346 killed,18,751 displaced in Plateau in three months’

At least 346 persons have been reportedly killed within three months in eight local government areas of Plateau State, a human rights organisations, Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, said in its report released on Thursday.

The organisation said out of the number, over 200 lives  were lost to sustained violent attacks in the Mangu LGA alone as of Saturday, July 8 2023.

The Founder and Executive Director of the Foundation, Rev. Dr. Gideon Para-Mallam, who gave the figures in the report obtained by journalists in Abuja, said the killings which took place between April 17 and July 10, 2023.

He added that there were currently about 18,751 Internally Displaced Persons in 14 camps in Plateau State.

Para-Mallam, a peace advocate, said 17 people were killed in Bokkos, Mangu, 234; Barkin Ladi, 39; Riyom 36; Jos North 5; Jos North 9; Mikang 5 and Bassa 01.

He said 14 IDP camps are hosted by the Church of Christ in the Nations Local Church Councils, adding that a breakdown of the IDPs shows: 2,081 widows, 6,066 Orphans between the ages of 0-5 years old.

The activist added that old people account for 1,057 of the victims while teenagers and adult orphans were 828.

He said a total of 6,603 households were affected by these deadly attacks.

While stressing that the current harvest of deaths in the Mangu LGA must be treated with the utmost urgency it deserved, Para-Mallam said the inability of the Federal Government to tame the killings  suggested looking the other way while the current inhumanity continued.

He said, “Take it or leave it, a foundation for full-blown nation-wide terrorism is being laid. No country should localise and allow acts of terror on its citizens. “Whatever the motivation behind these attacks on the Plateau, the fact remains that people are being killed in their hundreds.

“The burden of these killings should not rest only on the shoulders of the new Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Muftwang. The burden should not also rest only on the shoulders of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“In fact, the burden rests on the shoulders of all Nigerians.”