The killing of over 500 people, mostly women and children, in three villages on the outskirts of Nigeria’s northern Plateau state Sunday could have been avoided if security chiefs had acted on information given to them, state Governor Jonah Jang told reporters.
Jang spoke to reporters in the capital city of Abuja Tuesday as hundreds of women in black dresses marched to protest the killings.
Muslim Fulani herdsmen invaded the largely Christian villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zon and Ratsat in the early hours of Sunday and killed men, women and children in what is being described as reprisal attacks for January’s killing in the state.
The governor said he gave information about the impending attack to military and police chiefs in the state who, he said, failed to act.
“I received reports at about 9.00pm in the evening that some movement of people with arms was seen around those villages, and I reported to the commander of the army and he told me he was going to move some t roops there. Because it is near where I live, I even saw a tank pass through my house and I thought it was going towards that area.
“Three hours or so later, I was woken by a call that they had started burning the villages and people were being hacked to death and I started trying to locate the commanders but I couldn’t get any of them on the phone,” Jang said.
He denied that the attack was a reprisal and exonerated the Fulani herdsmen, say ing the attackers were from outside the state.
But the army spokesman, Brig.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, said the army should not be blamed because the Jos operation was under the command of the defence headquarters and involved the air force and the police.
Defence spokesman, Col. Mohammed Yerima, said he was not aware of any report on the latest crisis.
Over 400 of the victims were given a mass burial in Dogo Nahawa and Zot on Monday, while armed troops are patrolling the villages.
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered ‘full investigations’ into the violence, which followed another in Jos that claimed 326 lives in January.