CHIEF IMAM, OKADA OPERATOR KILLED IN FRESH ATTACK ON PLATEAU COMMUNITY 04-01-24
By Sadiq Aminu Grief has enveloped Ndun Tangur, a town in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, following the killing of a religious leader, Mallam Muhammad Idris, and a commercial motorcyclist, Muhammad Gambo by suspected bandits. Until his murder, Mallam Idris was the Chief Imam of Jumma’at Mosque in Ndun Tangur.
His younger brother, Salisu Idris, was also injured in the fresh attack on the community.
The senator representing Plateau Centre. Diet Plang, who lamented the violence, called for the setting up of military bases in the troubled areas.
The Chairman of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN), Garba Abdullahi, who confirmed the incident, explained that the two siblings had gone to Ndun to retrieve the belongings they left behind while fleeing the Christmas Eve attacks by suspected bandits.
No fewer than 160 persons were killed in the mayhem, which Governor Caleb Muftwang described as a genocide.
Abdullahi said the latest attack was immediately reported to security agencies in Bokkos council.
He said: “The Chief Imam and his younger brother were attacked on Monday after arriving at the community to collect some of their belongings left from the previous attacks. But they were attacked. The hoodlums killed the Imam while his younger brother survived machete wounds.
“The Okada rider, Muhammed Gambo, was killed while bringing a passenger to the area. We have reported the incidents to the Police and Operation Safe Haven in Bokkos.”
But the spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, Alfred Alabo, said the incident had yet to be properly reported.
He said: “Concerning the Okada rider, it was some boys that lured him to a secluded area and robbed him of his bike.”
Senator Plang urged the Federal Ministry of Humanitarians Affairs to provide building materials and palliatives to enable displaced residents return to their homes.
He said that permanent solutions rather than short-term measures should be put in place to ensure that the perennial crises in the state are not repeated.
Plang said: “ We must resolve that instead of having temporal palliative to issues of security, it is good for us to attain a permanent solution. Instead of when it happens, you will call the military to come and flush them out, we should go for permanent solutions by setting up military formations at flash-points.
“We have the point of entry of criminality from Barkin Ladi and Bokkos; we have another point of entry between Mangu Gindiri and Bauchi. If we have permanent security points in those places, criminals will be scared of getting close.
The group said the current centralised policing structure does not have the capacity to prevent the magnitude of organised violence in rural communities.
It added: “There’s no other option; we must decentralise policing or surrender to non-state actors until we are eventually overwhelmed.”