BillyGraham Abel, Yola
Members of the Adamawa community who, three months ago, were victims of an alleged military air force bombings have raised concerns that the community may yet be victims of unsafe explosives within the community, unless government takes drastic action to safely evacuate them.
The community raised the alarm, on Thursday, while making a public presentation of three more bombs suspected to be yet undetonated in one of the affected villages, Shaforon in Numan.
The community said these were not the first bombs discovered, explaining that it has alerted relevant security agencies about two undetonated bombs in the area in the past and they were safely evacuated.
The discovery of the three more bombs means there is still an imminent threat from unsafe bombs in affected communities and that there may be more buried within the community that could cause harm to the farming community if not detected and safely detonated.
One of the leaders of the community, Prof. Wonotazakan Tagowa said, “Our community still lives in fear of the multiple bombs that were dropped here by the Nigeria Air Force.
“It is important that steps are taken to conduct aerial survey of these communities and identify where the remnants of the bombs are and safety evacuate and detonate them.
“Our communities are a farming community and they may step on these things and be killed by them.
“We have found some before and have reported to the relevant security agencies who came and took care of them.”
Speaking on the attack, the community’s spokesman, Lawrence Jocthan said, “The SNEB pods and rockets with high explosive warheads shows that NAF used excessive unlawful force against our people.
“We are therefore showing Nigerians and the international community that just as Amnesty International reported, there are credible evidences that NAF raids on our villages had disastrous consequences and those raids were genocidal and constitute crime against humanity.”
Jocthan said, “We reject the narrative that the invasion of our villages was within the realm of herders-farmers.”
He explained that the security situation in the area had some clear “Manifestations of complicity by government and security agencies.”
He said that the Numan attack has some notable significance as it is the first in the country where military helicopters, drones and fighter jet were “used to provide aerial cover for Fulani terrorist to kill, maim and destroy property.”
The community used the occasion to call on Nigerians to classify the air force attack as “Gross abuse of human rights and acts of genocide crime against humanity.”