BY DAMOLA EMMANUEL
The Plateau State Police Command has confirmed that 86 people were killed Saturday night when cattle herders attacked some local government areas in the state.
Spokesman of the command, Matthias Tyopev, told newsmen in Jos, the capital, on Sunday, that the casualty figure was given and confirmed by the assistant commissioner of police in the state who led the operations to stop the mayhem, as well as search and rescue victims.
Aside the staggering casualty figure, the police spokesman also disclosed that many houses, motorcycles and other property were burnt by the rampaging killer herders.
But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, disputed the figure. In a statement, John Akans, the party’s publicity secretary, put the morbid statistics at 130.
Giving his own account of the fatalities, Ladi Choji, chairman of Berom Youth Movement, told reporters that “over 100 persons” were murdered by the herders, who also reportedly razed many houses, places of worship, among others.
Choji broke down the morbid statistics disclosing that 31 corpses were recovered from Gashish village, 34 corpses from Gana Ropp and 8 from Gashis villages in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.
The disparity in the casualty figures, notwithstanding, tension continued to flare on Sunday, prompting the State Government to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the affected local government areas– Riyom, Barakin Ladi and Jos south, respectively.
Rufus Bature, Secretary to the Plateau State Government, announced the 6p.m. to 6a.m. curfew. The government exempted those on “essential duties”.
Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalung, expressed deep regret and profound sorrow at the tragedy but pleaded with citizens to remain calm, and rest assured that the situation was under control.
Speaking on Channels Television, Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who himself had once been kidnapped by herders who also burnt his farm, described the ceaseless bloodshed by the herders as a manifestation of bigger security problems bedevilling the country.
He said the failure of those at the helm of the nation’s security architecture to arrest the mindless killings underscored their ineptitude.
Beyond the failure of the Nigerian security system in arresting the ugly phenomenon that has sent hundreds of innocent Nigerians to premature graves, Falae, an economist of repute, also figured other factors fuelling the crisis.
One of them, he said, was desertification. Another was Lake Chad that has dried up to a quarter of its optimum volume, causing drastic reduction in grazing space for cattle. Despite the economics of the problem, however, Falae wondered why the federal government appeared incapable of solving it.
A statement issued by the publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, John Akans, said: “We received with rude shock the level of genocide going on now in Gashish District, Razat, Ruku Nyarr and Gana-Ropp, all in Barkin Ladi local government.
“We also note with great pains the dastardly attacks ongoing in many other local government areas in the state by the Fulani militias. We condemn in the strongest terms the level of continuous genocide of Plateau people. At the moment, Barkin Ladi is under siege with over 130 people feared to have been killed. As at time of this statement, the (SOM) CAPRO School of missions Gana-Ropp is under heavy attack by the militias.
“This unholy act of systematic genocide and the destruction of the cultural heritage of Plateau people must stop. We call on the international community to come to the aid of Plateau people as besides the over 130 people killed many are missing.”