Plateau Massacre: Why govt wants to bury victims secretly

The Chairman, Public Accounts and Petition Committee in the Plateau State House of Assembly, Peter Gyendeng, has revealed how the military entered one of the villages where over 100 people were killed during the weekend and disarmed the villagers who were ready to defend themselves from further attacks from Fulani herdsmen.

The lawmaker, representing Barkin Ladi constituency, also revealed plan by the Nigerian Governemt and the military to bury the victims secretly in order to cover up some facts and conspiracy of soldiers in the killings.

According to him, every effort they made to evacuate the corpses for burial met a stiff resistance from the military hierarchy.
The lawmaker told Punch, “We tried to take all the corpses to give them mass burial. But the STF Commandant stopped every movement that we made concerning the dead bodies.
“In fact, he did not allow anybody to go there yesterday (Sunday). We organised our own security and mobile policemen to escort us there. But we were stopped on the road.
“Our people stayed there till 6:pm, we had to come back for security reasons too. The corpses are still there and they have started decomposing.

“I’m just entering my LG now to see what else could be done. We have taken pictures of the corpses.
“It is obvious that the government does not want the world to know the genocide that is happening in my place.
“They are trying to cover the number of dead people in that place. All we know is that there is genocide in our land.
“Today (Monday), they entered a village called Kwi, there was community resistance. In a village called Bed, they sent armed soldiers to come and disarm the local people who were defending themselves.

“Yesterday (Sunday), the Fulani militia wanted to enter the area. But now, soldiers have been sent to disarm the local people, leaving them helpless. We don’t know what is happening, it is something that cannot be explained.
“A curfew was imposed yesterday (Sunday). But the Fulani men and their cows were escorted by soldiers at night.”
The legislator, however, said he will make the correct figure and gory pictures of the deceased available on Tuesday (today), during parliamentary sitting.