Gunmen kill five farmers in Plateau

By Admin
Kanempress
7th July 2023

Gunmen have again killed five persons in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Reports say the attacks resulted in the death of the victims in the Kogul community of the council area on Thursday night.

The attack was the latest after some gunmen invaded Kwahas and Milet communities in the same council area and killed two people including a woman leader.

A former state governor, Fidelis Tapgun described the series of attacks on the state as very pathetic.

Tapgun advised the federal and state governments to collaborate with the local communities and invest in information gathering in order to overcome the ugly situation.

“The security situation in Plateau state is a very unfortunate one and my heart goes out to the families of the victims. But I don’t know how the security architecture in the state is presently organized but whatever it is, there is the need for it to be reviewed,” Tapgun said.

“Before I became governor, I grew up in the civil service and served as the Secretary of the Local Government in the state as well as the Sole Administrator up to the Cabinet Office where I served in Special Services Department and the Security Department. What I know at that time was that in the 1980s, every LGA chairman was the Chief Security Officer in his LGA. And in every LGA, there was a security committee headed by the chairman and comprises of various groups including traditional rulers, ward heads, market traders association, DPOs, DSS, and taxi drivers who meet every Monday of the week.”

“These groups hunt for Information happening in their various areas and reports were received from these categories of groups such that if there was going to be any problem or security breach of any kind, you get the information immediately and be able to address the issue. And then all the reports were summarised and sent back to the LGAs from where they get to the state government through the office of the Secretary to the State Government for onward dispatch to the office of the National Security Adviser. Such security arrangement worked effectively during the 80s and I think there is the need for the current administration to revisit that model and reintroduce it for the safety of our people in Plateau state and Nigeria at large,” Tapgun noted.

One of the residents of the Kogul community in Jos, Sunday Dalyop, had confirmed that the gunmen burnt several houses and injured several others.

“Our people are presently in pain in Mangu because five people were killed, others injured and many houses burned by Fulani Milias in Kogul Community of Panyam District in the LG,” Dalyop said.

“The militiamen arrived in the community at about 09:00 pm on 06/07/2023, they started shooting in different directions at the end 5 people were confirmed dead and many houses burned. The people are expressing concern as to why security agencies couldn’t do anything to make arrests and bring to an end this continuing attack on innocent farmers in the Council Area.”

The Plateau State Police Command, has not commented on the incident yet.