Jos under bomb siege as religious terrorists kill Christmas revellers
Jos under siege
A series of bombing in Pleateau State capital Jos has left many people either dead or hospitalised as the city once again on Friday night came under religious terrorist bombardment.
At least 38 bodies have been counted with hundreds receiving treatment in hospital.
It was a Christmas eve supposed to be filled with celebration mood and church going plans but revellers were shocked with the attacks in some marked out Christian areas.
The city was indeed reminiscent of a discarded ghost town as residents mostly stayed indoors the series of bombs.
At least three bomb blasts, which occurred in different locations caught people out shopping or returning home with their minds on Saturday’s festivities.
The blasts occurred at Amigo Junction, Angwan Rukuba and Gada Biu, all suburbs in Jos North LGA.
Most of the victims were commuters caught in the heavy traffic hold-ups as security agents were conducting search on vehicles plying the routes where the blasts happened.
Unconfirmed reports say about 40 people have died, either in the immediate blasts or of injuries sustained in them. Hundreds of others who sustained injuries are being treated in hospitals such as Our Lady of Apostles (OLA), Plateau State Specialist Hospital and Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). Corpses of those killed were deposited in the morgues.
Spokesperson for the Special Task Force (STF), Capt. Charles Nweocha, confirmed the blasts and described them “as very serious”, but gave no further details.
The tragedy was also confirmed by James Mannok, Director of Press Affairs to Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang. He said government was taking care of the victims.
Businesses and markets remain closed in the town as wary residents keep to the safety of their homes.
A resident, Baba Haruna, described the feeling as eerie.
“The enemies of Jos have refused to give the town a rest and now they have introduced bombs into the crisis. I have never seen anything like this. People were still moving around during the last fighting, but the streets are totally deserted now. People are in shock and scared,” Mr Haruna said.
Hundreds of lives and property worth millions of naira have been lost in a long crisis in and around Jos since crisis erupted in the area on November 28, 2008 over a local council election.
After the last violence, a military task force was deployed to enforce peace in the town and this has put a dampener on the worst atrocities, although occasional tit-for-tat attacks between the feuding ethnic groups still occur. Mr Mannok however said it is too early to say if the bomb attacks are linked to the lingering conflict.
Bomb blast perpetrators want resurgence of violence
Gov. Jonah Jang in a statewide broadcast today condemns the attack and said “all the attacks were carried out simultaneously, the aim of the masterminds is to put Christians against Muslims and spark up another round of violence.
“It is also part of calculated efforts to scuttle the efforts the state and Federal Government to consolidate on the peace achieved.
“This sad and ugly development is condemnable, as its masterminds and merchants of violence who trade in human pain, anguish and shedding of blood have remained committed in their quest to reduce Plateau into anarchy.
Jang described this year’s Christmas as a “black Christmas for Plateau people. “When we should be celebrating peace, here we are crying.”
The governor commiserated with all who lost their loved ones in the attacks, saying it was a collective loss. He stated that the people must rise in unison as one people and say no to violence.
He, however, urged the people to remain calm, peaceful and law abiding as security agencies were working hard to apprehend the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, Sen. Gyang Dantong has described the bomb blast as “callous and totally condemnable.
“This has taken us by surprise. This heinous crime is an incredible display of man’s inhumanity to man. While others are celebrating Christmas, we are here crying ” he said
He noted that this will serve as a wake-up call for the security agencies in Plateau state to be at alert all the time.
“The security agencies must also look inward because no outsider can carry out such destruction without the connivance of someone resident in Plateau” he concluded.
Source: Next
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