The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, has said the fatality figures during the Christmas Eve attack in nearly 30 villages in Plateau State could have been more, but the military kept the killer mercenaries at bay.
Edward Buba, Defense Headquarters spokesperson, told the press on Friday that over 100 killer mercenaries overran the communities simultaneously as the military received 36 distress calls from defenceless villagers.
He said the distress calls reported a series of coordinated attacks by armed militant herders on isolated villages in the two local government areas.
“Troops responded to the calls and were able to intervene in 19 villages forcing the militants to withdraw. Unfortunately, the havoc had been committed before troops arrived at the other villages,” Buba added.
He explained that the military had a hard time getting to Bokkos and some parts of Barkin Ladi LGAs in time to quell the attack because of bad roads.
“It should be noted that Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs span about 2,315 square kilometres with over 350 villages, mostly dispersed,” Buba said.
“The distance between some of these villages and troops’ locations is over 90 kilometres and sometimes difficult to access because of the rugged terrain which is mostly inaccessible to vehicles.”
The DHQ spokesperson reeled off the successes of the Nigerian military in 2023, saying that 6,880 terrorists and criminals were killed while 6,970 others were arrested.
Buba said troops also rescued 4,488 kidnapped hostages and recovered 3,320 assorted weapons and 39,075 assorted ammunition during the year.
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