Military Task Force Kills Five Assailants, Loses Soldier in Plateau

Seriki Adinoyi

The military taskforce deployed to beef up security in the community recently attacked by suspected herdsmen in Plateau State yesterday said it had killed five assailants while repelling another attack on a village near Ancha in Bassa Local Government Area of the state, where over 20 persons were killed on Friday.

A soldier with the taskforce was also killed in the exchange fire, while another was shot on the leg and is presently responding to treatment at the taskforce clinic.

The taskforce Media and Information Officer, Captain Adam Umar, said: “Apart from the five that were killed by our men, some others were injured. But the thing with these assailants is that they don’t leave their dead, they run away with them.”

Umar added: “We also lost one of our men and another was injured and he’s now responding to treatment. The Miango area is fully dominated by men, who have since commenced day and night patrol and are combing the area in search of the assailants.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has decried linking their members to the recent killings in Ancha village, describing it as “a cheap blackmail.”

A statement by the Chairman and Legal adviser of MACBAN, Nuru Abdullahi and Salihu Muhammad, respectively, added that such “unfounded allegation” was aimed at creating hatred between the natives and herders, adding that the state Police Commissioner, Peter Ogunyanwo, was biased in his statement that alleged that the attack was a reprisal by suspected Fulani herders.

MACBAN said: “It wasn’t our people that carried out the attack and we don’t know the hoodlums that did it. We don’t know why the outgoing Plateau State Police Commissioner, Peter Ogunyanwo, developed hatred against us by apportioning the blame on us.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has berated the Chief Executive Officer of Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Dallas Peavey for telling the eightmember Congressional delegation from the United States that weak transmission infrastructure had stalled the evacuation of 700 megawatts of electricity from the power station.

THISDAY had also reported that Peavey also told the Congressional delegation led by Senator Christopher Coons, who is a member of the Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics Committees, that the plant was being owed N125 billion for power supplied to the national grid, a revelation, which also irked the power minister.

But in his remarks at 19th