Plateau attacks: 62 church members killed in eight months – Baptist cleric

The Baptist Conference in Plateau State on Saturday challenged the Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu and the Caleb Mutfwang-led state government to address the incessant attacks and killings in the state.

The President of the Plateau Baptist Conference, Rev. Koeleh Saleh, who gave the charge during the church’s 47th Annual Conference, which ended in Jos on Saturday, revealed that over 62 members of his church, including pastors and their children, were killed during the various attacks that occurred in several communities in Mangu and Bokkos LGAs of the state within the past eight months.

At the conference attended by several dignitaries, including Mutfwang the state governor, Saleh, recounted the frequent attacks on Baptist churches and the killing of their members in the past eight months. It was noted that in Mangu LGA of Plateau alone, thirty-three of his church members were killed on May 15 and 16, 2023, while eight others died shortly afterwards after their displacement on account of hardship and illness.

He further noted that this was followed by another attack on Hirpia, a Christian community in Bokkos LGA, on June 15, 2023, which led to the murder of an additional five church members including the wife and two children of Rev.Emmanuel Makama who is the pastor of Nasara Baptist church in the community.

According to him, besides several lives lost and those that were wounded, the destructions and economic dislocations caused by the attacks were monument.

He noted that most of the affected communities deserted by the people as a result of the attacks had remained so till date while the invaders had continued to graze freely in the communities without any challenge, a situation which he described as an injustice to the people.

He said, “The Baptist church in some of these affected communities had more than a fair share of the effect of those dastardly unprovoked assaults. In Mangu LGA, we lost 33 members to attacks on May 15, 2023 besides eight persons who died after their displacement on account of hardship and illness. Punch