FOLLOWING the brutal killing of a councillor in Barakin-Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State last week by some unknown gunmen, another three people were also slain and their corpses set ablaze in the local government area on Monday.The local government, which is under emergency rule along with three others, in the state, has been under siege of frequent attacks by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen for quite sometime.Last week, a councillor with the local government was cut down in his prime by some assailants who stormed his residence and shot him at close range.Nigerian Tribune learnt that the rampaging marauders within the locality struck again on Monday at about 8.30 p.m. at Gashish in Barakin-Ladi Local Government Area and waylaid the Director of Finance and Supply, Jos East Local Government and two others who were in the same car heading towards Gashish village in the local government area.A source close to the scene of the incident told Nigerian Tribune that the three occupants of the car were attacked by the assailants with guns and other dangerous weapons at about 8.30 p.m., riddling the vehicle with bullets.It was learnt that after ensuring that they were dead, the gunmen drove them in the same car they were killed to a nearby bush and set the car ablaze, probably to cover up the atrocity. They were said to have bolted away before other motorists plying the road could know what was happening.Nigerian Tribune gathered that it was the thick smoke from the burning car that attracted passersby to the scene of the dastardly act and were able to identify the occupants through the number plate and other effects.When contacted, the Information Officer of the Special Task Force, Captain Markus Mdahyelya, who confirmed the unfortunate incident, stated that three unidentified persons were ambushed and killed on Monday in the border area between Barakin-Ladi and Bokkos local government areas of the state.Captain Mdahyelya charged the people of the area and the entire state to take their personal security seriously and avoid going out in the night, adding that men of the STF cannot be everywhere, considering the terrain.In another development, the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Kano, in the early hours of Tuesday, arrested two women, who were alleged to be wives of members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect at a bomb 'factory' raided by JTF at Haye Hotoro on the outskirts of Kano.However, the JTF spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Ikedichi Iwehia, told journalists at the scene of the incident that the prime suspect escaped before the military men stormed the area around 2.00 a.m on TuesdayAccording to him, the raid by the JTF, which took place in early hours of Tuesday, was based on a tip-off by a good Samaritan who informed the JTF of the nefarious activities of the gunmen.He, however, noted that the JTF had been on the surveillance of the area and the actual house of the gunmen for about three days, watching as well as mapping out strategies to nip in the bud their plan to launch their operation in the state.Lieutenant-Colonel Iwehia added that though the gunmen had already completed improvised explosive device (IEDs) allegedly waiting to carry out their mission, nemesis caught up with them.However the 'factory' has been demolished while security operatives had been placed on a red alert.The JTF spokesman called on members of the public not to see members of the outfit as their enemies, but as patriotic people trying to restore law and order that had eluded the state.
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