It started on Christmas eve and by yesterday, a series of attacks by gunmen on communities in two local government areas of Plateau State have left no fewer than 115 citizens dead, hundreds injured and 221 houses razed.
Confirming the death toll, a tearful Governor Caleb Mutfwang said the massacre was unprovoked and tasked security agents to unravel the sponsors of the “carnage” and their blood-thirsty foot-soldiers.
Other accounts said no fewer than 140 persons were killed during the attacks.
Narrating, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, the blood-curling simultaneous attacks by assailants on over 15 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi LGAs of the state on Christmas eve, Mutfwang lamented: “Just when we had finished preparations for Christmas, unprovoked attacks were unleashed on our communities.”
Several houses were set ablaze by the attackers on Sunday night. The gun-wielding and blood-curling men also looted farm produce and destroyed property as they butchered the residents.
“As I am talking to you, in Mangu Local Government alone, we buried 15 people. As of this morning, in Bokkos, we are counting over 100 corpses. Not to talk of that of Barkin-Ladi.”
The governor said the attacks were “unprecedented and monumental,” noting that though the assailants intended to break the spirit of the people and pull down the two councils, the spirit of the people on the Plateau remain unfazed.
Mutfwang, however, said the response time by security agents, especially the men of the Nigerian Army could be better.
The governor also said the attacks are connected to land disputes between aboriginal dwellers and marauding terrorists.
He warned that the people attacked could defend themselves, noting that it might get to a time that the people may not be able to restrain themselves from defending themselves and their lands against the assailants.
Plateau citizens urged to visit hospitals for blood donation
Also, Mutfwang, in a statement by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Gyang Bere, praised the bravery and sacrifices of security personnel, acknowledging the injuries sustained by some during efforts to secure the affected villages and assured of continued collaboration with the military and other security agencies to address security challenges, given the limited resources available.
Expressing sympathy for the affected families and communities, Governor Mutfwang urged citizens to stand strong, assuring them that “the government is actively working to address the situation.”
He called on the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and Plateau State Emergency Management Agency to “swiftly respond to the humanitarian crisis resulting from the attacks.”
Govt to offset medical bills as Deputy Gov, group condemn attacks
Mutfwang emphasized the government’s commitment by covering the medical expenses of those injured and receiving treatment at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, and other hospitals in the state.
Deputy Governor Josephine Piyo, in a statement by her Chief Press Secretary, Martha Nyam, described the killings as “reprehensible and disheartening especially as it occurred during the festive season when the Christian faithful were celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.”
Piyo called on citizens to “prioritise peace and harmonious living at all times for the good of the state,” and called on security agencies to “expedite action towards bringing the culprits to book and averting a similar situation in the future.”
Mutfwang and Piyo spoke as President Bola Tinubu ordered security agencies to fish out the culprits with the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Northern Governors Forum, NGF, Northern senators, Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Baptist Convention, and Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, condemning the killings and tasking government on decisive action.
No option but to resort to self help — MBF
Specifically, the MBF said that the Federal Government is unwilling to end the recurring killings in the region, warning that Middle-Beltans are being left with no option but to resort to self-help.
It called for the establishment of state police to avert full-blown hostilities.
MBF National President, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, in a statement, said: “Section 14(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, stipulates that ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.
“Conversely, the unrelenting massacre of our people in the Middle-Belt states particularly recently on the Plateau has shown without any vestige of pessimism that the government and security forces are complicit in the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous ethnic nationalities who are not part of the Sokoto Caliphate.
“It is no longer news that the hideout from which these insurgents/terrorists launch their attacks on the states of Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Southern Kaduna is known to government and security forces for decades yet they have deliberately fortified this evil theatre from any destruction thus providing a safe haven for these terrorists to smuggle arms, train their mercenaries and unleash unimaginable terror on innocent citizens without any provocation whatsoever.
“Mahanga, a forest which lies at the foot of the hills of Bokkos LGA of Plateau State and borders Wamba LGA of Nasarawa State to the south, is the infamous launching ground of all attacks against our people in the last two decades and fully known to government and security forces.
“The complicity of the government and security forces is that they have shielded this autonomous Fulani community, which is known to house all manner of weapons, including missiles that are used to destabilise the peaceful coexistence of the country without ever invading and uprooting them from the forest.
“This same tactic of nurturing and fortifying terrorist camps finds expression in the Mandara hills in Borno and Alagarno, where the military moved the entire residents of over 11,000 people from Sabon Gari, leaving the whole road between Biu and Damboa for the terrorists to operate freely, even collecting tolls on the highways.
“This implicates the government of collusion with these armed non-state actors to kill and maim our people with the intent to eclipse our heritage and existence.
“Our resolve to confront headlong this abysmal and surreptitious extinction of our people is anchored on our quest for the liberation of Middle-Belt states from the oppressive and tyrannical manipulations of external forces that have retarded development in our region.
“We shall take the bull by the horns to defend our people as the last option left to us predicated on our land, our people and our heritage.
“It is pertinent to note that the divide and rule tactic over the years employed by our adversaries has accounted for the political subjugation of our people, thereby limiting our access to economic power which concomitantly renders us vulnerable and defenceless in the face of carefully orchestrated stratagems to eclipse our heritage and continued survival.
“The plight of ethnic nationalities in the states of Nasarawa, Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Kebbi, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Kogi and Abuja, who are daily butchered like chicken ricochet the imbalance and unfairness of the northern oligarchy to our indigenous people of the Middle-Belt, who are daily treated as lesser humans without dignity and worth which is an inherent endowment of God on all humanity.
“We shall never again accept the ignoble and inferior status imposed on our people by the caliphate and Nigerian government acting in connivance with security forces to drive us out of our ancestral homeland.
“This is because our forefathers, who fought to keep this country united are warriors who deserve nothing but respect and honour.
“Our governors should rise up to the responsibility of safeguarding the lives of the citizens through the maximum utilization of vigilante in communities under attacks to stem the tide of these massacres since they lack autonomy over the military and police forces.
“In view of the helplessness of governors in the midst of these attacks, state police is the only option left to secure this country from a full-blown war as arms stockpile is on an alarming increase, given the ineffectiveness of government in guaranteeing the security of lives and property of Nigerians.
“The government should note that the occupation and renaming of communities by the Fulani after dislodging our people is part of the grand plan of the northern oligarchy to stamp our people out of their ancestral homelands which we will resist to the point of death without faltering. Enough is enough.”
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria