Jos boils again •8 killed in midnight raids •Protesting women shot, hospitalised •Boko Haram militants kill soldier in Borno

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Written by Isaac Shobayo, Jos Tuesday, 25 January 2011

NO fewer than eight people were killed with many others sustaining varying degrees of injuries in three different attacks in Plateau State on Sunday by two different groups of people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the assailants, numbering about 50, armed with sophisticated weapons, swooped on a village called Farin-Lamba in Jos South Local Government Area of the state at about 11.00 p.m. and descended on the inhabitants who had all gone to bed.

It was gathered that before the people could recover for a possible counter attack, the invaders had overrun them and succeeded in killing four people, while many sustained serious injuries.

It was further learnt that at about the same hour, Haman village, in Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area of the state, was also under attack with four people killed in the midnight attack. Four others, who were injured in the process are now receiving treatment at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).

Also, in Kopgai village in Mangu Local Government Area, three armed men stole 102 cattle and 12 sheep from one Hassan Abdulkarim after shooting sporadically into the air.

Disturbed by the fresh attack in Jos South Local Government, the women of the local government area, in their hundreds on Monday, trooped to the streets to protest the invasion and in the process burnt some of the tents of the Special Task Force (STF) within the vicinity.

The protesters, in black attire, shouted anti-STF slogans and denounced the task force, which they accused of being privy to the attack.

Some of the women, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune said that those who carried out the attack on the village were in military uniform, adding that the assailants came into the village in a Hilux vehicle.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Abdulrahaman Akano, who confirmed the attacks in a press statement signed by him, however, said four people were killed and five people were injured in the Farin-Lamba attack, with two killed in Hamman village.

He said the report he got indicated that those who carried out the attack were in military uniform, adding that he was yet to confirm that.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on the protest by women in Farin-Lamba, the commissioner of police said the peaceful protest took a frightening dimension, when the women burnt down some tents of the STF men in the area.

In the scuffle that ensued, six women were shot and were receiving treatment at Vom Christian Hospital.

Enough of this killings, enemies of Plateau should go to their villages or origin and develop it. Stop taking advantage of the peaceful nature of Plateau People.

Federal Goverment and International organization should act on these issues before it escalate into something else.


Plateau shall rise again!

8 killed in Jos, 7 burnt to death in Benin
City luxury bus fire
January 25, 2011
News
By Taye Obateru &Austin Ogwuda
Jos — Several families in Jos, the Plateau
State capital and Benin City in Edo State
were thrown into mourning on Sunday as
15 people were killed in separate incidents.
In Jos, eight people were killed and many
others injured at two villages some 25
kilometres from Jos, when armed men,
some of them allegedly in military uniform,
attacked them.
The incident in Benin City involved an
accident which claimed seven lives when a
luxury bus went up in flames on Asaba/
Benin highway.
A nursing mother and her three-month-old
daughter were among those killed during
the attack on Farin Lamba in Jos South
Local Government Area and Haman in
Barakin-Ladi Local Government Area when
they came under attack by gunmen who
struck almost simultaneously.
The attackers were said to have struck in
each of the villages at about 9 p.m. on
Sunday, gunning down three members of
the vigilante group at Farin Lamba village
before unleashing terror on residents,
shooting, cutting and torching their houses
and food barns.
One of the vigilante members who escaped
with injuries said some of the attackers
wore bullet proof vests similar to those
used by members of the Special Task Force,
adding that they saw a Hilux van similar to
the ones used by the task force some
distance away.
Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr.
Abdulrahman Akano, who confirmed the
attack and the killings in a statement said
the allegation that those who carried out
the attacks were in military uniform was
yet to be ascertained.
The killings sparked off demonstration by
hundreds of women in Jos South Local
Government Area, denouncing the alleged
involvement of military men in the attack.
The women rained abuses on men of the
special task force and dismantled some of
their tents with some of them getting shot
in the ensuing commotion.
Reacting to the allegation against his men,
Commander of the Special Task Force,
Brigadier General Hassan Umoru, doubted if
any of his men would participate in any
attack against the people they were out to
secure and urged the people to look out for
identification and other particulars to
substantiate any such allegation.
7 roasted in Benin
The auto accident that occurred by Ubulu-
Okiti junction at about 5 p.m. on Sunday
involved a luxury bus conveying 77
passengers. Unfortunately, seven of the
passengers were burnt to death while
others were rushed to the hospital.
Our reporter gathered that an explosion
occurred when a jerry can containing fuel
kept beside the engine of the bus got
overheated.
The bus with number plate CG 280 BEN was
said to have been hired from a church
based in Benin City in Edo and took off to
Onitsha in Anambra State where the
occupants of the bus attended a burial
ceremony of their friend.
Men of the Federal Road Safety
Commission carried out the rescue
operation and dumped the remains of the
burnt victims at an hospital at Ubulu- Okiti
including the injured ones.
Similar accidents had taken place on the
same highway Umuhu town near Umunede
and Asaba burning several persons to
death.

Its a very sad story because each time they took up arms to defend themselves, the military will arrest them. But now the army are coming out in their full uniforms to attack these innocent villagers. Who ll now defend them, jonathan must do something now concerning this

Injustice. These people are cowards killing women and children. Let them face the men at day time if they have courage.

This is sad. What makes it frightening is that the military have been compromised by religion and ethnicity.

[size=20pt]Worst is yet to come!

The docile but divided polity of the South hangs on a delicate balance![/size]

If GEJ wins these elections, and disgruntled elements in the North start sending their suicide bombers down South, all Southerners
will start crapping themselves, and their positions will start to shift then as people from Jos, the Middle belt, the East and the West,
start scrambling for cover, (this is my prediction)

[size=15pt]We need to fix the State so we can fix the problem![/size]