Gunmen suspected to be Fulani militias have killed two persons and injured three others at the Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) resettlement site under construction in the Barakin-Ladi local government area of Plateau state.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the gunmen at about 5:00 pm on Wednesday attacked the resettlement site under construction at Rantis village of Gashish District in the local government.
Recall that the people were sacked two years ago from the community by the militias but returned early this year to rebuild their burnt houses and commence their normal life before the attack.
One of the workers, Monday Dang who escaped the incident declared that the attack came as a shock to them and other returnees because of the series of peace and reconciliation meetings held before their return.
“The attack happened at about 5:00 pm on Thursday when we were about closing for the day, the Fulani militias numbering about twenty came on a motorcycles, armed with sophisticated weapon shot at us from various angles and killed two instantly while three others received various degrees of gunshot wound. They set a car ablaze while others escaped into the bush.
“We have been working here under a peaceful atmosphere to rebuild our homesteads after displaced occasioned by Fulani armed invasions some years back. Not known to us that our self-resettlement effort will be thwarted by another unprovoked attack”.
According to him, one Mr. Dalyop B. Jugu and Mr. Yakubu were killed on the spot while Dahol Jam, Samson Boyi and Badung Boyi Jugu sustained fatal injuries and now receiving treatment at Barakin-Ladi General Hospital.
The Coordinator, Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria-ECCVN, Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri who confirmed the incident said the attack was one of the many onslaughts Plateau villages and communities are witnessing in recent times.
Mwantiri said the suspected Fulani militias have artlessly been terrorizing residents of Irigwe Chiefdom in Bassa, Yelwa Zangam in Jos North, Kuru in Jos South, Jol and Bachi in Riyom, Pushit in Mangu LGAs of the State.
He therefore called on all relevant security agencies in the State to fish out the perpetrators of these crimes for necessary disciplinary actions.
All efforts to get the State Police Command on the issue proved abortive as the State Police Public Relations Officer ASP Ubah Gabriel Ogaba could not be reached by phone.
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