Baba Lakyo: I didn’t kill security men

The Spiritual Head of Lakyo community in Nasarawa State, Ala Agu, yesterday denied having a hand in the killing of securitymen in the community.

Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura should be blamed for the killings, he asserted.

Agu also said contrary to reports that he was on the run, he was yet to receive any police invitation for questioning over the unfortunate incident..

Agu, spoke through Allu Maga, an interpreter.

He noted that the governor sent armed policemen and other security operatives to Lakyo to kill him over an issue he knew nothing about.

The spiritual head spoke when Senator Solomon Ewuga (Nasarawa North) toured Lakyo community in company of other community leaders.

No fewer than 56 security men, including 46 policemen and 10 State Security operatives, were on May 7 killed in an ambush.

Many others were declared missing, but a recent report said 25 bodies of the missing policemen were discovered in a mass grave in the area. This has not been denied.

The security men were on their way from Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, to arrest members of the Ombatse militia who were reportedly committing atrocities.

Agu insisted that he did not know how the security operatives died.

He said he was informed that the operatives were instructed to kill him.

He also claimed that he never forced anybody to be initiated into the Ombatse cultural group.

He said: “I am grateful for your coming, Senator. I am very, very grateful for your coming. Even if the Senator did not come here, I had intended to go and see him in his house but since he is here, I am very grateful.

“It is the governor that asked the people (Police officers) to come here and arrest me, cut my head and take my head to him.

“When they came, because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way.

“The question I ask is, has the governor ever invited me and I refused to go? But he sent people to come and kill me and to destroy Lakyo as a whole. That is just what it is.”

Agu noted that he was in a nearby village when the incident took place.

He said he was only informed that the governor sent operatives to kill him.

Asked whether the incident has anything to do with politics, he said: “If you are talking about politics, it does not bother me.

“I don’t even understand Hausa language. Politics is not for me because I am not a politician. Politics is for politicians but I hear that the time for politicking has not even come.”

On the claim that he was using force to administer concoction on people to become members of the Ombatse group, Agu said: “If I ever opened my mouth to force anybody to take oath, God should punish me.”

He described Ombatse as an association of Lakyo boys, to which nobody is forced to belong.

The spiritual head said he was ready to honour any police invitation over the issue but insisted that nobody has invited him.

He expressed sadness over the death of the security men, adding that it was even more saddening that he was being linked to the incident, especially when he knew nothing about what happened to the operatives.

The President of Eggon Cultural Development Association, Mr. Chris E. Mamman, said the only way to get at the root of what happened was for the Federal Government to set up a judicial commission of enquiry.