By Masara Kim
Six people were shot dead on Sunday, September 15, when terrorists opened fire in a Christian community located 45 miles south of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, TruthNigeria has learned. The attack followed just a week after TruthNigeria issued a security alert about potential terrorist threats in the potato headquarters of Nigeria according to local officials.
Authorities from the police and military are not responding to queries from reporters. However, sources indicate that the attack near Bokkos town was carried out by terrorists fleeing a military operation targeting their camp in the eastern part of the Bokkos county.
Witnesses tell TruthNigeria a group of armed assailants, speaking the Fulani dialect, unleashed a barrage of gunfire in the village of Mbar, resulting in six fatalities. The evening raid, which lasted several minutes according to locals, specifically targeted residents in a busy commercial area, with gunfire audible from up to 10 miles away. Despite being stationed just five miles away, soldiers did not intervene until the attackers had already fled.
Eyewitness Accounts of the Attack
Local resident Jonah Dikkos told TruthNigeria that the terrorists infiltrated the village through nearby cornfields, launching a surprise attack around 7:30 PM local time.
“They first opened fire on a vehicle carrying five people, killing four instantly and injuring one who later died in the hospital,” Dikkos recounted. “The passengers had just taken off from Mbar to their village known as Koh,” he added. Dikkos also mentioned that another resident, who was either trying to escape or was already outside when the attack began, was shot and killed in a cornfield near his home. He noted that at least one other person sustained injuries during the assault.
“If not for the fact that the vehicle drove in the direction the attackers were coming from, around the southeast of the village, the casualty count could have been higher,” Dikkos explained. “That part of the town is always full of traffic,” he continued. “But because they opened fire on the vehicle before reaching the area, people were alerted and fled,” he said, highlighting the chaotic and dangerous nature of the situation.
Ongoing Violence in Plateau State
The attack marks the latest in a troubling series of armed assaults in a county known for its potato production, which supplies much of the country and its surrounding regions. Just a week earlier, on September 7, TruthNigeria had issued a security alert warning of potential terrorist threats, noting that camps were being established in the area. Despite calls for increased security surveillance throughout the county to prevent diversionary attacks, multiple threats were reported on September 15 across different locations.
According to Professor Danladi Slim Matawal, a respected community member, only a small group of ten to fifteen civilian volunteers armed with homemade single-shot pipe guns were available to defend against these threats.
“At the same time this evil was going on in Mbar, they also attacked a large village behind Wumat rock, called Rafut, in Tarangol district,” Matawal shared. He recounted a conversation with a 75-year-old man from Wumat who had previously lived in Rafut, revealing that the attackers managed to kidnap a woman during the chaos, taking advantage of the early hour when vigilantes had not yet begun their patrols.
Matawal also highlighted another incident that occurred around 11 AM the previous day, where continuous gunfire by armed herders erupted on the outskirts of Bokkos in an area known as Kopyal. “The herdsmen claimed their cows had been stolen. Yet, the Fulani are the best thieves of one another’s cows,” he remarked. He noted that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) personally went to Kopyal village to address the situation, expressing confidence that the attackers fled upon his arrival.
Calls for Collaboration and Community Involvement
TruthNigeria’s text messages to Major Samson Zhakom, the spokesman for the joint military task force known as Operation Safe Haven, and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Alfred Alabo, the spokesman for the Nigerian Police in Plateau State, went unanswered. However, a military source, speaking on background, indicated that the terrorists who attacked Mbar were fleeing from military raids on their camps in the surrounding areas.
“They were attacked on their way to Koh through the Yelwa by-pass village from Mbar town at about 7 PM to 7:30 PM by fleeing bandits on motorcycles that we repelled. By the time we reinforced and arrived, they had escaped,” the source explained.
The latest violence has sparked calls for a stronger collaboration between the military and local civilian guards to effectively patrol the area.
Mr. Farmasum Fuddang, leader of a local development association, wrote in a statement: “We request to be involved in the handling of the threats in our land, working in synergy with security forces as is the case with the civilian joint task force in the northeast and northwest regions.”
“This is not to undermine or underrate the efforts of the military,” he continued. “We understand the logistical and manpower shortages faced by the military, requiring the active participation of local community members who, by the way, know the terrain and can better assist with intelligence to identify and expose criminal elements in communities,” said Fuddang, who also serves as the Chairman of the Bokkos Cultural Development Council.
“This we believe can enable us to find lasting solutions to these attacks, which are often carried out by mercenaries with extremist ideologies who are always heard chanting ‘Allahu Akhbar’ while slaughtering residents,” Fuddang stated, expressing fears of an Islamic takeover. “We perceive these unprovoked attacks as a calculated attempt at evicting our people from their ancestral homes and taking over the land,” he said.
Rev. Dr. Orbed Dashan, a former Vice President of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), echoed Fuddang’s sentiments, describing the terrorists’ actions as part of a systematic agenda. “This is not [only] persecution but prosecution of an agenda older than themselves,” Dashan wrote in a text message. “They know what they are doing,” he added.
Sylvester Wallamko, the member representing Bokkos county at the Plateau State House of Assembly, also expressed his discontent with the ongoing violence. “Honestly, I am not happy with what is happening in Bokkos,” Wallamko told TruthNigeria. “Whether you’re in your house or farm, you’re attacked; on the road, you’re attacked. My people are not safe in any way,” he lamented during a telephone interview.
“Just yesterday [September 15], I was welcoming the new STF Commander in Bokkos, and the next thing, people were killed. Honestly, I am confused. The situation is heartbreaking,” Wallamko noted, emphasizing the urgent need for collaboration between military forces and community members.
“The securities are doing their best. I talk with them, and they tell me their frustrations. I am calling for improved synergy between securities and citizens, and also call on the civil authorities to give the military the necessary backing to effectively protect the citizens,” he said.
Masara Kim is a conflict reporter in Jos and the senior editor of TruthNigeria
