Plateau Crisis: COAS orders shoot at sight, unveils Operation Leopard’s teeth

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj.-Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja has ordered a shoot at sight on anyone carrying firearms in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.

He said parents should as a matter of urgency collect all weapons in the hands of their children and submit them to the military.

The Army Chief stated this at the weekend in Mangu during a stakeholders meeting with the locals, immediately after the unveiling of Operation Leopard Teeth, meaning Hakorin Damisa in Hausa language.

Speaking with the Stakeholder at a government secondary school in Mangu, where the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), were taking refuge, Lagbaja said: “If you have children carrying weapons, please call them to order as quickly as possible and collect those weapons from them and submit them to the military.

“If you don’t do that, troops will shoot at them and they will be killed and if they are killed, there will be no compensation for them.

“If cattle should graze on people’s farms, such cattle will be arrested and we will make the owner of those cattle pay compensation.

“If youths go attacking people’s cattle, they will be arrested and if they carry weapons in the process of attacking such cattle, they will be shot and killed instantly”, the Army Chief said.

Meanwhile, during the address of troops, COAS asked them to always respond to distress calls, saying that is one of the ways of earning the confidence of the locals.

“When they send a distress call, you must respond and you must respond as quickly as possible. You must also give them feedback on what you have done. That is the only way they can build confidence in you”, Lagbaja ordered the troops.

Our correspondent reports that no fewer than eight special Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), several army mounted Hilux vehicles and Motorcycles were unveiled for the Operation Hakorin Damisa IV.

The killings in Mangu started in April 2023 but the height of it which got the attention of the whole country was in June 2023 where dead bodies littered the community.

In July 9th 2023, no fewer than 12 persons were killed prompting the Commander of the Special Military Task Force and General Officer Commanding, 3 Division Nigerian Army,  Maj.-Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, who barely resumed office a day before the incident to relocate to Mangu.

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Statistics and Police authority in the State has put the number of the total deaths since April to be over 300 people and over 18,000 persons, our correspondent says.