Gunmen Kill 18 In Jos

Gunmen were reported to have killed 18 persons in a Wednesday night attack on Mile-Bakwai village in Bokkos, Plateau State.

The Media Officer of the Special Task Force (STF), Navy Capt. Jude Akpa, maintaining the peace in Plateau, confirmed the attack and said that the attackers shot and injured two officers of the STF, all of them mobile policemen.

He, however, said that the casualty figure was “still being verified’’, but confirmed that men of the STF killed six of the attackers and made some arrests.

However, the Chairman, Bokkos Local Government, Mr Zakka Akos, confirmed that 18 bodies were recovered at the scene of the attack.

Also, Dr Kumbem Temang of Cottage Hospital, Bokkos confirmed that 18 people were killed and among them was a 70 year old woman known as Kaka Kiwo.

Our correspondent quotes a victim of the attack, one Majau Yohanna, as saying that the attackers invaded the village “from 7 p.m. not long after we returned from our farms and were resting in our respective houses.

“They (attackers) came in large numbers and had very sophisticated weapons,” Yohanna, currently on admission at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Jos told NAN.

“I was shot on my right rib and it was just God that saved me. It is a miracle that I am still alive,” he said.

Mr Thomas Mafai, a relation of Yohanna, who rushed him to BUTH because of the serious injuries he sustained, claimed that he counted 20 bodies, including two policemen that were killed during the attack on the village.

“Some of the victims are being treated at the Dung Hospital, Bokkos,” he said.

Mafai, however, confirmed that six of the attackers were killed by men of the STF.

When contacted, the Plateau Police Commissioner, Mr Chris Olakpe, said he was “very busy strategising with my Divisional Police Officers and will not want any encumbrances.’’

Akpa, while confirming the attack, said that the two policemen shot by the attackers were currently on admission at the Barkin Ladi General Hospital.