Langtang massacre: Death toll rises to 70on July 03, 2013 at 3:00 am in News
By Taye Obateru
Jos — The death toll from last week’s attack on communities in Langtang South Local Government of Plateau State has risen to 70, while no fewer than 7,000 have been displaced.
Member representing Langtang North/South Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Beni Lar, who confirmed this during a visit to the affected parts, said several people were still missing.
Similarly, the state Commissioner of Police,Mr. Chris Olakpe, confirmed that the District Crime Officer, DCO, for the area wasstill missing and that 20 more corpses had been recovered.
Lar said: “From what I gathered, the Divisional Crime Officer is still missing, seven thousand people were displaced, while almost 70 lost their lives.
“The intention of the attackers was to wipe out the entire inhabitants of the villages for no just reason.”
Addressing displaced persons in different camps at Mabudi, headquarters of the local government, she described the attackas barbaric, noting that they were able to carry out the attack because of the vulnerability of the villages.
She said security men were unable to gainaccess to the area because of the bad roads and appealed to government to attend to them to open up the locality.
The police commissioner, Olakpe, said: “From the report I got from my men, 20 additional bodies have been recovered and the DCO is still missing.
“But we have not concluded that anythinghas happened to him. We are still looking for him and hoping that he will be found.”