Daily Trust Saturday

11 SPECIALREP­ORT Despite Buhari’s visit, fresh killings disrupt Plateau peace roadmap

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Cont’d from Page 10 for unleashing this violence considerin­g the fact that the warring groups have lived together for a very long time. However, dialogue remains the only solution to the lingering crisis in Bokkos and other parts of Plateau State where herders and local farmers are having misunderst­andings. Resorting to taking up arms would not bring solution to the problem as two wrongs cannot make a right,” he said.

Dariye called on security agencies in the state to fish out the perpetrato­rs and bring them to book, saying innocent people should not continue to live at the mercy of heartless attackers .

He appealed to victims of the attacks in Bokkos, which is also his local government area, to be patient as lasting solutions are being sought.

Following the attack as well as the other ones on residents of Bokkos, Governor Lalong sacked Mr Simon Angyol, the Management Committee Chairman of the LGA.

Angyol was criticized by people from and outside the local government for not doing enough to boost the long standing relationsh­ip between Bokkos indigenes and Fulanis which has deteriorat­ed in recent times, leading to deadly clashes.

A source from Bokkos urged his successor to do everything within his powers to restore peace between Bokkos people and Fulanis because they have lived in peace for many centuries and intermarry.

He called on Governor Lalong to apply this measure (of sacking of any local government chairman) in other local government areas.

After the visit of the president, the flash point became Miango District of Bassa LGA. Last Monday night, about 21 people were confirmed killed and two injured, following an attack on ZirShi Maiyanga village near Dundu in Kwall District of Bassa Local Government Area. The attack occurred a few hours before a scheduled mass burial of victims of last week’s killing in some villages of the same district. The attack took place between 10pm and 11pm by gunmen locals claimed were Fulani herdsmen.

OPSH Media and Informatio­n Officer, Major Adam Umar, said due to the difficult terrain, personnel of the taskforce arrived the village after the attackers had fled but seven corpses were immediatel­y recovered while another person died in hospital. He also said 13 additional corpses were recovered the following morning, taking the number of the dead to 21.

He stressed that despite series of dialogues, sometimes three times a week at the sector or local level and four times a month at the headquarte­rs between the Fulani and Irigwe from Miango district, the youths still went ahead to launch attacks mostly on reprisals.

After the Miango attacks, over 1,000 women from the district dressed in black stormed the old Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) when their people came to collect the corpses of those killed in the first attack for mass burial. The women carried different placards with different inscriptio­ns, wailing.

Later, the women started shouting at the soldiers, saying they didn’t need them around because they could not protect them and stop their people being killed. The soldiers along with their officers then left the hospital.

At the hospital, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Peter Azi, called on the federal government to as a matter of urgency deploy effective measures to halt the killings.

The speaker who was dressed in black in solidarity with the hundreds of mourners at the hospital said he was assured that the killings would soon be brought to an end.

“The perpetrato­rs of this dastardly act must not go unpunished. They must be arrested and brought to book to serve as deterrent to others. The government has so many effective techniques they can apply in tackling the issue and in tracking all perpetrato­rs of evil, and besides, nobody is above the law. I believe than there would soon be an end to all of these killings by the grace of God. It is truly unfortunat­e that these are happening. My advice to the victims of these attacks is that they should remain calm,” he said.

In his remarks, the member representi­ng Pengana Constituen­cy in Bassa LGA, Ezekiel Afon, said enough of all the killings perpetuate­d in the country in the name of farmers-herders clashes and the government must be responsive and rise to the occasion.

If the government, he said, at this juncture can put aside every other engagement and concentrat­e on the farmers-herders clashes in order to halt the killings, it would be a great achievemen­t on their part because people are being killed daily, not only in Plateau State but in the nation as a whole.

The National President of Irigwe Developmen­t Associatio­n, Sunday Abdu, said they had several times appealed for peace and attended several peace initiative­s/ meetings with the Fulanis, but the killings continued unabated.

He said they had also pointed out the hideouts of the people perpetuati­ng the killings to security operatives, including apprehendi­ng some of them and handing over to the security forces, but that nothing had been done or heard of those apprehende­d and handed over.

A few hours after the mass burial of those killed and the recovery of the 21 bodies, violence again broke out between youths from Irigwe and Fulani communitie­s around Rafiki area of Miango district, in what appeared to be an escalation of the attack after the killing of the 21. Two members of the OPSH were confirmed killed and two others were injured in the clash.

In an attempt to ensure normalcy, a dusk to dawn curfew was declared in Bassa. The Secretary to the State Government, Rufus Bature, in a statement said Governor Lalong approved a curfew after due consultati­ons with security agencies.

The OPSH Media and Informatio­n Officer, Major Umar, confirmed the casualty figure on the multi-security taskforce, adding that the security agents had been caught in the cross fire between the two parties while trying to end the clash.

Major Umar said many houses were also set ablaze in the clash which occurred around 6am on Wednesday and that the total number of the dead was yet to be compiled. He however said eight people from both sides were arrested.

“The clash followed the anger on the killing of 21 people on Monday. It happened around the Rafiki area but extended to some villages in Miango. We are however now dominating the area as more of our men have been deployed to the communitie­s. Right now we are enforcing compliance with the dusk to dawn curfew to ensure that all hostilitie­s are halted and normalcy is returned,” he said.

Reacting to the accusation of being behind the attacks in Bokkos and Bassa during and after the visit of the president, Plateau State MACBAN chairman, Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi, said Fulanis were the victims of the attacks in both Bokkos and Bassa, and not the other way round.

He said the crisis in Daffo area of Bokkos on the day the president came was as a result of an armed robbery attack which some members of Daffo community blamed on Fulanis and began attacking them, and one of the first victims of the attack was one Ardo Yakubu Jaoro whose house was burnt.

He noted however that the genesis of the crisis in Daffo district of Bokkos was the dispute at the block molding site between a Fulani boy and a Challa boy which escalated and resulted to loss of lives and property.

In the case of Miango, he said tension had been brewing since on Monday when some Irigwe militias attacked herdsmen and killed three of them and 38 of their cows.

That incident, he said, was not managed properly by both the Irigwes and the Fulanis and then degenerate­d, leading to loss of more lives and property.

Abdullahi accused security operatives of not being proactive and prompt, saying most of their actions always come late when gross damages had already been done and many lives had been lost.

He said Fulanis had been trying their best to work out an amicable solution with Miango people and would keep trying until they succeed and peace is restored.

He however stressed that the whole issue was politicall­y motivated ahead of the 2019 general elections in order to discredit the APC led federal government as well as the state government which has been pursuing peace and unity.

 ??  ?? Miango women protesting JUTH during the collection of corposes of their people killed
Miango women protesting JUTH during the collection of corposes of their people killed
 ??  ?? Speaker Plateau State House of Assembly, Peter Azi, and Irigwe Developmen­t Associatio­n Chairman, Sunday Abdu, at JUTH
Speaker Plateau State House of Assembly, Peter Azi, and Irigwe Developmen­t Associatio­n Chairman, Sunday Abdu, at JUTH
 ??  ?? Vehicles were also burnt in the crisis
Vehicles were also burnt in the crisis
 ??  ?? Houses burnt down during the crisis in Miango district
Houses burnt down during the crisis in Miango district

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