Gun men attacks in benue leave three dead, one injured

By: Zagazola Makama

At least three people were killed and another injured in separate attacks by armed men suspected to be l bandits in Buruku, Okokolo, and Naka Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Benue State on Thursday.

In Mbakura Mbagen village, Buruku LGA, five gunmen reportedly stormed the community at about 3:30 a.m., killing John Kunde and Sughter Orbunde, both members of the state’s Civil Protection Guards.

The assailants also abducted Aondowase Ager and seized a Bajaj motorcycle belonging to one of the victims. The victims’ bodies were later removed to the mortuary at Ugbema, while efforts continue to secure the release of the abducted individual.

On the same day, armed herder bandits attacked Ejima community in Okokolo LGA at about 6:00 a.m., opening sporadic gunfire that left Daniel Matthew with a gunshot injury. Security personnel combed nearby areas to track the attackers and prevent further attacks.

Later in the day, Ammuneke village in Naka LGA was targeted in a separate attack, resulting in the deaths of Akula Gugun, 27, of Amuneke, and Odi Shimayoho, 28, of Tse-Asuhee. Bodies of the deceased were removed to Agagbe morgue, while searches for the perpetrators continued in surrounding bushes.

In a related development, a man identified as Benjamin Terver Awuna, of Usen village, Buruku LGA, was arrested on suspicion of acting as an informant to herder bandits. Investigations revealed that the suspect allegedly collected airtime worth N6,000 from the armed herders to relay information that would facilitate attacks on villages.

Gun men attacks in benue leave three dead, one injured

Seven youths killed at mining site in Jos South, in retaliation of 102 livestock theft

By: Zagazola Makama

Atleast seven youths have been killed at a Tin mining site in Gakok area of Kuru community, Barikin Ladi in Jos South LGA of Plateau State in response to the attack and theft of 102 livestock belonging to pastoralist.

On Wednesday, gunmen struck at dawn in Gakok, mowing down young men who had gone to earn a living at a legal mining site. The Plateau Youth Council (PYC), Jos South LGA Chapter, described the victims as “hardworking youths” whose lives were “brutally cut short” by suspected armed herdsmen.

In a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Comr. Gyang Sunday Pwajok on Thursday, the council described the incident as “gruesome and senseless,” and blamed suspected armed herdsmen for the attack.

“This tragic incident further deepens the pain, fear and anger of our people, as Plateau State continues to witness an unending cycle of orchestrated violence and bloodshed. The persistent wave of killings is deeply disturbing and unacceptable,” the statement read.

Their statement did more than mourn: it demanded urgent regulation of mining sites, stronger security coordination, and a ban on night mining, recognition that poorly governed spaces have become killing fields.

The brutal killing was the latest in a spiral of violence in plateau in what began as disputes over land and livelihoods has metastasized into a tit-for-tat pattern where cattle rustling, livestock poisoning and armed raids trigger swift reprisals, dragging entire communities into a vortex of fear. Gakok attack did not erupt in isolation. It is the tragic crest of a wave that has been rising across the Barkin Ladi–Riyom–Jos South axis for weeks.

The current escalation tracks back to Wednesday, Jan. 14, when no fewer than 102 cows were rustled at Dan Sokoto in Ganawuri District, Riyom LGA. Witnesses said armed men suspected to be Berom Militia stormed the area in broad daylight, forcing herders to flee and driving the cattle away at gunpoint. The animals reportedly belonged to two pastoral families from Jos East, but were seized in Ganawuri, an inter-LGA fault line that complicated response and recovery.

Local accounts allege the attackers came from Vom District in Jos South. The Dan Sokoto raid was not an aberration. In the same month, at least seven cows were poisoned in Kwi village (Riyom LGA), while three others were shot dead near Kuru Gadabiyu in Barkin Ladi. Each incident deepened attacks and retaliation.

Days after the Dan Sokoto rustling, violence crossed from fields to homes. In the early hours of Saturday, at about 2:30 a.m., gunmen attacked Kasuwa Denkeli village in Barkin Ladi LGA. One person was killed on the spot; two others sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to the Jos University Teaching Hospital. Police confirmed the incident, said a team led by the DPO moved to the scene, and announced an investigation to track the perpetrators.Residents linked the assault to retaliation over the stolen cattle in neighbouring Riyom.

