Plateau Killing: GOC warns against reprisal

The General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3 Division Nigerian Army and Commander Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), Maj.-Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, has warned the troubled communities in Plateau State to refrain from carrying out reprisal attacks.

He said for the crisis to be brought to an end the communities must learn to forgive each other.

Abubakar warned that if any group is caught attacking any individual as a result of the killing in the general area, the long arm of the law will be meted out to such.

The Army boss stated this on Thursday after 17 people were killed in Heipang community in Barkin-Ladi local government area of the State.

The Killings according to the Spokesperson of the Task Force,  Captain James Oya, are connected to the killings of a Fulani man who was returning from the market on Monday.

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He said two Fulani men were attacked by the natives, one was killed and the other sustained injury.

Receiving a report of a possible reprisal, troops were deployed to the general area but the attackers took another axis in form of a gorilla attack to kill their victims.

According to him: “There was an early warning signal that some bandits could launch attacks in the area which prompted the operation to mount checkpoints in the area but the bandits followed another route, and attacked the community”, he said.

As at the time of filing this report, Oya said additional troops have been deployed to Heipang to restore peace and order.

“Peace and order have been restored”, he said.

Our correspondent reports that the killing of the Fulani man was connected to the killings that happened in Mangu local government area of the State.