Bauchi: NBA urges security agencies to checkmate militia group

From Ahmad Mohammed Bauchi

The Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Bauchi state branch, Barrister Mahmud Mohammed Maidoki has urged the security agencies to tackle activities of the militiamen known as ‘Yan ba beli‘ who extra judicially killed alleged criminals in parts of the state.
Speaking yesterday during the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected officials of Young Lawyers Forum, an affiliate body of the NBA, he said “ I want to register our utmost dismay on the attitude of the Nigeria Police, in handling the emerging militia, most particularly called Yan Ba Beli meaning literary a group of illegal frontiers instant adjudication of supposed crime which usually execute innocent people devoid of the notion of fair hearing”.
Maidoki said many of their clients complained to them about the activities of Yan Babeli who move around in hundreds carrying dangerous weapons mostly in Ningi, Warji and Ganjuwa Local Government Areas of the State, even if their target person fled they burn his house to ashes”
He adviced security operatives to intensify efforts in fighting crimes in the state with a view to protecting the citizens TheNBA chairman decried that the militiamen have now illegally accorded to themselves the power of adjudicating and executing suspected criminals without authorization.
Earlier, the outgoing chairman of the young lawyers forum Barrister Idris Safiyanu Gambo explained that the Forum was established in 2016 to groom new comers into the profession comprising of lawyers aged between one to seven years post call.
The new executives of the forum who were inaugurated by the Bauchi State chief Judge Justice Rabi Talatu Umar represented by Justice Abubakar A Suleiman at the state High Court complex included Abbas Muazu as Chairman, Yusuf Abdullahi Aliyu, Vice Chairman and Habila Isa Barau as secretary.
Others were: Auwal Abdul Aziz as Assistant Secretary, Kabiru Ibrahim, Financial Secretary, Amazadu Vivian Iwu, Treasurer, S. F Famare, Publicity Secretary while Yusuf Uba Kabiru is the new provost of the Forum.