Troops arrest six herders setting Adamawa settlement ablaze

Troops of 101 Special Forces Battalion on Exercise Ayem Akpatuma (Cat Race) say it had arrested six suspected herdsmen and killed 10 others who resisted arrest at Gwamba village in Demsa council area of Adamawa State while setting the settlement ablaze.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the spokesman, Brig.-Gen Jude Chukwu, said the troops deployed at Numan Local Council responded to a distress call from the affected village on Tuesday, February 27, indicating that it was under attack by suspected herdsmen. He regretted that the burning had been executed before his men arrived the scene.

However, the state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration lacked the capacity to protect Nigerians, saying it was only preoccupied by malicious intents for the opposition.

Addressing newsmen in Yola in reaction to Tuesday’s killing of the party’s spokesman, Sam Zadok, and 20 others at Gwamba village, the secretary, Abdullahi Adamu Prambe, said the incident had further exposed the President’s inability to tackle the insecurity in the country. 

His words: “ Nigeria has never suffered insecurity like what we are having now under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This is a clear testimony that Buhari lacks administrative credentials to run a big country like Nigeria.”

Prambe who described the death of Zadok, who was also a Commissioner of Sports in former Governor Murtala Nyako government as shocking, sued for peace and understanding.
The killing came a week after a sub-committee of the presidential panel on farmers, herdsmen clashes, headed by Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi, held a town hall meeting where the spokesman criticised the military for its role in last December’s killings in Numan and Demsa council areas of the state.

According to a resident, Mr. Tambaya Dilli, the assailant invaded Gwamba at 8:00a.m. and operated for three hours unchallenged.He noted that the killers came in four Toyota hilux vehicles and about 500 motorcycles, killing over 20 persons.

Dilli alleged: “ We had received letters and phone calls from the attackers on the planned invasion two weeks ago. We informed the police division in Gwamba, but nothing was done to protect us.”

Efforts to reach the spokesman of the state police command, Superintendant Othman Abubakar, were futile as he neither picked nor returned the several calls put to his mobile phone. In a related development, troops on cordon and search operations at Kwesati and Tati villages in Ussa and Takum council areas of Taraba State have recovered locally made weapons. The Army spokesman said five loaded guns were recovered.