Survivor Narrates How Senator, Others Died in Jos

SENATOR Gyang Dantong might have died of exhaustion, a survivor of Sunday’s attack on participants at a mass burial in Matse, Jos, Mr. Simon Mwadkon, said on Monday.

Mwadkon, a member of the House of Representatives, who narrated how the Senator died to Governor Jonah Jang in Jos, said gunmen, suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, “started shooting, (at the burial), forcing everyone to abandon the corpses and scurry to safety.”

According to Mwadkon , while running for dear lives, Dantong; the Majority Leader in the state House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani; and Mwadkon himself were said to have slumped.

But while Mwadkom was revived, both the Senator and the state lawmaker died.

He narrated, “We were at the burial ground preparing to bury the victims of a massive attack on the villages when the gunmen started shooting, forcing everyone to abandon the corpses and scurry to safety.

“Everyone was racing away, but the Senator slumped first and there was a rush to take him.”

The federal lawmaker described the persistent killings in an area under a state of emergency imposed by the Federal Government as “very outrageous and embarrassing.’

He said that hundreds of villagers had been killed in the past few months, stressing that in some cases, whole villages were wiped out in such attacks.

Mwadkon however called on the Federal Government to protect the villagers as they remain vulnerable to attacks every day.

 Jang had reportedly asked Mwadkon to “tell the world exactly what happened”, saying that God spared his life to enable him to relay what had happened.

Jang said that Dantong and Fulani lived exemplary lives.

“I have already visited the families of the deceased and have reminded them that God is the comforter and will never abandon them,’’ Jang said.

The Governor said that both Dantong and Fulani sacrificed their lives for their people and declared that such a sacrifice would not go in vain.

“They will be remembered for the great sacrifice they made to their people because what happened to them could have happened to anyone. I have also asked their families never to ask God why He did it because He certainly knows why,” he said.

Commander of the Special Task Force in Jos, Maj.-Gen. Henry Ayoola, also on Monday confirmed at a press briefing that both Dantong and Fulani died in a stampede when they were attacked at a mass burial in Barkin Ladi.

He said that the duo slumped and could not be revived. Ayoola said the legislators were not shot dead as believed.

Sequel to weekend’s bloody attacks in Plateau State, President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday held an emergency meeting with security chiefs at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

But none of the participants at the meeting spoke to journalists after the session.

Culled from PUNCH