Sulaimon Olanrewaju reports that in the outgoing year tears flowed in the country as there was a harvest of deaths resulting from bombing, political violence, armed robbery attacks, communal clashes and natural disasters.THE outgoing year has been a bloody one. Almost every month, the precious blood of Nigerians was spilled in frightening proportion. Although, the insurgence championed by Boko Haram accounted for a large quantity of the blood that was shed, other crises such as the restiveness in Plateau State, political uprising, armed robbery as well as communal clashes also contributed to the sucking of Nigerians' blood in the exiting year.Signs that the year would be gory emerged on the eve of 2010 Christmas Day as explosions rocked Jos, Plateau State capital. Rescue and health workers had hardly completed clearing the mess when Maiduguri, Borno State capital, went up in flames as Boko Haram bombed the city on December 27 last year. The casualty figure for the shelling of Jos and Maiduguri was put at 86. Over 100 people sustained varying degrees of injuries.Boko Haram attacksAs the first month of the year was nearing its end, precisely on Friday, January 28, 2011, Boko Haram recorded its first attack in the year when the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) candidate for the April 2011 gubernatorial election the Borno State, Alhaji Modu Fannami Gubio, was assassinated, along with his brother, four police officers and a 12-year old boy.Then on March 3, an explosive thrown from a car close to where a campaign rally was holding in Abuja resulted in the killing of three people, while 21 others were injured.The murderous activities of the Boko Haram group hit the peak in April as there were series of bomb attacks perpetrated by it in different parts of the country. On April 1, the eve of the botched National Assembly elections, a police station in Bauchi was attacked. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Suleja was bombed on April 8; 11 persons fell victim of the attack. On April 9, the date for the rescheduled National Assembly election, a polling booth in Maiduguri was bombed. On April 16, while the presidential election was on, Boko Haram also bombed a police station at Lami Sula district of Maiduguri.On the same day, but now in Kaduna, there were two bomb explosions. On April 20, a fiery but antagonistic Muslim cleric, Ibrahim Birkuti, was killed in Maiduguri by the sect members. At least two persons were killed on April 25 when a hotel and a motor park were bombed by members of the sect.On May 28 the sect attacked the Damboa Divisional Police Station and a bank in Maiduguri, killing four policemen and eight civilians, while on May 29, the day President Goodluck Jonathan was inaugurated, a mammy market located in Shandawanka Barracks, Bauchi, was bombed. The bombing caused the death of 13 persons, while 40 others were injured.Another explosion rocked Maiduguri on May 31. Attacks on a church and two police posts in Maiduguri by the sect on June 7 left at least 14 persons dead.The sect took its attack to Abuja, the seat of government, targeting the Nigeria Police Headquarters, Louis Edet House, on June 16, as a suicide bomber, apparently aiming the Inspector General of the Police, Hafiz Ringim, caused the police headquarters to go up in flames. Many souls fell to the attack reputed to be the nation's first suicide bombing.Four days hence, June 20, the sect was in Katsina State, where its gun and bomb attacks on a police station and a bank resulted in seven people, including five policemen, losing their lives. Boko Haram's men returned to Maiduguri seven days later, on June 27, attacking a drinking joint, killing at least 25 persons with scores of others injured.The sect was back in Niger State on July 10, bombing the All Christian Fellowship Church in Suleja.On August 25, men of the sect were in Gombi, Adamawa State, where they carried out gun and bomb attacks on two police stations and two banks, killing at least 16 persons, including seven policemen.Another prominent Muslim cleric, Liman Bana, was shot dead by Boko Haram on August 12 as he was going home after conducting prayers at the main mosque in Ngala.At least 21 persons were killed as the sect returned to Abuja on August 26, hitting the United Nations Headquarters when a suicide bomber in a car drove straight into the UN building, crashing the car against it.It was the turn of a police station and a bank in Misau, Bauchi State to be attacked on September 12 as Boko Harm men descended on the duo, killing four policemen and robbing the bank. A day after, four soldiers were shot by Boko Haram in Maiduguri.Babakura Fugu, brother-in-law to the sect's slain leader Mohammed Yusuf, was shot dead outside his house in Maiduguri by two members of the sect, two days after hosting former President Olusegun Obasanjo to a peace talk in Maiduguri.On October 1, three people fell to the bullets of Boko Haram when it attacked a military patrol vehicle delivering food to soldiers at a checkpoint in Maiduguri. Two days later, three other people were killed when the sect carried out an attack on Baga Market in Maiduguri.A prominent politician, Modu Bintube, was shot dead outside his Maiduguri home on October 16. A journalist with the Nigerian Television Authority, Alhaji Zakariya Isa, was killed by Boko Haram on October 22 for allegedly spying on the group.Different parts of Borno and Yobe states came under a series of attacks by the group on November 5. In the attacks, which resulted in a number of government property in Yobe State being massively destroyed, at least 67 persons were killed.On Christmas Day, the sect carried out a number of attacks in different parts of the country. In Madalla, Niger State, the St. Theresa Catholic Church was bombed, leaving at least 35 persons dead with about 52 others injured. The sect also attacked the Mountain of Fire Ministries (MFM) church in Jos, Plateau State, resulting in the death of one policeman. There were two other explosions in Damaturu and Gadaka. In Damaturu, a suicide car bomber rammed into the State Security Service headquarters building, killing at least three persons.Post-election violenceAlthough there had been pockets of violence and killings ahead of the April 16 presidential election, such paled beside the violence and wilful killing and destruction that trailed the presidential election. Even before the result of the election was announced, an orgy of destruction and killing had pervaded many states in the North, including Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara. It took a combination of the police and the military three days to restore a semblance of order in the affected parts of the country. But by that time, over 520 people had been killed, according to the police at a forum organised to review the 2011 elections by the Policy and Advocacy Centre, Abuja.Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, Felix Ogbadu, who represented Hafiz Ringim, the Inspector-General of Police at the forum said, 'One hundred and fifty-seven churches, 46 mosques and 1,435 houses were burnt.'Ogbadu added that 437 vehicles and 219 motor-cycles were also burnt by rioters, just as five buildings belonging to the Nigeria Police were set ablaze in various areas of the North.The police boss stated that a total of 22,000 persons were displaced as a result of the violence.The Human Rights Watch, however, believes that at least 800 people were killed in the wake of the violence that engulfed 12 states of the federation, while 65,000 persons were displaced.Communal clashes in Plateau, ZamfaraThroughout the year, Plateau State recorded series of attacks, mostly in the dead of the night, which resulted in the death of many people.According to the Human Rights Watch, no fewer than 200 people were killed in Plateau State in January alone as a result of attacks and reprisal attacks.Meanwhile, a February 10 attack in Jos left six people dead. On March 20, an exploded bomb in Nasarawa Gwom area of Angwan Rukuba, killed two would be assailants and injured one passerby. The men were said to have tried to detonate the bomb with the intention of attacking worshippers at a nearby ECWA church.Clashes between Christian and Muslim youths on August 30 over the celebration of Eid-el-Fitri in Jos resulted in the death of 13 persons. Scores of cars and houses were also burnt.On August 21, six people were killed in a night attack on Jol and Kwi villages of Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State. The attackers were said to have struck in the villages in the early hours of the day, killing their victims and burning down houses and other property.On September 5, 11 people were killed in separate attacks in Barkin Ladi and Jos North Local Government areas of the state. This was less than 48 hours after a family of eight was killed in Heipang in Barkin Ladi Local Government. In another attack on that same day, a group of marauders attacked Dabwak, near Kuru Science School and Farin-Lamba, killing four persons; two aged people and two of their grandchildren.Another violence in Barkin Ladi Local Government on November 24 resulted in the death of at least 25 persons.Zamfara State was regarded as peaceful until October 2 when some bandits were said to have invaded Lingyado, killing at least 19 persons and raping women in the full glare of their husbands. Since then, there have been series of reprisal attacks which have led to dwellers of Saulawa and Madaka villages in Dansadau District of Maru Local Government Area being sacked.Armed robbery attacksAnother major contributor to the goriness of the year was armed robbery. Armed robbers upped their game in the outgoing year, attacking banks and other public places with uncommon gusto, leaving dead people in their wake.On August 2, about 50 passengers of an Abuja-bound luxury bus were waylaid by robbers, who ordered them to lie face down on the highway, while dispossessing them of their belongings. As this was ongoing, an unsuspecting truck ran over the robbery victims, killing all of them. A similar event had happened two years earlier along Ore-Benin expressway.On November 10, a gang or armed robbers attacked five banks located within the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State. The robbers, who bombed their way into the banks, were said to have killed three people and maimed scores of others.Two banks were raided on December 5 in Rumola, Port Harcourt. Seven persons were killed in the incident. The incessant attacks on banks in the state as well as the accompanying deaths, led the government to draft men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) to secure banks in the state.For two consecutive days, Kogi State was under the siege of armed robbers. On December 19, a gang of armed robbers attacked a police station and a commercial bank at Aiyetoro Gbede in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State. Less than 24 hours later, another armed gang invaded three banks in Okenne, bombing and shooting sporadically. The attack left about 10 people dead.The pattern was not different in most parts of the country.Natural disastersOn August 31, there was a re-enactment of the 1980 flood disaster in Ibadan, Oyo State capital when a torrential downpour resulted in streams and rivers within the metropolis overflowing their banks and sweeping away at least 100 persons. Although that was the worst flood disaster in the city in the outgoing year, it was not the only one as a number of downpours had resulted in houses being demolished and residents dying.But if Ibadan was the worst hit by flooding in 2011, it was not the only one. In Lagos, a number of lives were lost just as scores of houses were submerged. Sometimes flooding paralysed activities in the state for days.In Katsina State, just one downpour killed seven people and destroyed 120 buildings. After a heavy rain in Kano, 24 persons were killed and about 100 houses destroyed.According to a resident of the city, "Some of the victims were buried alive when their (house) roofs collapsed on them, while others were washed away by the floods and deposited along a major sewer in the area."Almost every state in the federation has its own tale of woes as the country recorded the heaviest rain in 50 years.
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