Worried by a renewed wave of violence which culminated in the beheading of a farmer last week in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State, the Mwaghavul Development Association, MDA, has raised an alarm over what it described as gruesome and ritualistic killings which has posed a grave threat to fragile peace in the council.
National Director of Public Affairs of the MDA, Friday Derwam, who raised the concern in a statement made available to DAILY POST, condemned the beheading of a 42-year-old farmer, Abalis Ishaku Dayong at Adep village in Panyam District of the LGA by armed assailants who also made away with the severed head last Saturday.
According to Derwam, the deceased was was shot on the leg, stabbed multiple times, and later beheaded by the assailants who also severed his limbs which they also took away.
The MDA said the pattern of the murder of Dayong clearly pointed to a ritualism, warning that such method of brutality, if not checked immediately, could creep into the communities in Mangu.
Derwam also decried the rampant kidnapping and violent attacks in the Panyam and Pushit axis of the council where victims were often abducted for ransom with some never returning alive.
“In certain cases, even the bodies of the dead were discovered mutilated,” Derwam stated.
National President of the MDA, Da Bulus Dabit, who also condemned the renewed violence in the council during a press briefing in Jos, said the fresh the attacks in Mangu represent a reversal of the fragile peace that has gradually returned to the area and the state.
Dabit lamented that the assaults are affronts and a serious setback to the government’s efforts in stabilising peace in the state.
“These attacks are deliberate attempts to erode the resilience of the Mwaghavul people and undermine their determination to maintain peace. But we stand firm and resolute, refusing to yield to these vicious tactics,” Dabit emphasized.
While expressing the group’s support for the state government’s advocacy for state policing, the MDA said decentralising the police system would provide enormous advantages in combating insecurity at the grassroots.
