General who crushed 1980s Maitatsine riot is dead

The officer who crushed the Maitatsine revolt of the early 1980s, Major General Yohanna Yerima Kure (retd), is dead.

The member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council between 1985 and 1987 died from old age related illness.

Kure, who died at 84, served in the regimes of Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, between 1985 and 1987, was also a member of the Supreme Military Council under then military ruler, General Muhammadu Buhari, from 1983 to 1985.

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A former General Officer Commanding 82 Division, Enugu and the 2nd Mechanised Division, Ibadan, he was also the Director of Army Special Duties and Plans.

Kure, who was commissioned in 1964 into the Nigerian Army, voluntarily retired in 1990.

After retiring, he served as Minister of Culture and Social Welfare and Minister of Sports and Youth Development.

He was well known for his role in crushing the revolt of the Maitatsine in Kano (1980) and Yola (1982).

The Yen Izala sect was led by Alhaji Muhammadu Marwa, popularly known as Maitatsine, who was believed to have migrated from Chad.

Marwa espoused a fundamentalist brand of Islam which opposed materialism and sought to “purify” Muslim religious practice.

His unorthodox teachings led to acts of violence in several northern states of Nigeria.

He was killed in December 1980 while trying to evade arrest.