The Presidency has condemned the Saturday attack on travellers from a religious event in Bauchi, passing through Jos, the Plateau State Capital and regretted the reported deaths of at least twenty-two persons with several others injured in that ambush on their travelling party.
In a statement, Senior Special Assistant to the President Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said it was widely known that Plateau State had been one of the states affected by herder-farmers’ clashes, which had, in a significant way, been curtailed following the intense peace-building efforts of the administration of Governor Simon Lalong.
He further stated that the attack was not an agriculturalist-on-pastoralist confrontation – but rather a direct, brazen and wickedly motivated attack on members of a community exercising their rights to travel freely and to follow the faith of their choice.
Shehu said with the evident preparedness of their attackers, it was clear it was a well-conceived and prearranged assault on a known target, location and religious persuasion of the travellers not an opportunist ambush.
The Presidency offered condolences to the families of the victims and continued to liaise closely with the local authorities – including security, the police, and governmental agencies.
Shehu also stated that these kinds of attacks on the country’s citizens were unacceptable, heinous, and stand in complete contradiction to the teachings of the great religions of our nation.
He said the Presidency stood steadfast with both Christians and Muslims at this time in condemnation of this latest attack and expected and insisted that justice was swiftly – but fairly – delivered to the perpetrators.
“Make no mistake about it: in line with my commitment to protect all Nigerians, I have ordered our security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of this gruesome massacre of innocent travellers and bring them to justice,” President Buhari said.
He said as the facts of the sad incident continued to unfold, the Presidency commended the ongoing efforts by the Governors of Plateau, Bauchi, and Ondo; the Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar III and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi as well as a number of notable Christian and Muslim leaders as they intensified efforts to calm down the situation.
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