Taraba district head suspends selling of local liquor in markets following blasts

  Chief Augustine Vikani, District Head of Kofai Chiefdom, in Ardo Kola local government area of Taraba, on Monday, suspended the selling of ‘burukutu’ a local liquor in markets within his Chiefdom .

Vikani issued the suspension while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kofai, Ardo Kola local government area of the state.

He said that the suspension became necessary to serve as a security measure to forestall any further occurrence of bomb blast within the community.

The monarch said that the decision was taken in consultation with the youths and elders in the community, especially as Mondays hosted the popular ‘kasuwan bera’ market.

He said that the community had already complied with the directives, adding that the youths and security personnel  were on hand to enforce the suspension order.

” The two bomb blasts that occured recently had affected the two local markets, that is Iware and Nukkai neighboring ours here.

“And that informed our collective decision to suspend public sale of the local beer, burukutu, especially inside our markets.

“This measure was taken to control crowd, especially as the two recent blasts occurred within drinking joints and today marked the hosting of one of our popular markets.

“We must be proactive in our approach, especially as a traditional institution which harbours different kinds of people, indeed we must showcase our preparedness and then the government could complement this effort.

” We have equally instructed our youth not to take laws into their hands and report any suspicious movements to the conventional security,’ he said.

While commending the government for boosting the community with more security, Vikani appealed to government at all levels to step up more proactive measures in preventing such dastardly occurrences.

The News Agency of Nigeria  correspondent who visited Kasuwan Bera’ market reports the heavy presence of police personnel controlling the crowd.

Activities were low key due to the panic that resulted from the previous bomb blast, which occurred at the International Cattle Market Iware inside a drinking joint killing six people and injuring 19, NAN reports.

NAN recalled that within the intervals of three days, another explosion rocked another beer parlour in Nukkai, a suburb of Jalingo, where 11 people were wounded though no life was lost. (NAN)