Four Killed in Fresh Herdsmen Attack on Plateau Community

• Death toll in Ganda rises to 18
• 2,000 persons displaced

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

Gunmen suspected to be herders, on Friday night went berserk again, killing four school children in their sleep at Laake village in Kwall District of Bassa local government council of Plateau State.

This latest incident is coming even as the death toll of the earlier attack on Ganda village of Daffo district of Bokkos local government area of the state has risen from six to 20, with over 2,000 persons displaced.

Mr. Sunday Akuns, a local Chief in the area, and Mr. Danjuna Maba, who confirmed the rise in the death toll, described the recent attack in the area as heart-rending.

Meanwhile, the heinous attack on the school children was confirmed by the National President of Irigwe Development Association (IDA) and a one time member of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Sunday Abdu.
He told journalists in Jos yesterday that four promising children were just massacred and wasted in their sleep in the macabre exercise by the loose and uncontrollable herdsmen.

Abdu said it was an unfortunate situation as they had not gotten over the shock of Thursday’s killing of five people when this happened again. He said the Irigwe is definitely going to make a case during the burial.

According to him, “We are going to give the deceased a mass burial on coming Tuesday. This killing is becoming too much. We have been appealing to security operatives to be pro-active but to no avail. This is too much.”

Abdu added that, “I am appealing to God now only. Honestly, the security personnel are not doing their job. They have abandoned their professional responsibility. I am not going to appeal to them again at all. I am tired of appealing to them without any result.”

One Irigwe resident who has witnessed almost all the attacks, Mr. Josiah Luka, said he has completely lost confidence in the Nigerian security operatives. “You will alert them on an impending danger of attacks but they will not do anything to forestall it until it happened.

“Our security operatives are not pro-active at all. They will even be waiting for the armless civilians they are supposed to be guarding to give them information. “And the worst they do is to arrest our youth who use sticks to defend themselves in the face of these unwarranted attacks. It is very unfortunate. The so-called Operation Safe haven should pack and leave if they cannot defend us. They are not helping matters at all. Instead they are compounding them.

“We have never witnessed a situation where they foiled attacks. But they will only be active after the deed must have been done. They will now be making unnecessary and belated moves by molesting innocent civilians.
“The Fulani herdsmen did not even respect their leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, to end his working visit to Plateau before they went amuck,” Luka added.

Spokesperson of the military Special Task Force (STF) on security in the state, Maj. Umar Adams had yesterday said the situation was under control. But some of the survivors however say they haven’t seen much security presence in the attacked communities.

Governor Simon Lalong had on Thursday told President Muhammad Buhari during his visit that his administration had succeeded in restoring peace and security in the state.

The latest attacks which resumed few hours to the President’s visit and has continued in the state have rubbished that reputation, and have sparked up outrage across the state.