Plateau Tension as Fulani Leaders Say Elderly Man Was Mistaken for Bandit

(Gunmen. photo by The Guardian Nigeria News)

Fulani community leaders in Plateau State have challenged a report that troops of Sector 4, Operation Enduring Peace, k!lled a suspected b@ndit at Rungan Jallo in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.

The leaders said the victim, named as Alhaji Yusha'u, was an elderly man and the grandfather of Ismail Zakariya, a Fulani Point-of-Sale operator who was reportedly k!lled in a separate att@ck.

This was shared on Tuesday in a post on social media by Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency and security expert in the Lake Chad region.

The community leaders claimed Yusha'u was mistaken for a b@ndit and shot while coming back home from Nyola.

They said Zakariya, his grandson, was reportedly k!lled in an att@ck in Barkin Ladi by suspected Berom militia.

All this followed reports that troops launched an operation after two female miners were k!lled, and then came across suspected militia members at Rungan Jallo.

The first report said troops k!lled one suspected militia member in the encounter and took two motorcycles believed to have been used by the attackers.

The Fulani community, however, rejected the identity of the dead man.

They insisted he was an elderly civilian heading home and not a b@ndit.

A community source told Makama that Yusha'u was the grandfather of the POS operator k!lled by Berom militia, and that he was on his way home from Nyola when he was allegedly mistaken for a b@ndit and gunned down.

The leaders called for an investigation into the circumstances of Yusha'u d£ath, and to find out whether he had any part in the att@ck that led to the military operation.

The incident has raised fresh worry among Fulani residents about the safety of civilians caught in the cycle of att@cks and reprisals in parts of Plateau State.