Suspected herdsmen have killed 19 persons and injured four others during an attack on Ariri community in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Among the victims of the attack which took place at 11:30pm, Wednesday, were women and children.
The latest attack came amidst condemnation of the alleged militarisation and menace of fake soldiers in Jos metropolis.
On Tuesday night, 13 persons were feared killed by suspected herdsmen during a midnight attack on Riyom LGA.
An eyewitness from Ariri village, Miango District, Yohana Yakubu, in an interview with newsmen, yesterday in Jos, said the assailants displaced many families, after shooting indiscriminately.
He said, “In all, 18 people were killed; the killers wore black clothes, they were shouting Allah Akbar. They were speaking Hausa and Fulani languages and after the attack, they fled. People were massacred and we are now helpless.”
The spokesperson for Miango Youths Development Association, Lawrence Zongo, also shed light on the attacks in a message to newsmen in Jos.
He said, “Again, Fulani gunmen have killed 19 people in Ariri village of Miango District in Bassa LGA of Plateau State. Four persons sustained serious injuries including the youth leader of Ariri who is now receiving treatment in Enos Hospital, Miango.
“The Fulani people have declared war on the Plateau. They are achieving their plans through genocide attacks and killing of citizens. We are always in security meetings which have not achieved results. No investigation to arrest the criminals. Now, Ariri village has been displaced. This is too bad; this is an evil genocide going on in a democratic dispensation.
“We are pleading, calling on Amnesty International, the global community and Red Cross to please come to our aid. We need your help and assistance.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Plateau State Police Command, DSP Matthias Tyopev, said he would get the details, speak with the commissioner of police, “and get back.”
But as of the time of this report, he had yet to get back to our correspondent.
Reacting, former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, condemned the fresh attack on the Plateau that has resulted in the killing of about 19 persons.
Fani Kayode, in a post, called out President Muhammadu Buhari over the incessant killings during his administration.
According to him, Buhari’s administration has been filled with sad incidences such as mass murder and slaughter of Nigerians.
He wrote: “Fulani herdsmen butchered another 19 innocent and defenceless people in a village in Plateau state last night.
“Under Buhari all we have seen is tragedy after tragedy, calamity after calamity, mass murder after mass murder and slaughter after slaughter. In Jesus Name flush him out!”
Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Tukur Buratai has revealed those sponsoring armed ethnic militia groups in Jos, the capital of Plateau State.
Buratai said the armed ethnic militia groups in Plateau State were supported and sponsored by the elite or elders of the state.
Buratai disclosed this during the burial of three soldiers who were killed during the violence that rocked the state’s troubled Barkin Ladi Local Government Area at the Maxwell Khobe Military Cemetery at 3 Division Headquarters, Rukuba, Jos.
Buratai, who was represented by the Operation Safe Haven Commander, Maj-Gen Augustine Agundu, said, “It is evident that there exist armed ethnic militia groups sponsored or supported by some elites and elders who deploy the misguided youths into committing the worst heinous crimes.
“There is certainly no constitutional provision that allows civilians to bear firearms but their possession has become a well sort-out vocation here on the Plateau.”
Expressing regrets over the death of CPL Effiong Mbuotidem, he said: “Human dignity has lost its value on the Plateau.
“The troops of OPSH like all service personnel are officially detailed to Plateau State to perform the duties upon which they swore an oath to serve the nation.”
Similarly, the Nigerian Army has pledged to guarantee the safety of farmers in Borno State, to enhance the production of paddy rice and other food crops.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Texas Chukwu, in a statement issued, yesterday, in Maiduguri, quoted the Acting General Commanding Officer (GOC), 7 Division, Maiduguri, Brig-Gen Bulama Biu, as making the pledge when members of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) paid him a courtesy visit in Maiduguri.
The statement quoted Biu as saying that the army would provide security to farmers to enable them cultivate their farmlands and ensure their safety to encourage agricultural activities.
Biu noted that rice farmers were critical partners in ensuring food security for sustainable social and economic development in the country.
He tasked farmers to be law-abiding and ensure that they followed due-process in the discharge of their business.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the association, Alhaji Bulama Mohammad, lauded the military over the successes recorded in the counter-insurgency campaign in the northeast.
Mohammad sought the support of the military to ease movement of the produce to the market.
Meanwhile, no fewer than 100 indigenes of Ondo State studying at the University of Jos in Plateau State including two visually impaired have been evacuated from their troubled tertiary institution by the state government.
UNIJOS main gate Students of the institution who are indigenes had sent a distress call to the state governor Rotimi Akeredolu following the unrest in Jos metropolis.
The called followed the killing of some students in the institution hostel. Deputy governor of the state Agboola Ajayi while receiving the students expressed appreciation to God for sparing their lives, thereby averting what could have been a major calamity for the state.
Ajayi, who described the Akeredolu-led government as a responsive one, thanked the students’ leader for alerting the government on the development early enough which led to the timely rescue mission.
He assured them that the government would continue to prioritize the safety of the citizens, irrespective of their religious and political creeds.
President of the National Association of Ondo State (NAOSS), UNIJOS Chapter, Comrade Olakunle Ojumu, said the students would ever remain grateful to the state government for evacuating them from the troulbed environment.
Olakunle said “I made a distress call to the state government following the sudden outbreak of the ongoing killing in Jos and the government acted promptly by sending five buses, which contained 16 students each and other logistics to rescue the trapped students.”