Photo: Gov Jonah Jang

Seriki Adinoyi 

About 30 persons were Monday feared killed and 25 others severely injured when gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen attacked Shonong village in Bachit District, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Also, about 40 houses were burnt in the attack and domestic animals belonging to the villagers slaughtered in large number, with many others taken away by the attackers.

A source from the village said the attackers stormed Shonong community in the morning, shooting indiscriminately at the people and killing about 30 victims in the process.

A survivor of the incident, Shom Toma, who sustained gunshots injuries and is currently receiving medical attention at the Vom Christian Hospital, said the attackers stormed the village at about 7a.m. in their hundreds, when most of the villagers had gone to farms, killing mostly children, women and the aged.

He said he escaped narrowly as he was moulding blocks around his house when the attackers arrived.

Another eyewitness, who survived the attack, said about 30 corpses were recovered, with many others still missing, while the search was still on.

The village heads of Attarkar and that of Shonong were killed two days before Christmas and were buried barely 48 hours before the current attack.

The Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly and member representing Riyom constituency, Hon. Daniel Dem, who spoke to journalists, lamented that the Special Task Force (STF) in the area were not on ground to save the people. He said: “If the military were present in the village, the attackers would not have had such a field day.”

Dem, who spoke to journalists at the Vom Christian Hospital where about 20 survivors were hospitalised, condemned the attack.

He said: “I was called at about 11a.m. that there was an attack at Shonong and that some women and children were killed in their homes by Fulani who surrounded the village and opened fire on the people.”

He added that “We have security men there and if an attack will last for several hours and no one was arrested, I think something must be wrong, what are the military there for? If we will have attack from morning till in the afternoon and people are killed and houses burnt, I think the military should be asked why they are there and what they are there for.” 

Source: This Day