
Factional Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Governor Jonah Jang
Nine
members of a family were among 21 people killed on Thursday morning by
gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen in Kukek community in Bakin
Kogi, Foron District of the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau
State.
The remaining 12 were some of the
herdsmen that were caught in the crossfire between them and members
of a vigilance group.
Many members of the vigilance group
sustained injuries in the attack that occurred hours before the Nigeria
Trans-border Security Committee announced that terrorist hideout and
routes on Nigeria’s border communities with Cameroun had been
identified.
The armed herdsmen were said to have
razed the home of a man identified as Tsok Gwom between 1 and 2am,
killing nine members of his family.
The dead family members had gunshot wounds on their bodies.
The gunmen, who survived were also said to have stolen some cows belonging to some villagers.
The Interim Administrator of Barkin Ladi
LGA , Mr. Habila Dung, told journalists that he received a distress
call about the attack and immediately alerted security operatives.
He however said he had not been fully briefed about the incident.
The Police Public Relations Officer,
Felicia Anselm, told our correspondent in Jos, that policemen had
been drafted to the scene.
Efforts to reach the Media Officer of
the Special Task Force, Capt. Salisu Mustapha, were not successful. A
source close to him, however, said he led a team of soldiers to the
LGA.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Trans-border
Security Committee has lamented the increasing terrorist attacks and
other crimes at Nigeria’s border communities with sister nations.
A report submitted by the committee
to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed, on
Thursday in Abuja, listed maritime axis, mountains, roads, rivers,
waterways and streams as safe havens and routes for criminal activities.
The PUNCH had exclusively
reported on Thursday that 180 Boko Haram members were killed by
Camerounian troops during a gunfight in one of the borders between their
country and Nigeria.
The Nigerian military authorites had
recently claimed that many insurgents had fled to some neighbouring
countries, including Cameroun, following the increased efforts to smoke
them out.
Nigeria and Cameroun had on February
28 agreed to establish a transborder security committee in a
bid to combat increasing criminal activities at their common borders
and encourage peaceful coexistence.
Building on this, the former Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Ambasador Olugbenga Ashiru, on April 5, 2013
inaugurated the panel to work towards the establishment of the
committee.
Giving an insight into the report on
Thursday, the Chairman of the committee, Maj-Gen. Babatunde Samuel
(retd.), blamed high crime rate on porous borders between the two
countries.
The committee identified terrorism,
hostage-taking, illegal fishing, human and drug trafficking as well as
the proliferation of small arms and light weapons as forms of crimes
being carried out through the border communities.
He stressed the need to amend some
clauses in the transborder security agreement to make it more binding
and enforceable by both countries.
Samuel requested greater commitment
from both countries by providing more funds for the Nigeria-Cameroun
Mixed Commission to complete the ongoing demarcation of borders between
them.
The chairman also proposed joint patrol between Nigeria and Cameroun’s security agencies to combat the crimes.
Facebook Comments Plugin Enhanced by Trendy Naija
No comments:
Post a Comment
Let us know your view on this post, kindly write your comment