By James Moses (9News Nigeria, Jos)
Protesters on Friday burned down the palace of the District Head of Bokkos Saf Adanchin during the demostrations over what they tagged as indiscriminate arrests following the recent Killings in the Plateau community. According to a resident of the community who claimed anonimity told 9News Nigeria that they were expressing their displeasure over arrest of some commuinity members in connection to the assaults in the area.
The protesters mostly women and youths, took their agitation to the Joint Security Task Force Operation Safe Haven base and Divisional Police Office in Bokkos Local Government Area commuinity to express their grief and displeasure over the sad incident.
But the demostrations turned violent when the protesters in their numbers proceeded to the District Head’s palace, overpowered the security personnel, and set the building including vehicles parked within the premises ablaze.
Bokkos Progressive Youths has accused security operatives of being bias in handling the situation.
“It is with pain in our hearts that we write to address you concerning this continuous violation of human rights by the military sent to foil the attacks that started on 23rd December 2023 in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State Nigeria”
“Since the sad event happened, we have witnessed continuous arrest, detention, and brutalization of victims who managed to escape the horror of the attackers. In most cases, these victims have suffered incapacitation and bullet wounds from the same army who are supposed to protect them”, Luka Tulladem , president of the association said in a statement.
However, thehe protest is the latest since the simultanous attacks on commuinity in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of the North-Central State that has claimed over 200 lives with hundreds of houses and farmland burnt.
The Christmas Eve attack attracted condemnation locally and globally. Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered a probe into the incidents. Plateau State Governorr, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang also called for “United efforts to identity and apprehend those responsible for these heinous acts”.
Vice President Kashim Shettima visited the area to commiserate with the people of the North-Central State, he appealed to the residents to “resist the temptation to succumb to sectional divisions or the poisonous rhetoric of hatred towards your fellow citizens, as we pursue justice to ensure your security”.
The Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis also called for prayers for the victim of the violence.
“Let us pray together for the victims of the violence in Nigeria’s Plateau State. May God free Nigeria from these horrors”, he said.
Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto Matthew Hassan-Kukah said the repeated and unending killings on the Plateau is beyond herder-farmer clashes, adding that the murderers “want their own kind of Nigeria according to their ideology.”
The cleric charge the government to resist the agender of marauders and protect Nigerians.
Kukah labelled the marauders as “sons of satan” who “opted” to extinguish and snatch the light of the joy of Christmas from thousands of people in Plateau State”
“There is a method to this madness.
The choice of location, communities, trimmings, the seeming hooded identities of the killers mask a fact. We may not know who they are, but someone wants something from the Middle- Belt. Stretch your imagination from the emergence of the modern Nigerian State and connect dots”, Kukah said in a statement.
