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Plateau varsity security foils gunmen attack on female hostel

By John Akubo (Abuja) and Isa Abdulsalami Ahovi (Jos)
11 May 2023   |   4:53 am
Senate mourns 47 victims of April 6 attack in Benue Plateau State University (PLASU) has confirmed gunmen invasion of its female hostel by gunmen between Tuesday night and yesterday morning in an attempt to kidnap students. But The Guardian gathered that security operatives at the institution repelled the bandits. Public Relations Officer (PRO) of PLASU,…

Gunmen.

Senate mourns 47 victims of April 6 attack in Benue

Plateau State University (PLASU) has confirmed gunmen invasion of its female hostel by gunmen between Tuesday night and yesterday morning in an attempt to kidnap students.

But The Guardian gathered that security operatives at the institution repelled the bandits.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) of PLASU, John Agams, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Jos, yesterday.

Agams said: “It is true that gunmen attempted to kidnap some of our students, but the attempt was repelled by our local security men. In the process, one student was injured, but no student was abducted.

“The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Bernard Matur, is at the school premises appealing to students to be peaceful.”

The Plateau State Police Command confirmed that there was a kidnap attempt, which was foiled by security personnel.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Alfred Alabo, said the Commissioner of Police (CP), Bartholomew Onyeka, in his efforts to curb criminality, foiled another kidnap attempt by some hoodlums at PLASU.

According to him, a distress call put across by the security-conscious VC and other good citizens of the state to the control room the PPRO and other senior officers aided the quick response.

The statement added that hoodlums had also attempted to kidnap some off-campus female students, who went out to fetch firewood at a nearby bush, when they ran out of cooking gas.

Upon receipt of the information, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Bokkos, aided by other security operatives, gave the hoodlums a hot chase, which aided the escape of the students.

The PPRO quoted the CP as assuring the good people of Plateau that relentless efforts were ongoing to arrest the hoodlums, urging the residents to go about their lawful businesses and ensure that they give the police and any nearby security agency useful accurate and timely information.

The Senate has expressed grief over the 47 persons killed in Benue State by suspected killer herdsmen last Saturday. It observed a minute silence in their honour.

This was coming after a motion presented by Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South) calling the attention of his colleagues to the siege to Benue South communities by suspected herdsmen, who had unleashed mayhem in the senatorial district.

Coming under Order 42 (personal explanation), the lawmaker indicated that the April 6, 2023 onslaught in Umogidi, Otukpo Local Council, took over 47 lives, including a 33-year-old son of the council chairman, Bako Ejeh.

Moro lamented that suspected herdsmen were carrying out series of attacks and kidnappings in Benue South communities.
“Yet, as at today, no single person has been apprehended,” he lamented.

He urged the Nigerian Army and other security agencies to mobilise personnel to the affected communities, and carry out comprehensive surveillance to proactively detect and deter further attacks.

The lawmaker also urged the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development to immediately mobilise relief materials to those displaced by the attacks.

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