Plateau State became a theatre of violence again at the weekend when gunmen attacked a mining site in Marit village, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, on Saturday, killing five miners and injuring two others.
Also, another set of gunmen launched an attack at the Kassa community in the same local government, killing three vigilantes, including a youth leader.
According to information gathered on Saturday, about 20 gunmen ambushed the miners on site at 1:00 a.m. on Saturday while they were busy working, opened fire and killed five of them on the spot.
It was learnt that other miners at the site fled for safety and after the gunmen left, two of the miners were found injured.
A highly competent source close to the Berom Youth Moulders-Association confirmed the incident on Saturday afternoon.
The source said: “Five persons were killed while two others sustained injuries in the attack. It is a very sad and painful development. Our people are once again mourning the loss of lives to violence.”
Earlier on Saturday, gunmen attacked Kassa community in the same local government where three vigilantes were killed.
It was learnt that the vigilantes were on their regular patrol when the gunmen attacked them and killed three persons, including a community youth leader.
One of the vigilantes who escaped death, while recounting the incident, said: “We were on our regular patrol when we heard gunshots from various directions. We did our best to resist them, but they had more weapons than we did.
“So, three of our members were killed, including a youth leader. We are appealing to security agencies to always respond to distress calls on time because they arrived very late, despite the fact that we called on time.
As of the time of this report, the state police command has not reacted to the two attacks in the same local government.
In another development, security personnel, working with local hunters, successfully thwarted a suspected terrorist attack on the Latok community in the Qua’an-Pan Local Government Area of the state on Friday.
