The Plateau State Government has called for calm following Tuesday’s discovery of the remains of over 300 cows killed in Kuru, Maiyangan and Rekwechungu communities of Jos South and Bassa Local Government areas of the state.
The Commissioner for Information and Communication, Yakubu Dati, said security agencies had been directed to fish out perpetrators of all criminal activities to face the full wrath of the law.
He said: “there are enabling laws to address those infractions. We also wish to draw the attention of mischief makers who will want to escalate the situation to consider innocent lives who are always victims of such breakdown of law and order.”
The state police command late Tuesday night said it was in search of two missing herders: Mubarak Yakubu and Shehu Saidu.
It also confirmed that 319 cows were killed around Miango district of Bassa Local Government Area of the state.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Tyopev Terna, in a statement, was however silent about the killing of 29 cows in Kuru, Jos South earlier confirmed by Operation Safe Haven Commander, Major-General Augustine Agundu.
DSP Terna said the attack on herders came a day after gunmen killed one Jummai Jah and Emmanuel Ishaya around Maiyanga in Miango district.
He said the police had also received information that Monday Audu of Rotsu village also in the same district had been shot and matched to death.
He said while investigations into these crimes were ongoing, the command received information that; “about 319 cattle were attacked and killed, 12 cattle were maimed while 11 cattle were rustled,” he said.
He stressed that the command had mobilised a combined team of Police Mobile Force (PMF) and detective personnel to the affected areas to maintain law and order as well as a search and rescue team for the missing herders.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria in the state said a blood stained shirt belonging to one of the herders and one leg of his shoe had been found at the crime scene.
Its chairman, Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi, said this was the fifth attack on herders and their cows in Basa Local Government Area since January.
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