LAGOS -- Residents of the central city of Jos and its environs and rights activists believe the renewed religious clashes in the metropolis is a microcosm of the unresolved ethnic distrust and indigene/settlers dichotomy in Nigeria, a country split between a Muslim North and a Christian South.

"Our preliminary report shows this to be a coordinated attack by the Fulanin herdsmen who we gathered came from the neighboring state of Bauchi," Gregory Nyelong, the Plateau state information commissioner, told IslamOnline.net.

Some 500 people, mostly Christian women and children, are believed to have been killed in attacks by machete-wielding gangs on three villages on the fringes of Jos, capital of Plateau state.

Nyelong says what happened at the Dogon-Hauwa village in Du district of Jos South Local Government Council was an "ethnic cleansing carried out against the Beroms," the ethnic group of incumbent Governor Jonah Jang.

He insists that no less than 500 persons were butchered in the community by suspected Hausa-Fulani militia men believed to have been brought into the state from the neighboring state of Bauchi.

He accused Saleh Bayari, the former chairman of the state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board, of inciting Hausa-Fulani settlers against the natives, particularly the Beroms.

"Saleh Bayari should be arrested because he has been issuing threats and recently addressed press conference in Kaduna which we have copies and he has been spreading false rumors and inciting Fulanis against the Berom natives of the state."

The explosion of violence is the latest between rival ethic and religious clans, the Fulani and the Berom, which had been first ignited by a theft of cattle and then further fuelled by a deadly revenge attack.

Reprisal

Many believe the latest attack was a reprisal for the January attacks in which hundreds of mainly Muslims were killed.

"The latest carnage looks to us to be a reprisal and this again is traceable to the fact that some people are hungry for justice which the institution of state has either denied them or is unwilling to give," Titus Mann, an official with the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), told IOL.

Mann, a leading civil rights campaigner and himself a native of Jos, laments that the latest bout of violence could have been averted had the governments at all levels "behaved responsibly after the events of two weeks ago during which Muslim communities were attacked."

Olasupo Ojo of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) agrees.

"How do you console a man whose wife and children were killed and stuffed down the well? He needs justice, and where the state fails to give him he resorts to self-help. What I’m saying is that justice is of great essence."

Bayari, who is accused of inciting the new violence, told IOL from his hideout that the Berom-led Plateau state government should be investigated for its role in the perennial crisis.

"We have it on good authority that this government has asked the natives to ensure the Hausa-Fulanis are either forced to relocate away from the state or be killed in their thousands," he claimed.

"So we now longer look forward to such government for justice. It is clearly biased against us. We ask the federal government to investigate the issues involved and see who the aggressors are."

Repeatable

Aliyu Chiroma, an elder statesman and former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the country’s largest trade union, says the Jos mayhem threatens the fabric of the country.

"It is very unfortunate. Nigerians should learn how to tolerate one another," he told IOL.

"Plateau is becoming a no-go area, and that is not good for their state and the country. If the natives don’t tolerate the settlers, there is tendency for them to be chased out of other parts of the country. We should be our brother’s keepers."

He believes the crisis should be addressed through the instrumentality of truth, justice and fairness to all peoples of the state.

"My advise is that let all leaders be independent-minded, they should say the truth, and advise their followers to give peace a chance."

Many see little hope the crisis will abate until the pressing issues are resolved.

"With the way things are, there is so much hatred on the two sides that one is afraid of the future of Jos," says Ojo, the CDHR official.

"I think the government should start from getting justice done to all. There should be fairness," he added.

"Taking people to Abuja without doing concrete job to bring perpetrators to book is a recipe for future uprisings. And that is what we are seeing."