Inside Plateau’s latest killing fields

The gun men came from the hills, armed with guns and machetes under the cover of an afternoon rain. They split into groups and selected remote areas within walking distances of between 40 and 50 minutes to unleash mayhem on innocent lives. Before then, they had laid ambush on mourners returning from a funeral service […]

The gun men came from the hills, armed with guns and machetes under the cover of an afternoon rain. They split into groups and selected remote areas within walking distances of between 40 and 50 minutes to unleash mayhem on innocent lives.

Before then, they had laid ambush on mourners returning from a funeral service in Kakuruk village and simultaneously raided nearby villages, shooting, stabbing and maiming anyone at sight. Even the youthful and agile were helpless as the scoundrels massacred and soiled the land with tears and blood. Witnesses said the carnage lasted for hours and travellers evacuated their vehicles and fled into the bush.

The sporadic gunshots attracted security agents from the Forward Operation Base and the Strike Force Base in Gashish, but the killers were smart, as they systematically arranged the multiple attacks to take place at the same time, thereby confusing security agents on the exact spots the gunshots were emanating. Survivors said they had been ambushed by gun wielding men they claimed were herders, and a security agent attached to the Operation Safe Haven told Daily Trust: “When we heard the gunshots coming from one of the communities, our men quickly mobilised and rushed there but as we were repelling the attackers, other attacks were simultaneously taking place in other villages of Gashish district.”

By Sunday morning, corpses had covered the 11 villages of Exland, Ruku, Gashish, Nghar, Kura Falls, Shonong and Kakuruk in Gashish district as well as Rakok, Kok and Razat villages in Ropp district, all in Barkin Ladi.

Twenty-year-old Esther Moses survived the attack on Exland and is still searching for her father and brother. Esther, whose grandmother was killed in the farm, said she and dozens of others were protected by one Alhaji Babaji for almost three days.

Shortly before the attack, she said a presumed herder who killed her grandmother was almost lynched but the Hausa and Fulani communities in the area said he was innocent, adding that due to the tension, the police had moved the suspect to Barkin Ladi for interrogation.

She said soon after that, dozens of gun wielding men dressed in black stormed the village, shooting and stabbing people.

“They killed so many people but a lot of us were hidden by our Hausa neighbour, Alhaji Babaji. We stayed in his house until Monday when soldiers arrived,” she said.

25-year-old Samuel Mareng, a mason from Gashish, said:

“They cannot speak Hausa or English, they marked houses and went in search of specific persons to kill and at the end of the attack they blew a horn before leaving, I don’t think they are Nigerians,” he said.

“We have about four to five security agents from Operation Safe Haven and they engaged the attackers in a gun battle but because the security men were few, they ran out of ammunition,” Mareng stated.

The mason who lost 12 members of his extended family told Daily Trust that he hid in a toilet but heard the cries and pleas of friends and relatives as the assailants hacked them to death.

“They hacked children, they burnt others in their homes, they were merciless,” said Anita Sunday who lived in Exland.

Anita who is also searching for her brothers and parents is presently taking refuge with a relative in Jos.

She added: “We had nowhere to go to, we were running then we saw one Alhaji Babaji took us in his car and he hid us in his house, we were over 50 and he hid us and gave us food before the security agents came and we were evacuated.”

The state police command had earlier given a death toll of 86 with six persons injured, 50 houses burnt while 15 motorcycles and two vehicles were burnt. However, two days later, Governor Simon Bako Lalong told President Muhammadu Buhari that the attackers left behind a trail of painful losses of over 200 people beside the humanitarian challenges now confronting thousands of displaced persons whose houses and crops were completely destroyed.

Our correspondent also gathered that there are over 35 victims presently receiving treatment at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). 

One of the victims with burns and bandages could not speak but a female nurse gave his name as John. She said he was admitted with machete cuts on his face and body as well as burns, adding that his relatives told the hospital that he was brought in from Kura falls in Gashish.

