Soldiers at Dangote’s Factory Kill 7 ...Company, Govt. Abandon Victims’ Families

A tale of blood and murder in a Benue community. There is no justice from government or compensation from Africa’s richest man whose business is linked to the crime.

For 19-year-old Terhile Jirbo, it was another answer to the call of nature. But when gunfire rang out that afternoon of March 18, what seemed a harmless routine would leave a fatal scar on him and his community in Gboko, a major town in the North-central state of Benue.

Members of Mbayion community in Gboko had responded after a soldier shot Mr. Jirbo for emptying his bowel near the Gboko Cement factory, the second most lucrative cement factory belonging to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The attacker was one of two-dozen troops securing the multibillion-dollar factory.
In protest of the shooting, the community members marched outside the factory, and for hours, they asked for justice.

But as they hurled insults at the soldiers, asking them to leave the community, the troops responded with gunfire, according to state officials, witnesses, and community leaders.
Shot on the leg, one woman laid bloodied on the ground, and tried to crawl to safety. Then, a soldier closed up on her, pointed his rifle directly at her head and blasted, a witness said.

The woman’s brain matter splattered on another bullet-ridden victim, a man feigning death next to her. That man survived the attack even after a bullet ripped open his abdomen, spilling out his intestines.
When the shooting and the confusion subsided over three hours later, the death toll stood at seven – one woman, six men.

The victims – aged 36 and below – were all shot dead by troops of the Nigerian army, survivors and community members said.
By chance or fate, Mr. Jirbo, the teenager whose shooting by a soldier ignited the fracas, survived the attack. But he would be deformed for life, his mouth disfigured and emptied of almost all teeth in the upper region. A member of the more than two-dozen military team guarding the multibillion-dollar Gboko cement factory shot him in the mouth.

His offence: relieving himself near the Dangote factory complex, and refusing to pack the waste with his mouth when ordered to do so by the soldier.
In the outburst of violence that followed, the soldiers shot dead Doose Ornguze, 19, female; Luper Nongo Igber, 20, male; Timothy Terngu Mase, 21, male; Myom Mbaume, 25, male; Aondoyima Tyokase, 26, male; Iornenge Anum, 35, male and Aondoakura Tseeneke, 36, male.

Bodies of victims of the shooting in a hospital in Markurdi shortly before burial.

They were killed in violation of their rights to life and human dignity as enshrined in Chapter Four of the Nigerian Constitution.
Eight others were seriously wounded in the attack, among them Thomas Igber, Sesugh Nongo, and Joseph Akpa Yaji.
Months of investigation by Premium Times has shed light into a deadly violation of human rights perpetrated by state forces at a time Nigeria faces international scrutiny over human rights abuses in its war against suspected Boko Haram militants.

Community leaders spoke of how the Dangote group and the federal government brushed aside the killings, offered no assistance to the families of those killed or wounded by the troops. The government, also, has yet to punish or publicly identify those responsible for the massacre in the town.

While the military and the Dangote group have both failed to impress the community on the steps they took to show sympathy, offer compensation to bereaved families or even help bury the dead.