The Plateau State Government has reconsidered a 24-hour curfew imposed in the Mangu Local Government Area of the state.
Mr. Gyang Bere, Director of Press and Public Affairs, stated on Friday that the curfew will be in effect from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. until further notice.
The statement added that the review followed an improvement in the security situation in the Mangu LGA after strategic engagements with community leaders across faiths and ethnic groups within the council area as well as due to consultation with the state security council.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang urged Mangu Local Government Area citizens to strictly adhere to the curfew and avoid taking the law into their own hands. He encouraged security forces to implement the curfew to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
On January 23, Mangu faced more assaults that killed at least 30 people, including women and children.
Following the incident, the state government imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew, with security forces tasked with apprehending the attackers.
The current violence comes as the North-Central State is still reeling from gunmen’s fatal attacks on villages in Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas. As a result of the violence, more than 100 people were murdered, and many more were displaced.
Already, on January 5, police revealed that eight people had been apprehended in connection with the deaths.
Alfred Alabo informed media in Jos that 17 individuals had been captured, with eight of them caught in connection with the Christmas Eve assaults.
Farmer-herder attacks and communal clashes abound in central Nigeria’s ethnically and religiously diverse hinterland known as the ‘Middle Belt,’ where a cycle of violence has killed hundreds in recent years.
