By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Again, nine people have been attacked and six of them killed at Wereng (station) village of Riyom local government area of Plateau State while three others who sustained various degrees of injuries are receiving treatment in a hospital.
Among those killed in the night attack is a community leader who has been on acting capacity and was awaiting his coronation as the substantive Village Head in Wereng.
Victor Pam from the community who resides in Jos told Vanguard that the incident happened at about 9pm on Monday, his relatives in the village narrated to him that the attackers who were armed with guns and other deadly weapons invaded the community shooting sporadically and sending inhabitants of the remote village some of whom had retired for the night scampering for safety.
The village had been under siege for over 10 years now, more than 30 people have been killed in that particular village and at the time of this report, no report shows that anyone has been arrested and prosecuted despite repeated assurances from security personnel.
Security agents had taken the corpses amidst protest from villagers and as usual, the State Police Command through ASP Gabriel Ubah said, “investigation is ongoing to unravel the cause of the attack and those behind the attack. The CP has deployed men to the area to ensure the area is calm.”
However, Member representing Riyom/Barkin Ladi federal constituency in the National Assembly who raised fresh concerns just last week about the continued unprovoked killings in his constituency stated security has not done enough to protect the people.
According to him, “It was an unfortunate incident, nine people were ambushed, six were killed instantly including a Traditional Ruler who is the Village Head along with five other youths.
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The attack was unprovoked, nobody did anything to warrant such, this is not the first time people have been ambushed in that area, exactly one month ago, some youths were ambushed at the same spot and were killed and the security agents will always tell you they are on top of the situation but at the end of the day, there will be no prosecution, nobody has been arrested.
“Some time back, the village was attacked and 13 people were killed, this is becoming a recurring decimal in that village, recently, a journalist published something about the intention of Fulanis to kill and the sending of people to buy arms in Niger Republic and the DSS invited him and drilled him. Today, I challenge the DSS to also go and get these killers and drill them since they protected that statement, they should also defend this one. The DSS is a disappointment…, they will defend any allegation being made about people trying to buy arms, sophisticated.
“The three people still in hospital, we don’t know if they will survive the injuries sustained, we were shocked by the number of security agencies that came from the State not even from Riyom local government. They came and packed the corpses, no single word to the community. From one traditional ruler to the other, they are killing people every day, sometime one is forced to conclude that the security personnel are parts of the killings.”
