How troops intervened in 19 villages – DHQ

The Defence Headquaters, says troops intervened in 19 out of the 36 villages in Plateau State after receiving misery calls from villagers about assaults by militants on 24 December.

The Director, Defence Media Operations, Edward Buba, a major-general, stated on Friday in Abuja that the militants carried out simultaneous assaults on the villages from numerous fronts.

He stated the intervention of the troops in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi Native Governement Areas pressured among the militants to withdraw after wrecking havoc on the defenceless villagers.

“Sadly, occasions turned gloomy with the assault on Bokkos LGA and a few a part of Barkin Ladi LGA on 23 December.

“It ought to be famous that, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs span about 2,315 sq. kilometres with over 350 villages, principally dispersed.

“The gap between a few of these villages and troops’ areas is over 90 kilometres and typically tough to entry due to the rugged terrain that are principally inaccessible to autos.

“Thus, affecting the response time to incidents, besides when there may be credible intelligence earlier than the assault.”

Mr Buba stated over 100 marauding armed militant herders suspected to be mercenaries, carried out the sequence of unprovoked assaults from a number of fronts on Kambarpeli village in Bokkos whereas the locals had been asleep.

“The militants unleashed mayhem on the villagers earlier than arrival of troops to the placement,” he added.

Mr Buba stated the troops acquired a complete of 36 misery calls from numerous areas concurrently on 24 December at about 1900 hours.

He stated the misery calls reported sequence of coordinated assaults by armed militant herders on remoted villages within the two native authorities areas.

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“Troops responded to the calls and had been capable of intervene in 19 villages forcing the militants to withdraw.

“Sadly, the havoc had been dedicated earlier than troops arrived the opposite villages,” he added.

In keeping with him, the troops had within the second half of the 12 months initiated kinetic and non-kinetic operations which considerably curtailed assaults between farmers and herders within the state.

“Till the current killings in Plateau State through the Christmas, the highlighted measures visibly contributed to the relative peace in Plateau, in addition to the adjoining areas in Bauchi, Taraba and Kaduna States.

“Equally, the actions of Operation Whirl Stroke considerably checkmated armed banditry, kidnapping and different crimes in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states,” he added.

Mr Buba assured that the army had taken mandatory measures to beat all recognized challenges and make sure that such tragic occurrences had been averted sooner or later.

(NAN)