By The Middle Belt Coalition Against Violent Occupation (MB-CAVO) has condemned the recent killing of residents in Ngbrran-Zongo village, Kwall District of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, where at least 12 persons were reportedly killed during a midnight attack by suspected Fulani terrorists on Friday, May 8.
In a press statement issued and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Vershima Orkuma Hemen, the group described the incident as another painful reminder that the Nigerian state is “failing woefully” in its primary constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property.
According to the coalition, women, children and pregnant women were among those reportedly killed in the attack. The group further linked the incident to a growing wave of violence across parts of the Middle Belt, noting that communities now feel unsafe in homes, churches, farms, markets and even burial grounds.
The group recalled that the latest attack came only days after suspected terrorists reportedly disrupted a mass burial in Barkin Ladi, where residents had gathered to bury victims of an earlier attack.
MB-CAVO also raised concerns over what it described as repeated attacks occurring in communities with visible security presence, despite alleged prior intelligence warnings.
“Communities continue to raise painful questions over repeated attacks occurring in areas with visible security presence and prior intelligence warnings,” the statement read.
The coalition called for the immediate deployment of “accountable and intelligence-driven security operations” across Plateau State and other vulnerable Middle Belt communities.
It also demanded an independent investigation into recurring attacks in Plateau, Benue, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa and neighbouring regions, alongside the arrest and prosecution of alleged terror sponsors, collaborators and informants “regardless of political status, tribe, or religion.”
Other demands by the group include urgent humanitarian support for displaced persons in IDP camps, public explanations from security agencies over alleged intelligence failures, and an end to what it described as intimidation and censorship of activists and journalists speaking on insecurity.
The organisation further called for international scrutiny of Nigeria’s handling of insecurity and the protection of vulnerable communities in the Middle Belt.
