BARELY a week after the declaration of emergency rule to tame sectarian strife in Plateau State, a fresh eruption of violence in Duwi village, Wase council area Tuesday night claimed five lives.
Another attack in Lyangit, a community in Langtang North local government was said to have led to the loss of one life even as Senate yesterday began accelerated hearing on the eight emergency powers bills presented to it for approval two days ago by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Several persons were reportedly wounded in the Duwi incident just as about 20 houses were destroyed in the process.
Speakers of state Houses of Assembly in the country who met in an emergency session in Lagos yesterday tacitly endorsed emergency rule in Plateau, but flayed sections of the Bill on Allocation of Revenue to Local Government.
Sources told Daily Champion that some Fulani herdsmen armed with guns, bows and poisoned arrows attacked Duwi, a christian Tarok-populated settlement in the muslim-dominated local government at about midnight while the residents were sleeping.
Duwi is close to Kadarko village where a major Christian/Muslim clash recently claimed several lives spuring a chain of events leading to the clamping of the state of emergency.
The source said that invading Fulani swooped on the Taroks with the advantage of information that many of the latter had voluntarily surrendered their arms in deference to the plea by the Administrator, Gen. M.C. Alli (rtd).
In the Lyangi incident, a man was butchered "with his flesh scattered about by the Fulani."
No further details of the attack were available.
However, state police commissioner, Mr Innocent Ilozuoke, told Daily Champion on phone that he was away in Bauchi State together with Gen. Alli.
Ilozuoke said when Daily Champion called him that he had not yet been briefed on the development.
The Speakers, who met yesterday in Lagos under the aegis of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, however, described as unconstitutional, sections of the Bill on Allocation of Revenue to Local Government Councils and Area Councils, submitted to the National Assembly by the President.
Attended by 12 Speakers, five deputy speakers and a Majority Leader, the meeting, which held at the Lagos State House of Assembly, in its communique, condemned "the spate of killings and destruction of properties in Plateau State and the inability of the elected governor to act decisively to arrest the situation."
The Speakers, in their three-point communique, said they "appreciate the powers of the President under section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to declare a State of Emergency in any part of the country where there is complete break down of law and order," and appealed to the perpetrators of the killings and destruction of property "to eschew violence and maintain law and order in the state."
Though the Speakers said they appreciated the President's good intention in initiating the Bill on Allocation of revenue to Local Government and Area Councils, they stated "categorically that Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Bill are unconstitutional as those provisions run contrary to the spirit of the constitution with regard to the supervisory powers of State Governments over Local Governments and Area Councils.
During the opening ceremony Lagos State Deputy Governor Mr. Femi Pedro who opened the conference appealed to the Speakers to deliberate progressively on the issue of emergency in Plateau.
He condemned the declaration of state of emergency in the state, particularly the suspension of machinery of democratically elected government saying that "it does not do good for the image of the country."
According to Mr Pedro, the declaration of emergency rule could drive away foreign investors from the country.
He advised the Federal Government to always endeavour to use the power of emergency sparingly.
The deputy governor noted that "declaring a state of emergency five years into a democratic rule would not augur well for us as this could be exploited by the military boys to attempt returning to power once again."
In the Senate, the eight emergency powers bills were read for the first time on the floor by the Senate President, Adoplhus Wabara.
The bills wer given accelerated hearing so that they could be passed to meet the exigencies of the time in Plateau State.
The bills which also enjoyed first reading yesterday on the floor of the House will come up for the second reading to day.
Copies of the bills yet to be made public seek to empower the Administrator of the state to summarily deal with the situation on the ground without consultations.