15 die, several injure as bandits attack Taraba communities

By JANET NYAJON AUDU, Jalingo

No fewer than 15 persons have been killed in two sepa­rate communities in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Tara­ba State within the past two days following attacks by armed bandits.

The ugly incident oc­curred in Binnari and Jab- Jab communities when ban­dits came in their numbers and started shooting and burning houses in search of the commander of the vigilantes during which 15 persons, including three housewives, lost their lives.

Investigations by Sunday Independent revealed that the bandits were Kidnappers who had been terrorizing the people in the area in the last few months.

According to the Police, there was a joint vigilan­te group which teamed-up from Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe and Bauchi which had been trailing the kid­nappers and invaded their den and neutralized many of them.

The police, through their PPRO Abdulahi Usman, told Sunday Independent that they believed that the attack was a reprisal by the bandits who might have been angered by the attack recently launched on them by the vigilantes.

His words: “Yes, there was an attack in Karim-Lamido Local Gov­ernment Area by bandits whom I believed came to retaliate because they came in their numbers and went straight to the house of the leader of the joint patrol team drawn from the neigh­boring states and, the Com­mander of the joint patrol team, is from Karim-Lami­do Local Government Area, hence they targeted his house and, fortunately for him, he was not at home and they proceeded to the house of the Chief and he was not also at home.

“So, they started asking for the houses of vigilan­te members; it’s true that sometime back the vigilan­tes dealt with the kidnap­pers and neutralized many of them.”

On the number of death and casualties, the PPRO said it was not yet certain until he would receive offi­cial report from the DPO of the area, but an eyewitness who gave his name as Sani Gwomu said they found 15 dead bodies at different lo­cations in the troubled area.

The police further ex­pressed readiness to contain the situation.

According to the PPRO, the police had already swung into action by deploying of­ficers to the troubled area as their vehicle patrols 24 hours and peace and nor­malcy had since returned to the area even as he enjoined the people of the area to go about their normal activities without fear of any attack.

In a related development, three people were said to have also lost their lives to a clash between herders and farmers in Gwomu commu­nity, also in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of the state.

Confirming the incident to our correspondent in Jal­ingo, the local government Chairman, Hon. Markus Hamidu, said farmers in the area went to cultivate their farm produce, only for them to see herders with their cat­tle grazing on their farms.

He said the discovery an­gered the farmers who quar­reled with the herders.

Speaking further, he said the farmers went to their farms on Thursday to har­vest their farm produce only for them to see the herders on their farms again, and before they could complain, the herders attacked the farmers and killed one of them in the process, and the farmers in turn killed one of the herders.

Hon. Mark Hamidu who commended the gover­nor, Arch. Darius Dickson Ishaku, for his efforts to­wards building peace and de­velopment in Karim-Lamido Local Government, asked the government and every spirited individual for sup­port in terms of logistics to enable them combat Crimi­nals terrorising the area.

Our correspondent re­ports that Karim-Lamido Local Government is the local government that has produced two acting gov­ernors, Alh. Garba Umar UTC and Alh. Abubakar Sani Danladi, as well as a member of the National As­sembly, Hon. Danladi Baidu, and where Sen. Sunday Zik Sunday was kidnapped ear­ly this year. (Sunday Independent)