Three de*d, four injured in renewed Plateau violence

Three persons were confirmed dead while four others sustained injuries in an attack early Tuesday morning in Barkin Ladi local government area of Plateau state, north-central Nigeria.

 

Plateau State Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Abuh Emmanuel, while confirming the incident and the casualty involved, announced a dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed in the local government area to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

The police spokesman stressed that more security personnel have been drafted to the affected communities while investigations into the incident have commenced with the aim of bringing the culprits to book.

An eye witness account told Channels Television that “at about 1:30 Tuesday morning some gun men stormed Rakum village in Barkin Ladi local government area and opened fire on three people alighting from a car, killing two of them instantly while the third person escaped narrowly with gunshots”.

People of the affected community could not offer much resistance due to the sophisticated guns and other dangerous weapons displayed by the attackers thereby forcing the vigilante group to scamper for safety.

However, the little resistance by the community which lasted for about 45 minutes made the attackers to flee into the mountains before the arrival of the Special Task Force (STF) in charge of security in the area.

The locals in turn waited till dawn for a reprisal which claimed the life of a Fulani man passing by before the STF intervened leaving four persons injured.

Barkin Ladi Chairman, Emmanuel Lomman condemn the killings as well as the reprisal and implored both the Special Task Force and the police to fish out the perpetrators on both attacks as government is not happy with the renewed killings in spite of peace efforts and several meetings held among all factions to find lasting peace in the area.