25 killed in Jos violence, get mass burial

A cross-section of the 163 alleged to have killed 25 in Barkin Ladi Local Government, Plateau State.

Twenty five people killed in the renewed violence in Barkin Ladi LGA of Plateau State were yesterday given a mass burial at Takwok village where most of them were killed on Wednesday night.

Over 500 displaced people are also seeking refuge at the Barkin Ladi town following the violence which necessitated the imposition of a curfew in the council.

Also on Friday, the Special Task Force (STF) maintaining security in the state paraded 163 suspects arrested in connection with the violence.

STF spokesman, Captain Charles Ekeocha who paraded them said six of the suspects arrested in connection with the killing of a police inspector, his wife and daughter in the violence, have been handed over to the police for investigations. He said several arms and ammunition including AK-47 rifles, daggers, and other dangerous weapons were recovered from the suspects. He attributed the immediate cause of the fresh hostilities to the rustling of about 20 cows on Sunday night which resulted in the killing of three youths who were returning to their village the same day.

In a separate development, a student of the Plateau State Polytechnic, Heipang, was shot when the convoy of the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, ran into a road block mounted by the students.

The students who were protesting the hit on one of them by a motorist had put barricades on the road to prevent vehicular movement when the convoy of the defence chief ran into them.

Soldiers in Petirin’s convoy were said to have shot into the air to disperse the students and in the ensuring mêlée, one of the students was hit by a bullet and he died instantly.

Meanwhile, loud wails rent the air as the deceased which included four children of the Councillor representing the area in the local council Mr Pam Choji who were killed during the attack on the village were buried.

Choji told journalists that his children and three other members of his household were killed during Wednesday night’s attack, adding that it was difficult to ascertain the number of people killed during the attack as the assailants shot sporadically.

He said two more bodies were discovered on Friday in a mining pond into which the bodies were thrown after they were killed adding, “as we go along the bush path, we discover more bodies.”