Eight Jos residents killed in Independence Day attack

A total of eight persons were, on Monday, confirmed dead after gunmen attacked Adu village in the Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The National Publicity Secretary of the Irigwe Development Association, Davidson Malison, who confirmed the killings in a statement on Monday, said five other villagers were also injured during the attack, which occurred on Sunday, which was Nigeria’s 63rd Independence Day anniversary.

According to Malison, the gunmen arrived in the village around 8.10pm and fired bullets on the innocent victims who were sleeping.

Malison said, “While other people celebrated 63rd Nigeria’s Independence Day with excitement, joy and happiness, Rigwe people were enveloped with tears, sorrow and sadness following an attack at Du village of Kwall District, Rigwe Chiefdom of Plateau State in Nigeria.

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“This is no doubt the continuation of the destruction of lives and the ceaseless attempts to annihilate the Rigwe race by the men of the underworld which has kept on persisting.

“This thing must stop and it is enough. We can’t continue allowing these marauders to continue unleashing mayhem in the land. Our ancestral  land is God-given and her people cannot be evicted and ejected.”

Also, the spokesman for the Miango Youths Development Association, Nuhu Bitrus, in an interview with The PUNCH, said, “It’s unfortunate that while others are celebrating Nigeria’s 63rd  independence anniversary, we are gathering in Kwall to bury our people. As a community, we had planned to do our independence celebration today (Monday) with a lot of activities but we are not doing that anymore. Instead, our people are at the moment gathering and making arrangements to bury the victims of the attack and also turn the event into a prayer day for the safety of our communities.”

As of the time of filing this report, the spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, Alabo Alfred, could not be reached for comment as his mobile line indicated that it was unreachable.