Plateau Killings: As the death toll rises to 42, Sen. Gyang cries out that FG abandoned our people

Senator Istifanus Gyang of Plateau North said on Wednesday that the killing of scores of people and destruction of property in Yelwan Zangam community in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State as a result of a midnight attack by suspected herdsmen clearly shows the state has been abandoned by the federal government.

Our correspondent has learned that the death toll has risen from 35 to 42 as of the time of filing this report.

“On the night of Tuesday, August 24, 2021, terror was visited on Yelwan Zangam of Anaguta community in Jos North with over 35 persons killed, some of whom were burned beyond recognition,” Gyang said through his Special Assistant Media and Protocol, Musa Ashoms.

Gyang described the serial and ongoing terror attacks on Plateau State communities as “gravely disturbing and outraged,” with thousands of lives brutally massacred over the years and still continuing.

“The Plateau situation is that of a people abandoned to their fate by the Federal Government,” he says.

There will be no sympathy! There is no empathy! There is no help or attention for the affected communities! He bemoaned the lack of a statement and outcry from “appropriate quarters” in response to the recent massacre in Yelwan Zangam, Jos.

Gyang has repeatedly stated that he opposes threats to the lives of all citizens, saying, “NO citizen should be made to suffer or lose his or her life simply because of ethnicity or religion.”

He lamented, “It is thus disheartening that Plateau people are targeted, isolated, and deemed good only to be killed and massacred.”

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“I’m therefore calling on government to demonstrate sincerity in securing the lives of all citizens, Plateau people included, and take all necessary and decisive action to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators and ensure that the lives and livelihoods of all law abiding citizens are protected,” Gyang, who is the Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Defence, said.

The lawmaker expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and offered comfort to the Anaguta people and the state as a whole.