Home Feature 16 houses burnt in Taraba communal crisis

16 houses burnt in Taraba communal crisis

27
0

No fewer than 16 houses were burnt down during a communal clash that rocked the Gese community in the Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State in the early hours of Thursday.

This happened barely five days after the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and his Taraba State counterpart, Darius Ishaku, held a meeting to address the insecurity along both states’ shared borders.

The Chairman, Wukari Local Government Area, Daniel Adi, confirmed the attack on the Gese community.

While condemning the attack allegedly carried out by commercial motorcyclists from the Donga Local Government Area of the state, Adi vowed to bring the culprits to justice.

He said, “We have so far arrested one person in connection with the attack. The suspect is now in police custody in Wukari and has confessed to the crime.

“The suspect is cooperating with us and through him, we will track down others, who participated in the attack.

“From the information available to me, there was a robbery incident around the area three days ago and a motorcycle belonging to an okada rider was snatched, only for the okada riders to launch an attack on the community.”

An eyewitness, Mr Nathaniel Mbawuan, told our correspondent that the attack, which occurred around 8am, degenerated into a crisis that led to the burning of 16 houses and the destruction of properties.

“The village head, Abraham Gese, who lost valuable items to the attack, including N380,000 cash, fainted and was rushed to a hospital in Rafin-Kada,” Mbawuan said.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Taraba State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP David Missal, were futile as calls made to his telephone rang out.

He also did not respond to a text message sent to his telephone as of the time of filing this report. Punch

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here