By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
Sayawa women in their hundreds from Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas of Bauchi State, took to the streets on Thursday, for the fifth time to protest the continued detention of their monarch, the Gung Zaar-Select, Air Commodore Ishaku Komo (retd.) by the police in the state.
Recall that the Bauchi State Police arrested Komo and six others for their alleged involvement in the recent communal crisis that erupted in Sang Village in Bogoro LGA, during the coronation of a Hamlet Head.
A 70-year old man was killed in the incident, many sustained various degrees of injuries while 74 houses and shops and three motorcycles were completely burnt down.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Bauchi State Command, Superintendent of Police, Ahmed Wakil, in a recent statement, insisted that the detained monarch and six persons have a case to answer over the incident.
The protesters, who mostly dressed in black attires, held leaves and branches of trees while others held placards and banners with various inscriptions demanding the release of their monarch.
They sang several songs and walked for several hours going round Tafawa Balewa town and forcing shop and business owners to close down.
One of the leaders of the protesters, Rahatu Luka, said: “We are out here protesting because we have seen something different in Bauchi State, what we have never seen in other places and other states, we are seeing it here in our state.
She said: “What angered women and made them come out in these numbers, dressed in black and carrying leaves and placards, is because our monarch has been arrested and it is not as if he has done anything wrong.
“He was arrested after his mother died and her corpse was being conveyed to be buried, he was stopped and arrested. This caused so much pain to the women of this land because we are the ones giving birth. He was not allowed to even bury his mother.
“The second thing that angered the women is that what is happening here has happened in many states before. Even in Bauchi State, such happened and many people were killed but nobody was arrested, why are they coming to arrest our people in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro?
“When they’re looking for our votes during elections, they’ll come to us and say that we are theirs and they have no other people but us. We came out in our numbers and fought all oppositions and voted for them during the last elections but see how they are repaying us. Are we no longer part of Bauchi State? They should tell us so that we can look for another state to be a part of.”
She vowed that if their monarch is not released within the shortest possible time, “just like they know Sayawa women, we will prepare well and they’ll just see us in Bauchi.”
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