Nigeria Content Online

Troops
of the Special Task Force (STF) on the Jos Crisis, have averted renewed
violence in Bukuru, Jos, Donald Oji, a brigadier general and the leader
of the task force said in a statement on Thursday.

According to him,
three persons, including the Divisional Police Officer of ‘B’ Division,
Bukuru, were injured, while four suspects were arrested during the
aborted violence.

He stated that the
incident, which started about 5.30pm, involved two persons who started
fighting after a game of football, and later developed to a situation
in which youth started blocking the major roads and attacking
passers-by.

Guerrilla attacks

Residents of some
of villages have also complained of guerrilla attacks on individuals in
their villages, with some children missing and dead bodies being found
in hidden places.

Confirming the
development, the state commissioner of information, Gregory Yenlong,
said, “In the last two weeks, not less than 20 people have been killed
in selective killings.”

The dead and missing were mostly street hawkers, commuter drivers, and those that work outdoors till , some residents confirmed.

According to Mr.
Oji, “While we continue to perform our lawful duties, we also appeal to
parents and elders to reciprocate our gesture of restraint by
admonishing their youths in this dangerous path of perpetrating
violence, which they have resorted to.”

The task force said
in the statement that it is exercising restraint not to bring the
necessary force to bear on the undisciplined.

While urging the
general public to go about their normal businesses without any fear, it
assured that the STF was well-positioned to protect them. It added that
the STF had also on Wednesday, assisted the Fan Community in Barkin Lad
Council Area to recover their cows that were rustled in the early hours
of that day. The STF said five cows were recovered, while efforts were
still on to recover the remaining 25. It said troops responded to a
distress call by community leaders and arrested two people in
connection with the incident.

The statement also emphasised that the STF was on the alert to restore normalcy in Jos and its environs.

A spokesperson for
the Hausa Community, Muhammad Sani Mudi, had told a foreign media
organisation that, “We now live in fear, as a result of killings in the
city, which makes it difficult for us to move about freely. We have
lost 23 members to such secret killings in the past two weeks, while 58
others are still missing.”

The police
spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojukwu, in an interview with NEXT earlier in the
week, had said that 41 people would be charged for murder, while others
arrested will face different charges based on what their interrogation
reveals.