ABUJA, April 11 (NNN-NAN) — Gunmen, suspected to be bandits, have attacked and killed some locals and razed down many houses in four villages of Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the attackers stormed the villages on Sunday afternoon, shooting sporadically and setting properties belonging to the locals on fire.
A resident of the area, Danladi Dukup, told NAN that some people lost their lives while others sustained various degrees of injuries.
He said that many of the villagers have fled their homes for safety following the invasion.
Ishaku Takwa, the media officer of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), a military task force maintaining peace in Plateau and environs, confirmed the attack to journalists on Sunday in Jos.
Takwa, who did not confirm the number of persons killed or injured, said that troops of the task force have been deployed to the area to restore normalcy.
This attack is coming barely 24 hours after the abduction of the wife and daughter of the state’s Commissioner for Environment.
Meanwhile, gunmen who carried out the attack on a Kaduna-bound train two weeks ago have released yet another video of some of the abducted passengers.
In the two minutes, fourteen seconds video clip, passengers took turns to introduce themselves and urge the government to help them by reaching out to the bandits.
It was shot before the release of the Managing Director of the Bank of Agriculture, Alwan Hassan, by the gunmen. Hassan was released by the gunmen after the release of an earlier video and alleged payment of ransom.
In the latest video, the victims were surrounded by gun-wielding bandits in a forest.
The person recording the video, appeared to be one of the abducted passengers.
“We’re the passengers from Abuja going to Kaduna in the attacked train on Monday, the 28th of March,” one of the passengers said in the Hausa language.
“From that time to now, only we know the kind of situation we’ve been into in this place. There are a lot of women and children, also old people who are mostly sick and some of us who are also not too young. Please, we’re calling on friends and well-wishers and government, which is the reason we found ourselves in this situation, to quickly do something to save us from here,” he said.
The person shooting the video panned left and right to capture many of the passengers and the gunmen who surrounded them.
The attack on the train is arguably the most daring by the bandits who since 2018 have attacked communities and road travellers at will.
Thousands of people have been killed and others kidnapped in Kaduna and other North-western states like Katsina, Zamfara and Kebbi, as well as the North-central state of Niger. — NNN-NAN