The death toll of 12 people who were killed in the Foron community of the Barkin Ladi Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State on Tuesday night has risen to 14.
They were attacked by people suspected to be Fulani terrorists, with 12 cruelly murdered and five others seriously injured.
Confirming the latest two casualties to The Guardian on Thursday, Mr Dung Pam said that he had just come from the hospital, where two of those admitted were confirmed dead by the physicians.
Meanwhile, Senator Pam Mwadkon Dachungyang, representing Jos North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, has decried the attack on the villagers, where more than ten people lost their lives, and several others were injured.
He noted, “I cannot understand why people who are going about their normal business will be surrounded and shot at sporadically using what eyewitnesses described as sophisticated weapons.
“From all indications, the herders that have been terrorising our land are still around us and armed with the intent of destabilising our people and creating an atmosphere of fear among the populations.
“I honestly do not understand how the peaceful and accommodating disposition of our people has become a problem. We accept everybody in the spirit of live and let’s live, so when has that become a problem in recent times?”
Dachungyang, therefore, called on the intelligence and security agencies to not only arrest the perpetrators but ensure that they pay in full for the havoc they have visited on affected families, communities, and the state as a whole.
He emphasised that he is ever ready to assist in any way possible to ensure that the violence visited on the people of the zone is brought to a halt without any further delays.
He also used the opportunity to condole with the affected families while praying to God to grant the injured a speedy recovery.
On its part, the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM) has also received with deep shock, grief, and indignation the brutal attack, best described as “genocide and mass atrocity”, on Atoso village in Fan District of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, which occurred on Tuesday night at about 9:00 pm at a mining site by a terrorist group known as Fulani militants.
“The tragic incident claimed the lives of twelve (12) innocent persons, with three (3) others abducted and taken alive, while five (5) are currently hospitalised with varying degrees of injuries. This horrifying act has plunged the entire Atoso community and the Berom nation into mourning,” BYM added.
The President of the BYM, Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, who personally visited the scene of the incident alongside members of the association’s leadership, described the scene as a “heartbreaking incident” that followed the gruesome murder of four children at Dorong village of Foron District in the same Local Government Area, “where a rain of terror has continued to render humanity of the Berom ethnic nationality and other Nigerians a ‘soft target’ at the mercy of the attackers. This is therefore condemned in the strongest terms.”
The BYM expressed profound sympathy to the bereaved families and noted that the repeated killing of innocent citizens in their ancestral land is unacceptable and must not be allowed to continue despite the early warning alerts and signals always sent to the authorities concerned.