This pattern attack on herds, reprisal on villages has repeated with grim regularity. On Jan. 6, coordinated attacks on Jol community in Riyom and Gero in Gyel District of Jos South left three people dead. The violence followed the shooting of two Fulani youths earlier that day in Jos South, one of whom later died. Witnesses described the ambush as unprovoked. What followed was swift retaliation and counter-retaliation, with communities caught in the crossfire.

The warning signs were already flashing in December. On Dec. 12, more than 130 cattle were reportedly rustled in Nding community. Around the same period, livestock poisoning was recorded in parts of Jos East and Riyom LGAs. Those incidents were followed by deadly clashes, including the killing of four children in Dorong village, Barkin Ladi LGA, and attacks on Gero that left deaths, injuries and the loss of more livestock.

On Dec. 16, an attack on an illegal mining site in Tosho, Barkin Ladi LGA, left 12 miners dead and others abducted. Security sources linked the violence to earlier rustling of 171 cattle belonging to Fulani. Again, a familiar sequence: cattle taken, emotions inflamed, guns answer.

Across Barkin Ladi, Riyom and Jos South, residents now speak of “no-go” zones. Areas like Vwang in Jos South and parts of Fan District in Barkin Ladi are whispered about as holding grounds for rustled cattle belonging to the Fulani.The claims, wether true or not, reinforce suspicion and hinder cooperation. Recovery becomes harder; rumours spread faster than facts.

Security agencies respond to each incident, but the terrain is complex, in most cases lacked accessibility by roads. Attackers move across forested LGA lines; victims come from multiple communities; reprisals target the nearest symbol of “the other.” Investigations start, but arrests lag. In the absence of swift, impartial justice, communities seek their own.

The through-line is unmistakable: attacks on pastoralist livelihoods ignite attacks on lives. Cattle rustling and poisoning are not isolated crimes. The perpetrators are known and they came from within the society and they are the accelerants in the landscape primed for reprisal. Mining sites, when left unregulated, become flashpoints. Each incident becomes the justification for the next.

The plateau state government had remained largely silent while violence continued to claim lives across Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi LGAs and other part of the state. The government is treating dialogue with Fulani communities as “selling out,” rather than as a necessary step toward de-escalation and peace-building. Instead of opening channels of communication and trust, the government has chosen silence and dangerous political games.

Non-kinetic approaches such as inclusive dialogue, reconciliation, intelligence-driven community policing and traditional conflict-resolution mechanisms were essential to breaking the cycle of attacks and reprisals in the state. The continued reliance on force alone, without parallel political and social engagement, had failed to address the root causes of the crisis, deepen suspicion and prolong the violence in Plateau state.

Zagazola Makama is a Counter Insurgency Expert and Security Analyst in the Lake Chad region.

Seven youths killed at mining site in Jos South, in retaliation of 102 livestock theft

At WEF 2026: VP Shettima Pushes For Homegrown Solutions To Africa’s Economic Challenges

Urges continent to shift from import dependency to local production, from aid to investment

Says with Dangote Refinery, Nigeria is on the verge of becoming net exporter of fuel

By: Our Reporter

The Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has advocated for homegrown solutions to Africa’s economic problems, emphasizing innovative approaches for growth, development and prosperity on the continent.

He noted that it is only by building domestic productive capacity that African nations can convert their population and natural talents into real, resilient wealth, just as he said instead of expecting prosperity to be parachuted in, “it must be homegrown and earned.”

The Nigerian Vice President, who stated this on Thursday during the High-level Accra Reset Initiative meeting held on the margins of the ongoing 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, observed that Africa was no longer the periphery but the pulse of the world’s demographic and economic future.

Citing Nigeria where the Dangote Refinery is gradually turning the nation into a major exporter of fuel as an instance, Senator Shettima pointed out that Africa can only rise when countries on the continent build.

He said, “Africa cannot rise on applause alone. We rise when we build. After decades as a net importer of value, Nigeria is on the verge of becoming a net exporter of refined fuel, powered by Africa’s largest refinery in Lagos, Nigeria: the Dangote Refinery.

“This is what happens when African capital meets industrial ambition. This implies that Nations move from price takers to value makers when production is matched with infrastructure and policy clarity. Even as manufacturing’s share of Africa’s GDP fell from 16 percent in 1980 to under 10 percent by 2016, we chose not to retreat but to leapfrog.”

