Alhaji Baba Sheriff Abdulahi
An influential Zongo personality has pressed the alarm button about the rising list of casualties of vigilante youth in the Zongo communities and the need for immediate action to be taken to stop the trend.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, Alhaji Baba Sheriff Abdulahi who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Marhaba Media Limited in Accra said he was disturbed by the number of young men putting their lives at risk serving the interests of others.
He disclosed that the vigilantes do not strictly belong to one particular party but go to the highest bidder. “They can belong to Party A today but change sides to Party B when fortunes change,” he added.
He has therefore called the clergies of faiths, National Council of Chiefs and other important personalities of influence to intervene in the deteriorating situation among Zongo youth against the backdrop of the recent injuries sustained during the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election by some of them, and the death of Wasihu Idris in Kumasi.
Tracing the origin of vigilantism, the man, who lived through the vigilante days of the late 50s in Kumasi and the son of the first Zongo Chief at Konongo, said: “In Kumasi, the political elite included persons like MB Sulaimana, CPP Propaganda Secretary; Karimu, Young Pioneer, among others. Zongo youth in Aboabo No 1 and Aboabo No 2 had their entrenched political positions and served the interest of powerful politicians and the main political groupings of UP and CPP. The two lorry stations were patronised according to party lines – UP and CPP. Those were the days of the Anguna Petu vehicles.”
He said most of the Muslim elite in Kumasi were anti-CPP and so Kwame Nkrumah found in a section of the youth reliable allies whom he used against his adversaries. He rewarded them with land named Nakama which they used as a car-washing base. Nakama in Hausa means ‘I have caught it’ referring to the car washers laying claim to vehicles turning in to be washed. Nakama is situated around the Asawase railway crossing and still operates as a car-washing base.
When Queen Elizabeth II was billed to visit in 1960, he said the notorious youth were rounded up and detained at Nsawam Prison then called Mayera. They were not released until after the 1966 coup, he recalled, adding that “some of them came out from prison blind. They were used and abandoned by politicians – something laden with lessons for our Zongo youth today”.
“In those days, firearms were unavailable for the criminal youth to use. They had only knives, machetes and soda water Molotov for their operations and did not have motorbikes for easy movement. Today, vigilantes have sophisticated weapons, which make the situation more serious than in the 60s.
Alhaji Sheriff said all stakeholders must join hands in finding solution to the security challenge posed by these youths who are dependent on the ‘willing market’ provided by bad persons in society.
He said Boko Haram started this way when a Borno State governor used them but could no longer control them and the fallouts from that situation is the insecurity Nigeria is battling today.
By A.R. Gomda