Plateau attack: How mother escaped with toddler as gunmen kill husband, five others

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Plateau attack: How mother escaped with toddler as gunmen kill husband, five others

Six members of the same family were on Monday murdered in Nghakai village in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Nghakai village is 15km West of College of Nursing, Vom, a village bordering Jos South LGA of the state.

The attack, which was said to have taken place at about 8pm, was reportedly carried out by unknown gunmen, who spoke amateur versions of Berom and Fulani languages, an eyewitness said.

Narrating the incident and how she escaped by the whiskers, Mrs. Lyop Gideon who survived the attack alongside her 1-year-old baby, said the attackers killed her husband, Mr. Gideon Gyang, 30, his parents, two siblings and a cousin before fleeing through a mountain-bound valley.

The 25-year-old mother-of-one said she escaped by pretending to be dead, while her baby, Esther Gideon, was unhurt in her slain grandmother’s arms.

“I laid flat on the ground as they opened fire, killing everyone.

“My baby yelled from my dead mother in-law’s arms but she was unhurt,” Mrs. Gideon said.

According to her, the family was having dinner together when the armed men attacked.

She said, “My husband was in our room few meters away from my father in-law’s room where seven of us were eating.

“They shot him first, and my terrified mother-in-law started screaming.

“As he (husband) was groaning and my mother-in-law screaming, they came into the room where we were.

“One of them tried to say something in Berom language but wasn’t so fluent.

“He spoke also in Fulfulde saying ‘Hurut mu hilleh’ after opening fire in the room but I don’t think that language was standard too.”

Meantime, the State Police Command had confirmed the incident.

According to the Spokesman of the Command, DSP Matthias Tyopev Terna, a
Deputy Commissioner of Police Department of Operations from the Command has visited the scene.

Terna added, “The police patrol of the area is being intensified in order to discourage any reprisal.”

The Command also solicited credible information to track and arrest the perpetrator or perpetrators to face justice.

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Kidnappers of ECWA pastor, 14 others want N30m – CAN

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Kidnappers of ECWA pastor, 14 others want N30m – CAN

 

The Chairman, Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Joseph Hayab, on Monday said the abductors of a pastor and 14 others at ECWA Church, Dankade, have reached out to the families of the victims demanding for N30 million ransom.

Hayab told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that the kidnappers immediately switched off their phone after presenting their demand.

He said the CAN chapter had been in constant touch with the families since the incident.

The Kaduna CAN chapter chairman urged security agencies to take appropriate measures to rescue the victims who were abducted after a Church service on Sunday.

“When people are attacked and taken away from a place of prayers then we need to wake up,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Police Command, in a statement on Monday by its Public Relations Officer, Yakubu Sabo, said it has deployed personnel to track the abductors and rescue the victims.

“On Sunday morning at about 0830hrs, we received information through DPO Dogon Dawa that some armed men in large number entered Unguwar Kuli village, a border community between Sabuwa Local Government Area of Katsina State and Birnin Gwari LGA of Kaduna State.

“The gunmen started shooting sporadically, went and intercepted some church members while closing from service and took away the Pastor and 14 others.

“On receipt of this information, the Command deployed teams of police operatives to the scene on general search operation with a view to rescuing the victims and arresting the culprits.

“IRT and STS have also been contacted for technical assistance,” he said.

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Gunmen kidnap three persons in Ondo

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Gunmen kidnap three persons in Ondo

 

Three persons, who were on transit on Auga-Ise Akoko road in Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State, were over the weekend kidnapped.

It was gathered that two vehicles, a Toyota Corolla car and a Mitsubushi pick-up whose occupants were going for a ceremony at Ikare-Akoko, were waylaid by gunmen who abducted three of the passengers.

According to some of the residents of Auga-Akoko where the incident happened, they said kidnappings along Auga-Ise road of Akoko North-East Local Government Area, which had been a thing of past, had suddenly resurfaced with the latest abduction.

Narrating the incident, a source stated that the three victims, who are males were abducted on the same spot where the wife of the Alauga of Auga, Olori Agunloye and her driver, were kidnapped last year.

He added that among those kidnapped was the head of the family traveling in the Corolla car.

According to him, the hoodlums released the wife and his two children to inform their people of the kidnap in order to look for ransom.

In his reaction, the Alauga of Auga, Oba Samuel Agunloye, advised that in order to stop the scourge, there must be an Army formation, as well as constant police patrol in the area.

The monarch disclosed that Ipele-Isua Auga-Akunu-Kabba federal highway needed to be rehabilitated for free flow of vehicles.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Femi Joseph, said investigation had begun to arrest the hoodlums and secure the release of the captives.

Meanwhile, the kidnappers are yet to establish contact with the families of the victims.

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Gunmen attack Catholic church, kill priest, worshippers in Burkina Faso

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Gunmen attack Catholic church, kill priest, worshippers in Burkina Faso

 

Unknown gunmen have killed six people including a Catholic priest as Mass was being celebrated in a church located in Dablo, northern Burkina Faso.

According to a government statement, the worshippers were attending morning mass when at least 20 men surrounded them and shot six dead.

"These terrorist groups are now attacking religion with the macabre aim of dividing us," the statement said.

"Towards 9 a.m. during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic Church," the mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo said. "They started firing as the congregation tried to flee."

The attackers then burned down the church, a shop, two vehicles, and also looted a health centre.

No one has claimed responsibility for the church attack, but fighters affiliated to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as the local Ansarul Islam, have been active in the region, according to BBC.

Last month, attackers targeted a Protestant church in the town of Silgadji, killing at least six people and earlier in April, four people died when a Catholic church was attacked in a nearby village, the bishop of Dori in northern Burkina Faso told Vatican news agency Fides.

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