Plateau Killings: CAN says death toll is going higher
Police said
86 people died. The figure had not changed as of Wednesday, the state police
commissioner, Undie Adie, told the Media.
The victims
were attacked by suspected herdsmen while returning from a funeral ceremony on
Saturday, locals say.
There have
also been reports of an earlier incident against cattle herders suspected to
have triggered the mayhem.
President
Muhammadu Buhari joined other Nigerians to condemn the attack and visited
Plateau state on Tuesday.
The exact
death toll in the attack seems unclear with the police and community leaders
giving different figures.
A resident
had told the Media at least 120 people were killed.
In a
statement Wednesday, CAN president, Samson Ayokunle, the association said the
Christian body received details of the attack from reliable sources within the
mostly affected communities.
Mr
Ayokunle’s media aide, Bayo Oladeji, later told the Media that the sources
included people who conducted close investigations to unravel the nature of the
problem.
The group
said the death toll stood at 218.
It said 37
villages had been under attacks by the suspected herdsmen for a while.
“Following
the killings that took place on the Plateau, CAN has obtained reliable
information on the number of the dead as recorded in B/Ladi & Riyom LGAs
from Sat. 23rd to Monday 25th June, 2018,” it said.
It said
attacks took place at Gashish, Ropp, Bash, Heipang and Zawan districts.
The claims
could not be independently verified.
The group
reiterated its calls for justice and an intervention to stop the killings.
Mr Adie, the
state police commissioner, told the Media on Wednesday night he could not
immediately corroborate the findings of CAN.
“I still
have a team that is investigating in the field and I don’t know if they have
returned from there,” the police chief said. “By tomorrow I will ask them.”
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