. I discovered that many people lost their lives. So on Sunday, we went for the burial and in Kakum alone, I saw 11 corpses. We went to Kuzen and there were 13, but I didn’t take cognizance of the number of houses that were burnt. However, the church there was already razed. After leaving Garshish, the border town between Garshish and Riyom is called Maseh and the number of persons that inhabit that place is about 200 or so, that is what we gathered from the residents of Maseh.
They also were attacked and our first port of call was the pastor’s house where we were told that during the attack, most of the people ran there for safety. We discovered that in the pastor’s house, there were almost 42 corpses of those killed and burnt. As at the time we got there, they were still burning because of the intensity of the fire, their skulls were just melting. So we now began to dig the grave so that we could give them a mass burial but all of a sudden, we were attracted by one of the villagers, who was working on a farm. He now climbed the hill and alerted us that he could see some corpses. We left other people in the slope and climbed the hill and we saw four corpses but because they are quite heavy, we just left them.
When we were descending, there was this Colonel that came with six soldiers, my colleagues said the soldiers were more than six and that others were behind, but I saw six. The Colonel was so armed, he was looking so furious, crazy, unfriendly, we even thought he would sympathize with us and he said “who parked that ambulance there” because we came with an ambulance there so that we could carry the corpses from Maseh and proceed to Kukah. We told him we parked the ambulance there and he said we should remove the ambulance because he was bringing an armoured tank to the place. So we removed the ambulance and from that time till the time we left, no armoured car came in, but we were shocked that he now came with his Hilux jeep and put it in the only access road leading out of that place.
It was the only access road and it is not just enough for two vehicles to pass through. So when this colonel came back, there was one gunshot. On hearing the gunshot, we were now comfortable that there was a reinforcement of soldiers because we went there with three soldiers. Officially, men of the Civil Defence Corps and the SSS were also there. Ten minutes later, I just turned up and saw a lot of Fulani on the hills; in fact I don’t know their number. Suddenly, they started firing at us and the sound of the guns was so heavy. What made me fall down was that there was this bullet that fell in front of me and the whole ground (earth) just rose up Boaw! So I hit my leg, yet they were just firing, firing. We didn’t see the soldiers again, including the ones we came with officially and those that came with the Colonel.
So there was this policeman that was just assisting us by telling us to lie down and whenever they stopped shooting, he would ask us not to stand up but to continue to crawl. The distance between where we parked our cars and the burial site was almost a kilometre and the terrain was very rough and there was a big river. We thank God because there was no heavy rain that day otherwise we would not have been able to cross that river. We struggled and managed to reach where our cars were parked. I saw Gyang Fulani, he was gasping for breath; he was so tired and exhausted. So I and one of the boys that also escaped picked and put him in the car belonging to the chairman of Riyom Local Government Area.
I came to the burial site with the chairman of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area but as at then, he had left and there was no car to take me back home. Then I saw Senator Dangtong shouting and begging for glucose. Already, the Colonel’s Hilux jeep had blocked his car and as the firing continued, there was no way somebody could go to his car to bring glucose for him. We later pleaded with the Colonel to “please” take him to the hospital in his Hilux jeep. Then I ran and joined the chairman of Riyom Local Government in his car as we took Gyang Fulani to hospital. My surprise was that we were more than an hour in the hospital before this soldier brought Dangtong whereas he left the scene before us.
Fulani gave up the ghost in the hospital while being attended to, but Senator Dangtong was brought in completely dead. So my suspicion is why did they delay; where did they go? Secondly, why did he ask us to remove the ambulance that he was bringing an armoured tank and we did not see the armour tank till we left the place? Why was he aggressive and unfriendly? Who fired the first shot that lasted for 10 minutes before those guys came up and began to shoot us? I have no proof honestly, but I have given a statement to the SSS that I strongly suspect the military because they knew the calibre of people that were there at the burial site.
A Senator was there, a member of the House of Representatives was there, two chairmen were there, two members of the State Assembly were there, our district head; a paramount ruler was there, and a second class chief was also there. Therefore, I think that the game plan was to make sure that all these personalities were also killed because I can’t explain why he should use the Hilux jeep to block the access road that we could take our cars through to escape because we ran away without our cars. It was later that the drivers went to pick the vehicles and those corpses that we were about to bury were just left there.
From your explanation, what is your suspicion?
Very well, I said it, I even told the governor that there is a serious conspiracy although I have no proof, but you see when you add one plus one; you can say this is what happened. One, this man (Colonel) came, people were crying. You came, you were looking so fierce, so aggressive, you asked the ambulance to be removed, the ambulance would have been used to help those that were exhausted; you asked the ambulance to be removed. Thirdly, you blocked the only access road. Fourthly, you said you were going to bring an armoured tank which you never did. Five, there was delay in bringing Senator Dangtong to the hospital.
There was no explanation; so I can see high level of conspiracy among the soldiers in particular, because the police helped us, they really helped us otherwise we would have been killed. I don’t know anything in military tactics, we had to learn how to crawl a long distance and dodged the bullets and six, the disappearance of the soldiers. Before they started shooting, how many soldiers were on ground, can you tell the number?
I know the three that we came with, and the six that came with the Colonel, making 10. They were about 10, but they could be more because I was on one extremed of the burial site and there were some other people on the other end, so it is possible they were more than 10.
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