Angry youths block highways, attack commuters

 As news and pictures of the gruesome killings trended on social media, tension escalated as angry youths around Heipang, Maraban Foron, Mararban Jama’a and Kuru areas of Barkin Ladi and Jos South LGAs blocked major highways and attacked and maimed travellers.

Most of their victims were those passing  from Abuja, Bauchi and Kaduna states with over 21 persons killed and many others still missing.

Governor Lalong who rushed back to the state from the APC national convention tried to dismantle some of the road blocks himself but angry youths pelted his vehicle with objects and it took the intervention of security agents who allegedly shot at some of the youths to disperse them.

Lalong later warned that the blocking of roads and killing of innocent commuters would not be tolerated and that security operatives were to take drastic measures to ensure they apprehend any youth involved in the act.

With many travellers still missing and presumed dead, the corpse of five Fulani youths coming from Kanke, Pankshin and Mangu on their way to report at the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Shere Hills for the annual peace youth camp were recovered while the remaining three are yet to be found.

Sources from the non governmental organisation organising the youth camp told Daily Trust that some of the children were the kids of the Ardo of Pankshin while others were from Mangu.

While condemning the recent attacks, a  former Chairman of the National Population Commission and Chairman, Make Jos Great Again Forum, Chief Sumuila Makama, called for restraint, especially in making remarks on social media and urged the state government to intensify efforts to ensure that all the parties come to an agreement.

Sunday’s reprisal also claimed a member of staff of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Zayyanu Shallah, who was on his way to Abuja from Bauchi with his friend, Zayyanu Gwandu.

The Bukuru Muslim community also aided by the Muslim aid group and the Bukuru Police Divisional Officer (DPO) recovered additional eight corpses and buried them at the Dadin Kowa cemetery. The leader of the search and recovery mission, Alhaji Danlami Yaro, said they also identified the corpse of a police ASP, adding, “We identified him from the remains of his uniform and name tag.”

The driver of a lorry conveying bags of grains with his assistant were killed and the lorry which was packed full of bags of grains was set ablaze. Several other vehicles including a student bus of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Teaching Hospital, Nigeria Union of Teachers, Nasarawa State and a campaign vehicle with the picture of the governor of Bauchi State were  damaged.

Who did what?

The Berom and Fulani crisis in Plateau State has always been a major thorn in Governor Simon Bako Lalong’s flesh since he assumed office in 2015. The inherited hostilities between the two ethnic groups went as far back as 10 years and above but the last major aggression between them was in late 2015 when isolated attacks and counter attacks erupted into a major violence that climaxed with the killing of over 20 persons in a remote village of Fan in Barkin Ladi LGA.

That attack also led to a reprisal on travellers along Barkin Ladi road even as Lalong constituted a 14-man committee made up of seven representatives from each of the groups to examine the causes of the conflicts as submitted by both ethnic groups and come up with modalities for a peaceful resolution.

Appropriate recommendations were then made and both groups had signed a peace document that until recently was used as a model for other ethnic groups in the state.

Last Saturday’s gruesome attack is the worst in many years, and though it is not clear who steered the hornet’s nest, hostilities between Berom and Fulani resurfaced about three months ago and gradually built up in June, taking the same pattern as in 2015.

Weeks before the killings of June 23, Barkin Ladi and parts of Mangu and Bassa LGAs had witnessed several tit-for-tat killings between Berom and Fulani as well as between Irigwe and Fulani. As many as over 15 Berom people had been killed in isolated areas or in their homes as they slept while the Fulani had also lost over eight youths with six injured and about 110 cattle either killed or rustled within one month. 

The Executive Director of Global Peace and Life Rescue Initiative, Melvin Ejeh, said the civil society had observed a number of isolated killings, especially around Miango in Bassa and Barkin Ladi but stressed that the major challenge to the security situation in the hinterlands was distrust and lack of manpower for the Operation Safe Haven security outfit.

Ejeh called for deployment of more security agents.

