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While speaking with news correspondents, the residents of Takum and Ussa Local Government Areas of Taraba State, on Thursday, accused the Nigerian Army of brutality, bias and extortion in their communities, according to Daily Sun.
Chairman of Ussa Local Government Council, Rimamsikwe Karma, told journalists that the Exercise Ayem A Kpatuma (cat race) operation was causing more harm than good to the council, adding that the soldiers were searching peoples houses and seizing knives, cutlasses and harassing them while heavily armed herdsmen were burning houses and killing their people.
“The herdsmen that followed the army to our council are not friendly with our people, they are strange faces to us and they are killing people,” he said.
Also, Chairman of Takum Local Government Area, Shiban Tikari, said that he had received series of complaints from his people that the soldiers were molesting many of them, adding that the commencement of the operation had rather witnessed resumed attacks by herdsmen with scores killed and many displaced.
“It is sad to note that the soldiers of excise cat race are harassing our people in the towns while herdsmen are attacking and killing others in the rural communities. We expect the soldiers to go into the bush and help us flush out killer herdsmen and kidnappers instead of beating up people in the town.
“The herdsmen that are coming into our community now with machine guns are not the traditional herdsmen we know and lived with over the years, I suspect they may the released Boko haram members,” he said.
Tikari noted that the soldiers commenced the operation in the local government from 15th February without notifying the council and he had to report the matter to Governor Darius Ishaku before they served him notification letter on March 1 when he officially briefed his people about the operation.
Mrs. Jumai Andeyaba, a widow told newsmen that she left her house on Tuesday for burial only for soldiers to storm her house, harass her daughters and made away with her N150, 000. Many other victims including youth groups, religious leaders gave various complains of how the army had brutalised their peoples either in their homes or on the streets in the towns.
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