Nigeria Content Online

The casual passerby
who sees reconstructed buildings along major roads may think that
Zaki-Biam has recovered from the 2001 military invasion.

But those directly affected still bear the scars a decade later.

Simon Awua Gesa,
the 56 year old farmer who lost his father, Emmanuel Agwaza, an aunt,
as well as Pila Tsutsu Biam, chairman of the Zaki-Biam Yam Market
Association which lost nine members still bear the brunt of the
invasion.

Apart from human
losses, these residents also lost property running into millions of
naira and are yet to recover from the double blow.

Zaki-Biam was among
several communities in the Katsina-Ala/Ukum/Logo federal constituency
invaded by the Nigerian military in 2001 as reprisal for the killing of
19 soldiers.

Reports stated that
the local militia had captured and killed soldiers in civilian vehicles
and without proper military uniforms during the Tiv and Jukun communal
violence that year, believing that they were Jukun militia from Taraba
State.

Awua Gesa, Simon’s 70 year-old father, was among scores of people rounded up by the soldiers at the yam market and killed.

His house in Zaki-Biam was also destroyed a day after he was killed.

Hembadoon Agwaza,
Emmanuel’s aunt, who lost all her property when the five-bedroom flat
of her brother, Agwaza Aluga was destroyed, developed hypertension as a
result of the loss and died within one month of the invasion.

Apart from the loss of lives at the market, its stalls and all their contents were completely razed.

“My greatest pain
is the burden of training my father’s children the way he would have
done if he were alive,” Mr. Gesa lamented.

“Most of them cannot proceed beyond secondary school, now.” The late Gesa left behind four wives and over 30 children.

“We’ve not been
able to reconstruct my father’s flat which was one of the best in town,
I can’t say all hope is lost but unless God does a miracle I don’t see
how we can do it,” Mr. Agwaza stated.

Mr. Biam maintained
that the invasion had slowed down the development of the yam market
because the traders who had lost everything have not recovered enough
to pool resources to provide needed amenities there.

“We need a fence to
secure the market, boreholes, and more toilets, all these have not been
provided as a result of the invasion,” the market chairman stated.

He said the resources at the market are being channelled towards the reconstruction of the structures.