The Plateau State Government has reconsidered a 24-hour curfew imposed in the Mangu Local Government Area of the state.
Gyang Bere, Director of Press and Public Affairs, stated on Friday that the curfew will be in effect from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. until further notice.
The statement added that the review followed an improvement in the security situation in the Mangu LGA after strategic engagements with community leaders across faiths and ethnic groups within the council area as well as due to consultation with the state security council.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang enjoined residents of the Mangu Local Government Area to strictly observe the curfew and refrain from taking laws into their own hands. He urged security personnel to enforce the curfew to avoid any breakdown of law and order.
Mangu experienced fresh attacks on January 23 that left at least 30 people, including women and children dead.
The attack forced the state government to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew, with security agencies charged to bring the assailants to book.
The latest violence comes a few weeks after the North-Central State is yet to recover from the deadly strikes by gunmen on communities in Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin Ladi LGAs. As a result, over 100 were killed with several others displaced in the violence.
Already, the police authorities announced on January 5 that eight suspects were arrested in connection with the killings.
Alfred Alabo told journalists in Jos that 17 suspects were arrested, noting that eight among them were apprehended in connection with the Christmas Eve attacks.
Farmer-herder attacks and communal conflicts are rife in central Nigeria, an ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland known as the ‘Middle Belt’ where a circle of violence has claimed hundreds of lives in recent years.