Jos – Some women in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State have
clashed with men of the Special Task Force (STF) maintaining security
in the state injuring six of them in the process. Several of the
villagers also sustained injuries in the clash with the soldiers.
However, while the STF is alleging that the women were hostile
towards its men, the women have also protested what they called
maltreatment and arbitrariness by the soldiers in the course of their
duty calling for their withdrawal from their communities.
Vanguard gathered that women at Rim resisted the soldiers who were on
a house-to-house search for arms and ammunition allegedly pelting them
with stones and other missiles.
Media Officer of the STF, Captain Salisu Mustapha in a statement on
Tuesday, confirmed the clash between the villagers and soldiers but
denied any maltreatment of the women as alleged.
According to him, the STF personnel had embarked on a routine search
for arms in some villages including Rim following intelligence
information but that the women resisted and turned violent, hurling
missiles at the soldiers.
He added that the search was conducted successfully in three other
neighboring villages but that the women at Rim resisted any search of
their houses.
Residents of Riyom and Barkin-Ladi local government areas which had
been target of constant attacks by gunmen have repeatedly called for the
withdrawal of the soldiers who they accused of complicity or inaction
in the attacks on their communities.
The hostility exhibited towards the soldiers in believed to be in
furtherance of the no-love-lost relationship between them. One of the
villagers accused the soldiers of always coming to dispossess their
local security groups of their weapons leaving them vulnerable to
attacks by gun men who the soldiers have allegedly been unable to track
down.
But the STF has repeatedly dismissed the allegation as an attempt to
rubbish the good work of restoring peace to the state which they have
been striving to achieve.
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