Normalcy Returns to Kogi After Brutal Attack Kills 23
Several persons still missing State govt promises to get perpetrators, rehabilitate community
Normalcy has begun to return to the Tawari community in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, following a brutal attack last Friday by unknown gunmen suspected to be herdsmen, which left 23 people dead and several others still missing.
The Kogi State Government has, however, restated its commitment to bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book, even as it promised to commence rehabilitation of the affected community.
Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Edward Onoja, who paid an on-spot-assessment visit to the place, further assured the people that no stone would be left unturned in unraveling the criminals.
Onoja, who described the incidence as an unusual development, which called for concern, said the seriousness that Governor Yahaya Bello of the state attached to unraveling the penetrators, causes, as well as bringing
lasting solution and support to the affected area, underpinned his visit to the community.
He also hinted the people that the state government would begin a rehabilitation and reconstruction process, insisting that the act was evil and barbaric.
Onoja urged the residents not to leave their abode but asked them to remain resolute, because the plan of the perpetrators was to make them relocate, saying the state would support them.
But as at the time of filing this report, eight persons, who sustained various degrees of injuries in the midnight attack, were said to be responding to treatment at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja, and in stable condition.
The administrator of Kogi Local Government Ara, Musa Tanko Mohammed, who hinted of this development, also thanked the state government for the prompt response to the incidence, saying the council would do all within its reach to provide succor for the affected.
Consequently, Tanko also called on the federal government to help in the rehabilitation of the community, while lamenting the loss that went into the attacks, including 20 lives, churches, a police post, and schools that were razed down by the assailants.
THISDAY observed heavy security presence when the deputy governor visited the community.
On his Entourage were the commandant army records, the state commissioner of police, Commandant Nigeria civil defence corps, Special Adviser to the governor on security, as well as political and community leaders for the council area.