Heavily armed bandits, suspected to be Fulani militias, launched a deadly attack on Wednesday evening in Plateau State, targeting a group of youths returning from a security meeting. The ambush left two people dead and six others injured, sparking renewed fear and tension in the region.
The incident occurred around 7:30 p.m. along the Barkin Ladi–Dorowa Babuje road in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State. The attack has sparked fear and tension in the community, which had been experiencing a period of relative peace prior to the incident.
Solomon Dalyop, the National President of the Berom Youths Moulders Association (BYM), confirmed the deadly attack in Plateau and strongly condemned it, describing the incident as both senseless and unprovoked.
He explained that the victims in the Plateau incident, many of whom were local youth leaders—had attended a security meeting at the Sector Four Command of Operation Enduring Peace (OPEP). They were ambushed by the gunmen while returning home from the meeting.
“Two of our people were killed on Wednesday evening when they were going home after attending a security meeting called by the Sector Four Commander,” Dalyop said.
“They were ambushed along the Barkin Ladi-Dorowa Babuje road and killed. That same yesterday, the militias attacked two villages simultaneously and killed one person in the night around 7:00 pm,” he said.
Dalyop said the attacks and killings in Plateau have confirmed his fears that an allegation raised by the Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Ibrahim Babayo, who claimed that a 13-year-old herder and 39 cows were killed by Berom youths on Tuesday, was a smokescreen to prepare the bandits to go on attacking spree in the communities.
“Yesterday, they came up with an allegation that their cows were killed. They will always come up with such allegations when they want to kill,” Dalyop said.
“Assuming that something like that happened, won’t you allow security agents to carry out an investigation? From our own assumption, it is their own people who attended the security meeting who gave information to their killers about the road our own people returning home would follow.
“So they went and blocked the road and killed two people, injured six, while two others escaped. The corpses of those killed are now lying at the morgue of the Barkin Ladi General Hospital,” Dalyop lamented.
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