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130 Bassa people killed since September, group alleges

By Isa Abdulsalami Ahovi, Jos
13 March 2018   |   4:24 am
The National President of Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Sunday Abdu, yesterday revealed that no fewer than 130 Bassa locals have been killed by suspected herdsmen from last September till date.

Plateau indigenes deplore attacks, demand troops’ recall
The National President of Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Sunday Abdu, yesterday revealed that no fewer than 130 Bassa locals have been killed by suspected herdsmen from last September till date.

The obviously depressed Abdu added that a woman was murdered by herders on Sunday night while still mourning the victims billed for mass burial today.

In a tone smacked of hopelessness, the IDA leader said they had done enough to attract security to the community to no avail, leaving the entire situation to God.

In a related development, a community leader from Bokkos council area of Plateau State, Evangelist Jerry Datim, has called on the military high command to demobilise operatives of the Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) for their alleged inaction and indifference to their plight. He claimed that thee troops behave helpless while the killings persist.

Datim contended that since they could not protect the people, the best thing for the defence headquarters to do was to recall them to the barracks, as “they have become partisan in their operations in the community in particular and the state at large.”

He went on: “We asked them, the OPSH operatives, to escort us to the bush where the dead bodies of our people are, but they refused and stayed back resting under the tree where they stationed their Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC). But it was the State Police Commissioner who now sent mobile police to escort us to retrieve the corpses.”

He stated that the troops had outlived their usefulness in the state, asking that they should be replaced with mobile policemen.

Also yesterday, the spokesman of Concerned People of Ronkulere in Daffo District of Bokkos, Rev. Mamot Danladi Adams, described the spate of killings in the council as “very despicable.”

During a press conference of the body, he said: “This is not the first time that we have been undermined and humiliated on our own soil by people we selflessly and without conditions extended a hand of love to. You would recall that at about this time in 2013, over 20 people were massacred in Mile 7 of Mangor Village of Bokkos District in Bokkos LGA.”

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