Kingsley Eze
Suspected Jukun militias have today, 25th January, 2024 killed yet to be identify number of Internally Displaced Persons IDPs and destroyed all the houses mended by the IDPs who have returned in different locations in Wukari Local Government Area, home of the Executive Governor of Taraba State
The incident is coming shortly after the chairman of the Local Government, Hon Dauda Samaila had visited the IDPs and asked them to returned back to where ever they were taking refuge untill they follow due process.
Sources disclosed that the Jukun militias attacked the returned IDPs at different locations including Tor-Iorshagher, a Village located about 15kms away from Wukari to Rafinkada, Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State
They Stated that the attackers had earlier vame in the night and destroyed all the houses they built before returning during the day to open fire on them
Mr Moses Yanoor, a brother to one of the deceased, Sesugh Yanoor, who was among the groups attacked, disclosed that the militas came in the afternoon of Thursday, 25th January, 2024 around 4:00pm with heavy and sophisticated weapons and opened fire on them when they were mending their destroyed houses
He said they came shooting sporadically and in the process of scampering for their safety, the deceased could not make it just as several other persons sustained different degrees of injuries
In another location, the militias in a similar operation opened fire on the returned IDPs around 5:00pm at Ikyernum, a community located about 17kms along Wukari-Tsukundi Road and killed yet to be identify number of Persons and injured several others
Narrating the incident to our reporter in a telephone conversation, Mr Haanongon Edward, a resident of the area who was among the persons attacked said they were mending their destroyed houses around 4:00pm when the Jukun millitas came with sophisticated weapons.
“They asked us to start parking or count our last days. In the process of trying to reason with them, they opened fire on us. As I am talking to you, I am in the bush, I don’t know how many people they have killed so far
“We don’t actually know what to do about this. Just yesterday, the chairman of Wukari LGA, Hon. Dauda Samaila had visited us and told us to go back to were we were taking refuge, insisting that we must follow the laid down procedures before coming back to resettle here.
“We pleaded with him that, in our impression, the crisis is over and we are no longer comfortable with taking refuge in strange lands for over four years, so he should allow us to stay and mend our destroyed houses to enable us have a place to put our heads during the raining season.
“We promised him that, in our own part, we will be law abiding and will continue to cooperate with the local government leadership in particular and the authorities in general, so as to sustain peace but he insisted that we must vacate our communities or take whatsoever we see and today, we are having this ugly situation.
“We are calling on the State and Federal Government to come to our aid. We are also calling on heads of security agencies to charge the officers deployed here to be neutral and protect us from Jukun Militias. They came here in broad day light, opened fire on us and go freely where as we have security check points all over here”. He lamented
All efforts to reach out to the Chairman of the Local Government proved abortive as he was not responding to neither calls nor all the text messages put across his line
