Plateau: Gunmen kill four members of same family

The orgy of violence in Plateau State continued on Wednesday with the killing of four members of the same family in an early morning raid by unknown gunmen.


The attack, which occurred in Wat, a village near Kuru, in Jos South Local Government Area of the state, is coming less than a week after blasts killed more than 200 people at a major market in Jos. A repeat of the blast in Bauchi Road area four days later killed four people.

In the latest incident, the family was said to be asleep when the gunmen struck.

The Police Public Relations Officer, a Superintendent of Police, Felicia Anselm, who confirmed this to newsmen in Jos, appealed to citizens to remain calm.

She said that the police were making efforts to track down the perpetrators of the act.

The PPRO said, “The police will not relent in its efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of this heinous act. The commissioner has advised all divisional police officers to increase surveillance in their areas.”

Meanwhile, the state government has ordered security men to clear major roads in the state of all street traders and hawkers.

The government has also banned all motor parks in the central business area of the Ahmadu Bello Way, Murtala Mohammed Way and the Terminus area.

In a press statement issued Wednesday by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Olivie Dazyam, the government said that the order had become imperative following incessant killings in the areas.

She said areas also affected by the ban included Tudun Wada, Chobe, Jenta, Dilimi, Kugiya-Bukuru and Rantya State Low Cost Junction.

The commissioner said that shops owners in the affected areas had been directed to relocate to the Rukuba Satellite Market.

She also advised the public to desist from patronising street markets, street traders and hawkers as such spots had become soft targets for terrorist attacks.