Local authorities in Plateau State have said that at least 37 people were killed in the early hours of Tuesday by unknown gunmen believe to be Boko Haram militants at the villages of Tatu, Rawuru, Bok and Dorang villages in the Fan District of the State.
Ten people were injured and are receiving treatment at various hospitals while over 40 houses were burnt down by the gunmen who fled after the attack.
The Leadership Newspaper reported that those killed in the attacks were children, pregnant women and the aged, the affected communities were thrown into mourning and that marks of bullets fired by the attackers were visible on the walls of most of the houses in the villages.
An eyewitness in one of the attacked villages told local reporters that the gunmen stormed the house of his relative at about 12:30am and killed him along with his seven children.
He alleged that despite the presence of security operatives in the locality, they did not come to the rescue of the people of the community.
“At about 1am yesterday morning, I started hearing gunshots, I then rushed out of my home to the direction of the gunshots and saw the corpses of our fellow Villagers who were murdered in cold blood by our attackers littering everywhere, our village was under siege for more than 30 minutes’’, he said.
Over the weekend, Boko Haram militants killed 12people and set several houses ablaze in a village in Bono State.
Nigeria Crisis:Seven State Governors Defect
These killings of citizens come as the political tension in the country heightened. Seven State Governors were said to have been defected from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The defected governors were said to have various grievances including President Goodluck Jonathan’s leadership style. They claimed he failed to unite the country with people dying from militants’ insurgency on regular basis.
The governors, which include: Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, Rabiu Kwankwanso of Kano State, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, Babangida Aliyu Of Niger State, Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State.
The governors announced yesterday that they were merging with the opposition party All Progressives Congress (APC).
President Jonathan is struggling to deal with Boko Haram insurgency and many political analysts have criticized him of not doing enough to stop the insurgency.
Both the UK and US have blacklist Boko Haram as a terrorist organization aimed at enforcing their laws and regulatory agencies to block business and financial transactions with Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is believed to have carried out a wave of bombings and assassinations since 2009 which have cost an estimate number of over 4,000 lives, and saying it wants to establish an Islamic state across Nigeria.
Issaka Adams/ NationalTurk Africa News
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