Following the Monday night attack by some yet-to-be-identified gunmen in Plateau State, the Kwall community leader said the death toll is at 51.
Wakili Tongwe, the leader of the Zike community, Kimakpa, Kwall district of Bassa Local Government Area said the gunmen invaded their homes, killed many and burnt several houses.
The attack is coming less than two weeks after fifty-two persons were killed in some communities in the state.
Tongwe confirmed that the attackers shot sporadically at residents who were running for safety after hearing gunshots in the community.
Though security personnel engaged the invaders and succeeded in repelling the attackers, the damage had been done, with about thirty-six persons shot dead and four others dying later.
Some other residents sustained gunshot wounds and are receiving medical attention at the hospital.
Security agencies in the state are yet to comment on the attack.
Plateau State has, for several decades, been a hotbed of killings, with gunmen sacking entire communities. About 200 people were killed at Christmas 2023 celebrations during a bloody attack on a majority Christian community. In May last year, around 40 people were killed and homes torched in the town of Wase.
While experts attribute the attacks to the fight for resources between farmers and herders as a major cause, the governor of the state, Caleb Muftwang, says there is more to the attacks.
“I can tell you in all honesty that I cannot find any explanation other than genocide sponsored by terrorists. The question is, who are the persons behind the organisers of this terrorism? This is what the security agencies must help us to unravel,” the governor said on a recent edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said bandits have taken over 64 communities in the state.
The Federal Government has been talking tough following the recent wave of attacks, vowing to flush out the assailants, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, recently “ordered the immediate and comprehensive deployment of police tactical assets to the affected areas of the state”.