There had been visible signs and many say failure of security agencies to foresee the carnage was why the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Undie Adie, was earlier removed before he was reinstated 24 hours later. Before last Saturday’s attack, there had been killings and destruction of properties between Berom and Fulani with no one being held responsible. The final stroke had been the killing of four Berom members of the same family last Wednesday in Kai village of Barkin Ladi. This was followed the next day by the killing of five Fulani travellers whose vehicle was attacked and burnt on Thursday night around Heipang in Barkin Ladi.

Buhari, Osinbajo react

President Muhammadu Buhari while commiserating with families who lost their loved ones reiterated his commitment to protect lives and property of every Nigerian. He had visited the state less than 24 hours after Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who was on an on the spot assessment.

Buhari had ordered security chiefs to bring an end to the killings and ensure that perpetrators were brought to book. After a meeting with government officials, traditional and community leaders in the state, he warned that anyone found with weapons must be arrested and prosecuted.

Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo had also assured the people that those arrested for the killings would not escape justice and instructed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to ensure that relief materials are provided in all areas where they are required.

The vice president said based on the robust discussions held with both Berom and Fulani leaders, he had observed that many of the crises were historical in terms of the number of years that they had continued to manifest. He urged community leaders to resolve violent issues, adding, “We must be bold enough to tell our communities that resolving these issues is a give and take and the solution is in the type of sacrifices that leaders are prepared to make, sometimes you may be unpopular with your community because you make some concessions, that is what leadership is about.”

Lalong talks tough

Governor Simon Bako Lalong said he was disappointed by the return of violence between Berom and Fulani and that the current attacks were disturbing and alarming.

“The gory pictures of the killing of innocent citizens, women and children have continued to torment our hearts and it sends the serious message that something drastic needs to be done comprehensively to nip once and for all the ugly menace of attacks that has come to be associated with suspected militia herdsmen. These reoccurring attacks have regrettably opened up space for all manners of criminality by criminal elements and conflict merchants, who engage daily in cattle rustling, theft, banditry, gun running and other forms of crimes amongst our citizens.”

While lamenting the killings and displacement of persons, Lalong said his administration would not tolerate land grabbing in any part of the state, adding, “Those fighting, killing people and destroying their settlements with the intention of taking ownership of such places would not be allowed to do so. If you think you can chase people out and grab their lands we as government would not allow you to own the land.”  

Inadequate manpower & cache of weapons

Despite comprising of about seven security agencies, Operation Safe Haven is said to be made up of only about 40% of soldiers.

“The remaining 60 per cent is made up of the police and the Civil Defence corps who do not have the right military training for such operations,” Daily Trust gathered from security sources.

Coupled with that challenge is that Plateau State has a booming industry in the manufacture of locally made weapons and their circulation has partly fuelled the crises in the hinterlands.

The state also has a market for sophisticated weapons. In 2016, the multi-security taskforce nabbed one Nanbong Sambo Maidoki, a notorious gunrunning kingpin with a military style Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) tube launcher, an RPG bomb and charger neatly concealed in his Toyota Highlander. 

This explains why Governor Lalong told President Muhammadu Buhari that he was concerned at the kind of sophisticated weapons used in last Saturday’s attacks and stressed that from the evidence on ground and the narrations of victims, the arms were not those conventional to “our environment for self defence but reflective of a terrorist invasion.”

Lalong urged the president to direct security agencies to immediately commence arms mop up in areas of conflicts and subscribe to a house to house and community to community search for illegal weapons that have been stockpiled in the state. The governor further urged that the current directive of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to all police formations to mop up illegal arms must have an activity time frame for compliance.

Arrests leading to investigation

Three suspects paraded by the taskforce in connection with the invasion of the villages in Barkin Ladi are said to be cooperating with security agencies, said the Media and Information Officer, Major Adam Umar.

Major Umar assured that the arrest of the suspects, together with the 17 paraded for the civil disturbance on major highways would lead to more arrests.