It was an unusual awakening for
the people of Jos, Plateau State
penultimate Sunday. The usual
Muslim call to prayers was very
unusual. As early as 2 am, eerie
shouts of Allahu Akbar had
rented the air, breaking the
silence of that early Sunday
morning.
Little was it known that at those
early hours, hundreds of people
were being slaughtered like rams
in three Plateau State villages,
namely Dogo Na Hauwa, Zot and
Ratsat. In the end, more than 500
people lay dead
The killing at Dogo Na Hauwa,
described as worst in the
lingering Plateau crisis, occurred
in the wee hours of Sunday,
March 7 when a group of Fulani
herdsmen allegedly carried out
an attack on the three villages to
retaliate a similar attack said to
have been launched on their
kinsmen on January 19 in Kuru
Jenta village in Barakin Ladi Local
Government Area of the state. It
was the same day a village in
Barakin Ladi Local Government
Area was also sacked by the
invaders.
Indeed, the level and extent of
the carnage and bloodshed
showed that it was carried out by
professionals. Eye witness
accounts said the marauders
sneaked into the villages in large
numbers and divided themselves
into two groups. While one
group, allegedly with camouflage
uniform were in charge of
shooting, they provided cover for
the foot soldiers who marched
from house to house, smoking
out their victims and cutting them
to pieces withy axe, knives and
machetes.
Even the crying of little children
and the pleadings of old and frail
men and women would not deter
them as they wiped out almost
three generations of the Berom
settlement.
According to Pam Chuwang, a
civil servant who was spending his
leave in the village, the Fulani
had on several occasions sent
text messages that they would
attack the village.
“We informed neighbouring
villages about the text message
and also mobilised our youths,
but on each occasion, they failed
to come because they did not
give us specific date, ” he said.
But on that particular day, the
villagers were taken unawares as
the marauders, in a well
calculated, well planned and
masterfully executed attack
overran the villages in an
operation that lasted more than
three hours, while security agents
went to utter sleep.
Chuwang said that when the
invaders arrived, he tried to
escape, but discovered that the
whole village had been
surrounded by them. “I hid in
one of the uncompleted buildings
and from there, I was able to
monitor everything that
happened, ” he said.
Another survivor, Dalyop Gyang,
said that the Fulani who sneaked
into the villages from different
angles positioned themselves at
several entries into the villages
while some of them entered the
villages with machine guns,
machete and all sorts of
weapons.
He said that while the ones inside
carried out systematic killing of
the villagers whose houses they
also set on fire, majority of them,
including children, ran out of
their respective houses only to be
ambushed by the waiting Fulani
men who had positioned
themselves at strategic points in
the area.
In a well planned, well
coordinated and masterfully
executed attack, the Fulani
herdsmen were said to have
descended on the village from a
hill in a commando-like operation
and carried out what could be
described as organised killing of
the villagers.
Chuwang’s account was
corroborated by another
survivor, Mr. Longyen Michael
(aka Pappy), who was lucky to
escape with his wife and one
child.
But he was only saved by his wife
who pleaded with him not to step
out when he attempted to go out
and confront the herdsmen.
“I did not know that they came in
large numbers, so I wanted to
confront them. But my wife held
me back, ” Pappy said.
He added, “I was sleeping inside
my house with my family when I
heard gunshots. As I tried to
fathom what was happening, my
window was broken into while a
petrol bomb was thrown inside. ”
He recalled that as his house was
burning, he managed to crawl to
the kitchen, where he fetched
some water to put out the raging
fire.
“As I crawled to the door, I heard
them speaking in several
languages. Then one of the
voices I recognised as that of a
Hausa boy who grew up in the
village said, ‘I know the owner of
this house seldom comes to the
village. Immediately, they saw a
ray of light from afar and ran
away. ”
Indeed it was this ray of light that
saved the Longyen family. But it
was not so for hundreds of other
villagers who lay dead at dawn.
The villagers said they believed
that the attack was sponsored,
going by the high number of
casualties and the sophisticated
weapons used in the attack.
This account was corroborated by
the suspects in their confessional
statements to the police.
Ikechukwu Aduba, the Acting
Commissioner of Police in the
state, told newsmen that
confessional statements extracted
from the suspects revealed that
while some said they were paid
for the job, others said they
volunteered to participate in the
attack because of the anger they
haboured over similar killing of
Fulani herdsmen and children at
Kuru Jenta in Barakin Ladi Local
Government Area of the state.
The police said that the attack on
Dogo Na Hauwa, according to
the confessional statements of
the suspects, were in obvious
retaliation of the previous attacks.
Three of the suspects, Dahiru
Adamu, Zakari Yakubu and
Haruna Ibrahim, who spoke to
Saturday Punch said that much
when they said they carried out
the attack to avenge the killing of
their men and cattle.
From the account gathered from
them, the planning took quite
some time while some of them
were recruited as sympathisers
and others were rewarded.
But spokeman of the Muslim
Ulama, Mallam Mudi Sani, said
that Islam as a religion does not
support violence as a solution to
misunderstandings.
“We don’t believe in violence as a
solution to disputes. We reject it.
Hausa have no sinister agenda
for Plateau. It is a deliberate
misinformation by selfish persons
for ulterior motives, ” he told
Saturday Punch in an interview.
As controversy rages over the
cause of the mayhem, another
contentious issue is the number
of casualties. While the police
said only 109 persons were killed
and buried in a mass grave, the
figure was disputed by the
Chairman of the Rescue and
Evacuation Committee, Mr.
Solomon Zang. He said that the
whole field was littered with
bodies of victims which were yet
to be recovered as at the time
the mass burial was going on.
Zang, who is also the
commissioner for works, said that
more than 400 people were
buried in three mass graves, while
others were buried by their
relatives.
The latest wave of violence has
thrown the entire state into
confusion. Residents of the once
acclaimed home of peace and
tourism now live in fear as any
disagreement is bound to ignite
violence. However as the cries
over the latest violence gradually
gives way, residents are
wondering where the next one
would erupt as vengeance still
remains thick in the air.