Written By Sunday Isuwa
The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has decried the skyrocketing cases of killings in the country, stating that within a period of one month, over 250 people have been killed in Plateau, Kaduna and Benue States.
To this end, the Forum called on the people of the region to use every available means to resist what they described as bloodthirsty invaders.
A statement issued by the MBF president, Dr Bitrus Pogu, said the renewed vicious attacks on communities of the Middle Belt Region in Southern Kaduna, Southern Kebbi, Niger, Plateau and Benue State have led to hundreds of lives lost and the decimation of their once-thriving communities is unacceptable.
Pogu said on March 8, 2022, daredevil terrorists mounted an ambush for members of a vigilante group called ‘Yan-Sa-Kai’ in Zuru, Kebbi State, and eventually killed 65 of them.
He said attempts by the security forces to bring the bandits to justice led to the murder of 13 soldiers and five policemen, bringing the total of number of the dead to 83.
Pogu said the three attacks on Plateau, Kaduna and Benue that took place within 24 hours, no fewer than 117 lives were lost, including 12 military personnel.
“It is instructive that as the 2023 campaigns gather momentum, the intensity of these attacks is set to increase, with the sole purpose of annihilating communities of the Middle Belt by the invaders. The increase in the level of massacres, devastation of communities and kidnapping of members of the Middle Belt Region extraction is aimed at impoverishing and disempowering the people and creating chaos that will render them refugees in their own ancestral homes,” the Middle Belt Forum said while condemning what it described as gradual return to the bloody days of horrifying assaults that are presently assuming a genocidal level.
Source https://leadership.ng/250-people-killed-in-kebbi-kaduna-plateau-benue-in-1-month/