Underscoring the benefits of modular factories, artificial intelligence, and robotics, the Vice President noted that “Africa can industrialize faster in the twenty first century than ever before,” just as he said the era when the continent is “known only for what it digs or grows” is now giving way for the era when Africa is known for what it builds.

The VP stated that while Africa’s future “depends on letting skills travel, return, and multiply,” prosperity will move at the speed of people.

He recalled that “in 2024 alone, Africans abroad sent home about 95 billion dollars, more than 5 percent of our GDP and roughly equal to total foreign direct investment.

“That is not charity. This is why we are also championing free movement across Africa because mobility is a competitive advantage in a world where human capital is the most precious resource. Let skills and ideas flow as freely as goods and capital, and prosperity will follow,” he added.

Relying further on the Nigerian situation, VP Shettima maintained that the experience had been shaped by a simple lesson, that “prosperity is not imported; it is built,” adding that the nation has “seen the prosperity paradox up close.”

He continued: “Markets and talent exist, yet resilience remains thin until demand is translated into domestic capability. This means firms that produce, meet standards, and compete globally. Wealth given from outside is fragile. Wealth created from within is enduring.

“Nigeria’s own market of over 200 million people has taught us that latent demand means little unless we cultivate local supply. Only by building domestic productive capacity can we convert our population and natural endowments into real, resilient wealth. Prosperity cannot be parachuted in – it must be homegrown and earned”.

The Nigerian Vice President welcomed the vision of the Accra Reset, describing the initiative as a bold reimagining of Africa’s shared future built through African-led cooperation, and rooted in sovereignty and self-definition.

On what Nigeria is bringing to the discussion at the Accra Reset, Senator Shettima said, “In the realm of health-industrial capability, we have begun treating health security not only as a social obligation but as an industrial value chain. This spans manufacturing, diagnostics, logistics, standards, and procurement.
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“Through the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PUHVAC), inaugurated in October 2023, we are coordinating reforms and investment to expand local production and strengthen quality systems. This approach resonates with a broader African aspiration: building our own vaccine and medicine capacity to secure what I call health sovereignty.”

The VP further described the Accra Reset Initiative as a call to action as well as a call to reset the mindset of African nation “from dependency to dignity, from aid to investment, from rhetoric to results.

“It is a call to prosper together. And I am confident that if we answer this call, the world will witness an African boom built not on the sands of commodity cycles, but on the bedrock of innovation, industry, and interdependence,” he concluded.

Earlier, President John Mahama of Ghana, who applauded the commitment and presence of Vice President Shettima and other leaders at the forum, decried the existing relationship between African countries and the global north, noting that bilateral relations among nations have become transactional at the detriment of Africa’s genuine transformation.

According to him, many states and non-state actors are acting unilaterally in pursuing their own national agenda and parochial interests, hence Africa remains trapped in cycles of conflict and multidimensional poverty, striving on handouts and humanitarian assistance from the developed world.

He said the introduction of the Accra Reset Initiative at the last United Nations General Assembly in New York was not another declaration or a wish list, but a practical answer to a question millions of young Africans are asking about the continent’s future and response in changing global order.

Urging synergy and cooperation among African leaders, President Mahama said, “though no specific name has been coined for the new global system that will emerge, Africa intends to be at the table in determining what that new global order will look like.”

For his part, former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, dwelled on what Africa requires to take its rightful place in the comity of nations given the “new age of disruption, uncertainty and unpredictability.”

He warned that “as the world is reorganising, with supply chains withdrawn, security and economics fused, and the old development architecture struggling, countries that are not organised for negotiation and execution do not merely fall behind; they become bargaining chips.

“The Accra Reset Initiative has come to inspire leaders to stop complaining about the system that has changed or is changing, and to build a way through it,” the former President added.

On the marginalisation of Africa in value addition and technology, President Obasanjo said, “Let us be clear: sovereignty is not a flag to be waved about at international forums. It is discipline and the ability to make choices and carry them through.

“Sovereignty is also the ability to negotiate firmly, coordinate regionally, mobilise capital, incentivises, resources, and implement at a scale that will lead to sustainable development. If you cannot coordinate, you will be divided.”

In the same vein, former Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, noted that the essence of the forum is to galvanise support for governments in Africa to rethink their strategies for transforming economies and address the numerous challenges confronting the people.

At WEF 2026: VP Shettima Pushes For Homegrown Solutions To Africa’s Economic Challenges