• Troops neutralise three bandits in Mangu
• OPHK vows to restore peace in N’East
About 346 persons have reportedly been killed within three months in eight local councils of Plateau State, Gideon & Para-Mallam Peace Foundation has said. According to the organisation, out of this number, over 200 were lost to sustained violent attacks in Mangu Local Council alone as of July 8, 2023.
Founder and Executive Director of the foundation, Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, who gave the figure in a statement, yesterday, said aside the killings between April 17 and July 10, 2023, “about 18,751 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are housed in 14 camps in Plateau.”
Reeling out the figures, the reverend disclosed that 17 people were killed in Bokkos, 234 in Mangu, 39 in Barkin Ladi, 36 in Riyom, five each in Jos North and Mikang, and one in Bassa.
According to him, 14 IDPs camps are hosted by the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) Local Church Councils (LCCs), adding that the IDPs comprise 2,081 widows and 6,066 under-five orphans. He disclosed that the aged accounted for 1,057 while teenagers and adult orphans are 828.
A total of 6,603 households are affected by the deadly attacks, he asserted.
NO fewer than three bandits, believed to be among the miscreants fomenting trouble in Mangu Local Council of Plateau State, were, yesterday, neutralised along Mangu-Pushit road by a Combat Team from Operation Safe Haven (OPSH). Others escaped with gunshot wounds.
The troops, after ambushing and neutralising the bandits, reportedly recovered three AK-47 rifles, 14 rounds of 7.62 special ammunition, one motorcycle and a constabulary police identity card.
A statement by the Media Information Officer (MIO), Capt. Oya James, noted that the OPSH Commander/General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Armoured Division, Maxwell Khobe Cantonment Jos, Maj-Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, had earlier relocated the command headquarters temporarily to Mangu and reiterated that the Army remains resolute in the discharge of its mandate within the ambits of the law and would continue to be firm, bold, decisive and just.
NEW Theatre Commander, Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), Maj-Gen. Gold Chibuisi, has said his troops will put in their best to conclude the ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the North East.
According to him, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists have been disseminated in the Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad region.
Chibuisi stated this, yesterday, in Maiduguri, Borno State, while taking over from Maj-Gen. Ibrahim Ali, who has been redeployed to lead the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in Ndjamena, Chad.
The dissemination, he noted, denied terrorists the freedom of operation in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states. He, therefore, urged security operatives to sustain the tempo of routing remnants of terrorists to restore peace in the North East.
Before the handing over, Ali told the security agents: “The challenge of demining Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in the Lake Chad region has to be overcome by the Explosives Ordnance Department (EOD).”
Beside the IEDs challenge, he said the troops would continue to put more pressure on the terrorists, to end the war this year. He, therefore, reminded officers and men to be good leaders with effective followers in the frontlines of Sambisa forest and Lake Chad region.
Ali urged Chibuisi to continue with the good works the troops made in the affected states. Meanwhile, he stated that the intensified counter-insurgency operations forced over 100,053 terrorists and their families to surrender to the Army.
