Benue killings: Group hails military over mastermind’s arrest

A group, Good Governance and Transparency Initiative, has reacted to the arrest of Aminu Yaminu, otherwise known as Tarshaku, who was believed to have masterminded the recent killings in Benue state.

The group commended the army for swinging into action by fishing out the suspect. Executive Director of the group, Mrs. Jaiyeola Mohammed, while speaking at a commendation rally held around Abuja in reaction to the arrest, urged security agents to bring those behind the killings to book. Mohammed said the group commended the military for arresting Tarshaku, who also goes by the name Aminu Yaminu, a Boko Haram commander serving in a state government.

He said: “We understand he has provided useful information that indicates that his evil acts were not primarily motivated by his ethnicity or religion. Rather, he was executing the instructions of political patrons that are not even of the same ethnic stock as himself.

“The stories about herdsmen reprisal were apparently promoted by these Tashaku’s sponsors to divert attention from whatever their true intentions are. Hopefully, our superb military intelligence will at some point uncover what these intentions are.

“The Coalition for Good Governance had earlier hinted that the killings and destruction in Benue state that were credited to herdsmen have political undertones as they are nothing compared to the friction between herdsmen and farmers like we used to know.”

Continuing, he said: “The gruesome killings have the trappings of killers that have instruction to dispense as much terror as they can.

“The arrest of Tashaku and others like gunmen arrested in Guma local government area of Benue state, Abubakar Umaru, Adamu Likita, and Yusufa Alhaji Yaro, point to the fact that they were recruited to act out wellcrafted scripts that would pitch ethnic configurationsagainst each other, while creating a widespread sense of terror that have allowed someone like the Benue state governor to escape scrutiny about his ineffectual handling of the state’s affairs through the active sponsorship of known terrorists.”

“We understand that desperation to conceal the true identity of the persons behind the killings was responsible for the murder of a soldier in Benue state just last month.

The military authorities must investigate this and also find out the level of collaboration that exists between community youths and the killers.”

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