Sunday, September 4, 2011

Anger have family of eight, three killed in Jos


A family of eight
including a
three-year-old
boy, was killed near Jos, the
Plateau State capital, yesterday
morning.
Last month, eight members of
a family were killed.
The victims of Sunday’s attack
were murdered by yet to be
identified assailants at
Heipang in Barkin Ladi Local
Government Area.
Among the victims were the
head of the household, Mr
Chollom Gyang, his wife,
Hannatu and six children,
including the three-year-old.
Mark Lipdo, an organiser for a
non-profit group, Stefanos
Foundation, said besides the
eight family members, three
others were also killed
yesterday.
A News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) correspondent, who
visited the house, observed
that some of the victims had
deep machete cuts all over
their bodies; others suffered
gunshot injuries.
Mr Emmanuel Dachollom
Loman, Chairman, Barkin Ladi
Local Government Area,
told reporters that the
assailants came from
Mahangar, a Fulani community
in the area.
“We have made appeals to the
Federal Government; we have
told them that the people in
the area (Mahangar) have lots
of sophisticated weapons, but
government has refused to do
anything about it.
“I personally complained to a
Federal Government
delegation that came to
investigate the killing, last
month, of eight members of
another family, but our
concerns and fears have been
ignored.”
He said men of the military
Special Task Force (STF)
recently searched a house in
Mahangar and recovered
sophisticated weapons, but
that they did not have the will
to search the whole
community.
Loman warned that unless the
weapons in the area were
mopped up, they would
continue to constitute threats
to the communities.
“Now, our people have been
pushed to the wall. We have
been appealing to them to be
calm and not take the laws
into their hands. We do not
know for how long we can
wait for government to
protect us.
“If our youths go on the
rampage, nobody should
blame us; we have asked
them to constitute themselves
into vigilance groups to
defend themselves against
aggressors,” he said.
Loman said: “I was sleeping
when I received the call at
about 12:30 early this
morning (yesterday) only to
be told that some unknown
persons came to attack and
killed all members of a family.
Few weeks ago, seven
members of a family were
killed in similar attack. This is
becoming too much to bear,
government should help us in
this local government before
people come and wipe all of
us out one day. I can’t contain
this anymore; it’s too much.
The council boss said: “We are
suspecting the Fulani in this
attack because this is their
route. The Fulani that lived in
nearby Mahanger village are
heavily armed and I have been
crying to government to go to
the village in search of arms,
but the government is not
acting on my cry. You can see
that the guns used to attack
people here are sophisticated
weapons. Government should
do something fast before the
next attack on another family.
Government should go in
there and recover all arms
they have stockpiled.”
Mr Gyang Fulani, a member
representing the area in the
House of Assembly, said the
people could no longer trust
the government to protect
them as it had failed them,
with the constant attacks.
He regretted that the security
agents had not fished out the
attackers. No arrest has been
made. Fulani accused the STF
of lacking the will to stop the
Jos crisis.
“We said a few years ago that
terrorists were in the country,
but the government didn’t
take us seriously. Now, it is
glaring from the security
challenges all over the country.
“The terrorists in Plateau are
easy to fight because they are
known, but government is
complacent about confronting
these fundamentalists. It is a
ticking time bomb that will
soon explode,’’ Fulani said.
He challenged his constituents
to rise up to the security
threats and defend
themselves against the
aggressors at all cost.
“We will never calm the youths
again; we will allow them rise
up to protect their
communities and their land
from these unprovoked
attacks.
“We now know who the
aggressors are. When police
advised Izala sect leader Sani
Jingir not to go to Rukuba road for the Sallah prayer, he
refused and has now put the whole Jos into crisis,” he said.
Mr Francis Jamang, National President, Berom Youth Movement, said the situation had reached a stage where they might be forced to take the laws into their hands, if
their attackers were not brought to book.
DROP UR COMMENT ON DIZ NEWS AND CLICK ON FACEBOOK LOGO DOWM TO SHARE DIZ WIT UR FRNDS

No comments:

Post a Comment