Gunmen kill six in fresh Plateau attacks

•Police confirm killing of five family
members
The Plateau State Government yesterday said
gunmen, on Sunday night, killed six members
of two families in the state.
A statement in Jos, the state capital, by the
Commissioner for Information and
Communication, Mr Yiljap Abraham, confirmed
the killings.
Yiljap said: “The Plateau State Government has
received reports of attacks on some
communities in the state with great
indignation.
“The unprovoked killing of six members of two
families in their homes in Kungte village,
Kanadap (near Marraraban Jama’a) in Kuru
District of Jos South Local Government Area by
gunmen on Sunday, September 1, is an evil and
wicked act that should be condemned by all
members of society.
“It is also a display of cowardice by the
perpetrators who, under the cover of darkness,
deliberately chose to visit violence on
vulnerable members of society – women and
children – to achieve clearly devilish designs.
“Such attacks, coming at a time the state has
been mostly peaceful for quite some time,
appears a desperate attempt to reverse the
gains of our hard-earned efforts in breaking
down the barriers of ethnic and religious
intolerance and thereby rebuilding the bridges
of communal consensus.
“Such intentions will fail because Plateau
people have made up their minds to live in
peace with one another and, together with the
state government and security agencies, they
will frustrate every attempt at taking the state
back to the days of bloodshed and gloom. The
current level of peace in the state is for
consolidation, not evaporation!
“The government shares the pains of victims of
these heinous crimes and declares that those
behind such acts will face justice in the long
run. We call on communities to remain alert
always and work closely with security agencies
in the sustenance of peace.
“Meantime, security agencies have intensified
their cordon-and-search operations and will
take other steps to enforce their constitutional
responsibility of maintaining law and order.”
The Plateau State Police Command yesterday
confirmed the killing of five members of a
family at Kunte village, near Maraba Jama’a, in
Jos South Local Government Area of the state,
by some gunmen.
Police spokesman, Felicia Anslem, a Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP), told the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos, the state
capital, that the murder took place around
10.45pm on September 1.
Anslem said those killed were a “father, mother
and three children”.
The spokesperson said investigation into the
killings has begun, adding that the police were
doing their best to apprehend the culprits.
“The police had dispatched a team to search
for the perpetrators of this criminal act, so
that they would be brought to justice,” she
said.
Anslem said the incident was neither a crisis
nor connected with religious or ethnic
inclination but was purely an act of
criminality.
“The moment something like this happens,
many people tend give other meanings, but it
was purely a criminal act, which must be taken
as such,” she said.