The Plateau State Government has expressed deep frustration over the Nigerian Army’s failure to apprehend or neutralise the assailants responsible for the brutal killing of 27 farmers in the Tahoss community of Riyom Local Government Area on Monday.
In a strongly worded reaction, the Commissioner for Information, Joyce Ramnap, questioned why no arrests were made despite the proximity of military personnel to the scene during the attack.
“The checkpoint is barely 200 meters from where this incident happened,” Ramnap said during a televised interview on Friday. “The response we got was that none were arrested, none were captured. And sadly, none of the victims were protected.”
The attack, which left dozens dead and crops destroyed, was reportedly carried out by suspected armed herders. According to the commissioner, the area was easily accessible and surrounded by roads with military checkpoints, making the military’s failure to intervene or pursue the attackers even more troubling.
“It is not a remote or hidden community. That excuse doesn’t apply here,” she said. “We are not suggesting that the entire Army is compromised, but the situation calls for deeper investigation. The governor specifically asked that some arrests be made at the very least.”
Ramnap stressed that if soldiers had been in such close contact with the attackers, they should have been able to track or confront them. “If you engaged them that closely, how could you not know which direction they fled or take steps to apprehend them?” she asked.
The commissioner condemned the attacks as unprovoked and barbaric, noting that the attackers not only killed residents but also destroyed farmlands, deepening the community’s suffering.
Echoing the sentiments of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who visited Tahoss on Wednesday, Ramnap said the persistent killings in Plateau State resemble a slow-moving genocide. The governor had described the repeated massacres as systematic and targeted violence against farming communities.
“We do have gallant soldiers many of them are making serious efforts to restore peace in Plateau,” Ramnap acknowledged. “But clearly, there are bad eggs within the system. The attackers came from three flanks. One group was successfully repelled, but the group closest to the church where civilians were hiding inflicted the most damage.”
She narrated the harrowing experience of a local pastor who fled as the attackers closed in. “The pastor ran with his wife, fearing for their lives. Six people were killed in his home shortly after,” she recounted.
Plateau State has remained a hotspot of violent attacks in Nigeria’s north-central region. Monday’s killings in Riyom add to a growing toll of deadly raids that have devastated rural communities.
In April 2025, more than 100 people were killed in coordinated assaults across Bokkos and Bassa LGAs an episode that drew widespread condemnation locally and internationally. The April massacre followed another deadly ambush in Bokkos on Christmas Eve 2023, which claimed around 150 lives.
Despite numerous security deployments, the cycle of violence has continued unabated, leaving residents increasingly disillusioned and calling for urgent and decisive action from both state and federal authorities.
