Wole Ayodele in Jalingo

No fewer than 10 people have been killed by
unknown gunmen in communities in Takum and Ussa
Local Government Areas of Taraba State.
The attacks, which occurred on Monday and Tuesday
in Tati and Kwesati communities, left eight persons
dead in Tati, a village in Takum while two persons
were reportedly killed in Kwesati in Ussa area.
THISDAY gathered that the gunmen stormed the
communities in their large numbers with
sophisticated weapons and shot indiscriminately at
the residents who were largely unarmed.

The attacks has shattered the relative peace currently
being witnessed in troubled communities of the state
brought about by the peace efforts of the state

THISDAY furthers gathered that five out of the eight
people killed at Tati were religious leaders thereby
fuelling insinuations that the attackers come be
fleeing members of the Boko Haram sect
An indigene of the area who spoke with THISDAY on
condition of anonymity, ruled out the attackers being
Fulani herdsmen insisting that they are members of
Boko Haram from Borno or Yobe.
According to him, “With what we saw, there is no
doubt that the attackers are not Fulani herdsmen. We
are suspecting them to be members of the Boko
Haram from Borno or Yobe State.”

The attacks have however paralysed business
activities in Takum which is a commercial town while
some of the residents, particularly Igbo traders and
Fulani’s were said to be leaving the town in droves for
fear of further attacks.
The Chairman of Ussa Local Government,
Rimansikwe Hassan Karma, told journalists that the
area would have been turned to a battle ground but
for his timely intervention by pacifying the youths not
to embark on reprisal attacks.

Karma, who commended the youths for not taking
the laws into their hands, promised that security
agencies are putting machineries in place to bring
the culprits to book just as he urged those fleeing the
area to return back.

The senator representing Taraba South, Senator
Emmanuel Bwacha, who raised the matter on the
floor of the Senate yesterday under matters of urgent
national importance, wondered why the activities of
unknown gunmen have continued in the state without
adequate response from the security operatives just
as he disagreed that the attackers are Fulani
herdsmen saying they are insurgents displaced from
Borno state.

Confirming the attacks, the Police Public Relation
Officer (PPRO), David Misel, said the information
presently available to the command is still very
sketchy just as he promised that the command would
address the press on the matter.