1 killed, several injured in Wase communal clash

The Special Task Force (STF) securing Plateau State have confirmed that one person died while some others sustained injuries during a scuffle among the Tarok community settling in Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State While independent sources earlier put the casualty figures at three dead, 20 injured and 500 houses destroyed, STF spokesman, Capt. Ihedichi Iweha […]

While independent sources earlier put the casualty figures at three dead, 20 injured and 500 houses destroyed, STF spokesman, Capt. Ihedichi Iweha told Daily Trust that he had visited the affected community and that only one person died.

“The incident took its root from a coronation ceremony where youths that were not happy with the new leader started a row that led to the death of one person,” Iweha said. He would not disclose the name of the deceased and would not say how many people were injured, but he scoffed at the allegation that 500 houses were destroyed, asking, “How many houses does the community have that 500 would have been destroyed?

Sources had narrated earlier that the incident which occurred at the Jat community and resulted to the death of three persons, including a headmaster, Ramson Nimmyel, led from an attack by Tarok youths from Kadarko over a leadership tussle between the Jat community and Kumbwan community, and traced the tussle to 13 years ago.

A source who narrated the history of the tussle, said, “Some people of Tarok stock, who were displaced from Wase and Kanam Local Government Areas in a 2001 crisis, agreed to stay in a new settlement, Gwantim. Gwantim means ‘Let’s all unite’. However, the union soon suffered a major crisis. The people of Jat decided to install Mamdan Mallam, the Ponzhi Jat, as the new head of the community. This did not go down well with the people of Kadarko, whose head, A. Lot, was the Ponzhi Kadarko.”