Gunmen kill two, injure five in Plateau

February 19, 2024

Two agile men have been sent to their early graves, and five others were injured by rampaging gunmen in the Rawuru community of the Barakin-Ladi local government area of Plateau State on Sunday.

A source close to the community revealed that the gunmen, at about 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, launched a deadly attack on the community and, in the process, killed a 28-year-old man, Mr. Moses Dalyop, and Samuel Yakubu, who was 26 years old, while five other people were injured in the attack.

The National Body of Berom Youths Moulder-Association (BYM), in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rwang Tengwong, expressed shock over the attack and the ambush laid by the gunmen suspected to be Fulani militias.

According to the group, the terror attacks and the ambush were some of the modus operandi of the armed Fulani militias, bandits, and their cohorts to continue killing and dispossessing traditional landowners of their ancestry.

The BYM, which condemned the latest attack and the previous ones, called on the relevant authorities to rise up to their statutory responsibility to halt the recurring decimals of acts of terrorism being meted out on Plateau villages and communities.

“Following the recent attacks, killings, loss of valuables, disruption of livelihoods, and alarming displacements, in addition to the early warning signals about the planned terror onslaughts, the BYM unequivocally states that since the terrorist elements have continued to ravage hamlets, villages, and communities on the Plateau, especially Berom land, the government is hereby pleaded to legalize the acquisition of firearms by communities under the supervision of the Nigerian Police Force to safeguard themselves before we are all extinct, for this is believed to be an accelerated ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ mission of the jihadist expeditions not only on the Plateau but Nigeria at large.”

It, therefore, called for more pragmatic measures by both the federal and state governments towards the deradicalization of the attackers, adding that their ceaseless invasive tendencies appear to frustrate all meaningful efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Barr Caleb Mutfwang towards having a peaceful and prosperous country.

The group further appealed to the youths to eschew violence by embracing peace and rising up in self-defense through intense vigilance against any act of aggression and appeal for synergy with security agents on the ground, particularly in early warning sharing so that there can be an early response from appropriate bodies.