The Council of Ulama of Yelwa in Shendam local government area of Plateau State has denounced the tagging of two law-abiding young tailors of the town as members of the Islamic State in West African Province (ISWAP) terrorist organisation.
LEADERSHIP recalled that the headquarters of Operation Safe Haven in Plateau State had issued a press statement in which it declared that its operatives had arrested members of ISWAP, neutralised a bandit and also recovered some arms.
The statement, signed by Major Samson Zahkom, its Media Information Officer, also published photos of 25-year-old Abdulkadir Dalhatu and 25-year-old Ubaidu Hassan, whom it described as “members of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Plateau State”.
The special military task force, in that statement, alleged that: “In a coordinated operation on 11 April 2025, troops of Forward Operating Base (FOB) Shendam busted an ISWAP cell located around Yelwa axis in Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State. During the sting operation, two suspected ISWAP members identified as Abdulkadir Dalhatu, 25 years old and Ubaidu Hassan, 25 years old, posing as tailors, were arrested by troops”.
However, on the contrary, the Council of Ulama in Yelwa, Shendam local government area of Plateau State, in a statement signed by its chairman Imam Abdulkarim Salihu and Secretary Abubakar Gambo stated categorically that there was no such operation by troops of the task force on the said date in Yelwa.
“We wish to state that on Thursday, 10th April 2025, a lanky, fairly complexion man (name unknown), who appears to be in his early 40s, visited Yelwa and began to snap photographs by the time he arrived at the front of the tailoring shop where the two young men ply their trade, which is at the frontage of Abdullahi Baraya Family Compound along Ibbi Road”.
They further stressed, “Uncomfortable with a stranger snapping and sharing their photographs and also making telephone calls to confirm receipt of those photos, the two young men, alongside other passersby who got attracted to the development, accosted the stranger, demanding that he identify himself and also requesting to know why he took their photographs after he claimed to have been on “an official duty.”
According to the statement, when he refused to identify himself correctly, they invited an elderly housemate named Suleiman Abdullahi Baraya, who intervened and asked the visibly tense young man to allow him to have a private discussion with the stranger.
“As soon as he was allowed to step aside to discuss with Mr Baraya, the stranger called someone he said was his boss, and moments after that, the police arrived at the scene. They (the police) invited the two young men, alongside the elder, to join them at the police post in Yelwa. From there, the three (Mr Baraya) were moved to the 332 Artillery Regiment Army Barracks in Shendam, where all three were interrogated by the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Barracks”.
The duo also stated that from the account given to them by Mr Baraya, who has since been released, the special military task force was on the trail of a suspected terrorist who was alleged to have “some time ago” visited the same tailoring shop operated by the two young men, and that the stranger taking and sharing photographs was “an intelligence officer” on an “undercover operation” in the hope of unravelling the suspected ISWAP member.
According to the Council of Ulama Yelwa, it was utterly shocking for their entire community that barely 24 hours after Abdulkadir and Ubaidu were transferred to Jos from Shendam “to help in the investigation to ascertain if the suspected ISWAP member had indeed visited their shop, some time ago”, we saw the pictures of these two young men, known in the entire Yelwa community to be well behaved and upright, in viral media publications being described as members of a terrorist organisation.
They further said, for the avoidance of doubt, “We wish to reiterate that Abdulkadir Dalhatu and Ubaidu Hassan are both known in our community to be law-abiding, morally sound, and ethically virtuous and we, therefore, found the terrorism tag placed over their heads as unfair and unjust.”
So, he asks, on behalf of the entire people of Yelwa, that the headquarters of Operation Safe Haven conduct its investigation into this matter with the utmost professionalism and speed in a manner that does not harm the lives and livelihoods of these young men.
“We equally demanded the immediate release of the two to return to their shops, from where they are eking out a living and supporting their indigent families”. Ulama Council said.
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