The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle and the service chiefs on Sunday visited Plateau State shortly after a fresh attack by gunmen.
The visit follows an attack where assailants killed at least two individuals, including a father and his son, in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Accompanying the service chiefs, Minister Bello Matawalle, and Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu, arrived at Yakubu Gowon Airport Heipang via a Nigerian Air Force plane at 10:10 am.
Matawalle took the salute by military officials upon landing. Present at the visit were Minister of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Hassan Abubakar.
Plateau State has faced two attacks in the past week, with the latest occurring on December 24, resulting in over 190 fatalities during the Christmas Eve attacks in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi local government areas.
In the recent incident, Markus Nyam, the Transition Implementation Committee chairman, informed Channels Television that assailants raided the village on Saturday night, leading to the tragic killing of a father and his son.
Nyam noted that the local vigilantes’ efforts to confront the attackers resulted in the death of one assailant, prompting others to flee. The Joint Security Task Force Operation Safe Haven swiftly responded to the community’s distress call, curbing further harm by the attackers.
Aid Imminent
During a visit to the region on Wednesday, Vice President Kashim Shettima said aid would arrive shortly.
“I will personally supervise it, and ensure that none of it is hijacked by anybody,” said Caleb Mutfwang, the state governor.
Yuhanna Audu from the national rescue agency NEMA informed AFP that provisions were en route, and the distribution is expected to commence within the next two days.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered “security agencies to immediately move in, scour every stretch of the zone, and apprehend the culprits”.
The regions of Northwest and central Nigeria have faced prolonged terror from bandit militias who operate from remote forest bases, conducting raids on villages to engage in looting and kidnapping residents for ransom.
Additionally, the competition for natural resources between nomadic herders and farmers has escalated due to rapid population growth and climate pressures, contributing to heightened social tensions and outbreaks of violence.
A jihadist conflict has been ongoing in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people and the displacement of around two million individuals. This conflict involves Boko Haram jihadists competing for supremacy against rivals associated with the Islamic State group.
UN rights chief Volker Turk expressed deep alarm over the Christmas weekend attacks in a statement.
“The cycle of impunity fuelling recurrent violence must be urgently broken. The government should also take meaningful steps to address the underlying root causes and to ensure non-recurrence of this devastating violence,” he said.