Sam Kaye
The spates of incessant kidnappings on the Plateau by criminal elements is scaring residents in Jos metropolis even as the residents gear up to celebrate the approaching yuletide period.
Many residents have been kidnapped even though silently especially in the outskirts of greater Jos not known to the security agencies and their loved ones have paid back their ransoms without alerting the authorities.
From the Bukuru suburb to Mararaba jama to Dong near the wild life park and scanty settlements around Vom down to Ganawuri with no visible security presence within the metropolis, it has been a talk of how do we raise money to pay these criminals so that they release our people.
A retired civil servant who wanted her name left out in print told this reporter that she and relatives had to pay over three million naira for her son to be released after they abducted him around Dong area near the wild life park in of the capital.
“Most of us who live around
Gura-lochwang and
Gurasuga Zawan are living with intense fear because these bandits come in from the bush and strike even through the windows and pick people up like Chicken before security agents are notified.
“Just recently, they took away a woman who was nursing a six months old baby and kept her for two days before her husband and some friends could generate enough funds to pacify them to release her.
” Imagine taking a nursing mother who was still doing full breast feeding into the bush with them abandoning the baby on the bed while her husband was off to work and telling her to call the husband whose name they knew. There are many dare devil cases like that and nobody can tell us not to pay ransom because we don’t have a choice but to resolve to self help” said the lady.
She said that the youths of Zawan had asked the herdsmen who roam opposite the hills of the Police Staff College to beware of bandits mingling with them in that general area but the suspected connaivance still continues.
Threat from Bokkos
Outside the greater Jos metropolis beyond the Hypang airport area, an alert was raised recently that the bandits who used to play the game of hit and run are planning to hit Bokkos council area from the mid of December till the end of the yuletide.
According to the alert, residents should celebrate only if they are on red alert meaning they must never drop their guards against the planned wickedness of the bandits who have turned the Plateau to their play ground unleashing sorrow tears and blood on the people as their regular trade marks.
“Information reaching us that all the District and villages in Bokkos LGA and Mangu LGA should be proactive most especially from Saturday 14/12/2024 till January 29th 2025 that Fulani militias are fully prepared to cause attack on innocent people.
“GSM users should darken the screens of their mobile phones to reduce the brightness of light at night to conserve power even as phones should be fully charged daily.” Said the Intel from a reliable security source.
The source within the community also suggested that phones should be fully loaded with enough credit of at least 500 naira daily to be able to communicate with neighbors in case of distress.
The Intel also suggested that community leaders both elders and youths should collect contact numbers of the closest security personnel to them so they can easily raise alarm.
The Chairman of the Butura Youth Movement Comrade Magit Mandik also called on residents to report any movement of the suspected bandits around the council area even as residents intensify community communication to serve as an antidote to the antics of the bandits.
Comrade Mandik called on residents to please take all security measures and information very serious so that the security agents will not be left in the dark concerning how to keep them alive.(www.krestnews.com).