Gunmen kill father, two sons in Plateau

The relative peace that was gradually returning to Plateau State was on Tuesday night shattered when a father and his two children were hacked to death and the wife seriously injured by unknown gunmen.
However, efforts to end Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State continued Wednesday when members of the Vigilance Youths Group and men of the Joint Task Force arrested eight terror suspects with arms and ammunition in Bulunkutu and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital premises.
After an interregnum of peace in Plateau State, unknown gunmen invaded Kuru district of Jos South where six people were brutally murdered in the early hours of Monday. But the recent attack which occurred on Tuesday night was also carried out by some gunmen in the wee hours of the day in Gyel district, also of Jos South.
Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, who confirmed the incident to journalists at a press briefing yesterday said “a man and his two children were killed yesterday night (Tuesday night). His wife was critically injured. She is in a hospital.”
Abraham, who appeared visibly sad, disclosed that seven of the suspected gunmen had been arrested by the security personnel.
The Spokesman of the Special Task Force, Captain Salisu Ibrahim Mustapha, could not be reached for comments as his phone was out of service. But the Police Public Relations Officer, Felicia Anslem, confirmed the incident, adding that apart from the killing, two other people were critically wounded and have been rushed to a hospital.
According to Anslem, investigation into the matter had begun with a view to tracking down the perpetrators.
According to JTF sources on Wednesday in Maiduguri, Borno State, the suspected terrorists, with their riffles, scaled the perimeter fence into the hospital premises and the youths sighted them at about 10.35 a.m. yesterday.
Chairman of BVYG, Abubakar Mallum, said those arrested in Bulunkutu area of the metropolis are Boko Haram informants from Northern Borno and Yobe State, who came to Maiduguri on Tuesday to collate more information on the activities of JTF and vigilance youths who were patrolling Bulunkutu and Gomari wards of Maiduguri.
On how the terror suspects beat UMTH security on Tuesday, a top military officer in the JTF said: “The suspects, who disguised as wounded and sick persons with rifles hid under their flowing gowns, perforated the barbed wires before being able to enter into the hospital premises to seek medical treatment. The vigilante youths were able to sight the suspects and arrested them on the spot.”
According to him, the youths also recovered rifles and charms worn round their waists and arms by the terrorists, some of them with gunshot wounds they sustained either at Bama or Monguno last week.
Mallum also told The Guardian on Wednesday that all the arrested terror suspects have been handed over to the sector commanders of JTF at Costain and Bulunkutu wards.
Spokesman of JTF, Lt. Col Sagir Musa, and Borno State Police Command Spokesman, Gideon Jibrin, both confirmed the two incidents on Wednesday, adding that all the arrested suspects were in JTF custody for further investigation.
The Guardian.