Insurgency: Six farmers beheaded in Borno, Plateau Village Head killed

The Islamic Boko Haram group has beheaded six farmers at Dimge plantation in the Mafa Local Government Area of Borno State.
The killing is the latest in a string of attacks in the violence wracked North-East, where more than 20,000 people have been killed in nine years of insurgency.
The killing occurred on November 19, while the farmers worked on their farms in the plantation, an eye-witness, Jiddah Ahmad, disclosed in Jere town, near Maiduguri on Monday.
Ahmad said that the insurgents abducted seven farmers as they worked on their farms and slaughtered six of them in a nearby bush.
Ahmad, who is a younger brother to one of the slain farmers, said that two of the slain farmers were from Lawanti Gongulon Village in Jere.
According to him, the remaining four are from Masu Community in the Mafa Local Government Area of the state.
“My brother was working in the farm together with other farmers. They were accosted by the insurgents when they went to fetch water at a river.
“The insurgents shot my brother before beheading him and beheaded another farmer on the same spot while an old farmer was set free,” Ahmad said.
A member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, Usman Muhammad, said that the insurgents had earlier slaughtered four other farmers at the same plantation.
Muhammad disclosed that the insurgents came to the farm on motorbikes and attacked the farmers.
He said that the insurgents forced an aged farmer among the abductees to witness the brutal murder of other farmers, telling him to convey the message to families of the victims.
“We are currently seeking clearance from the military authorities to enable us to evacuate the corpses for proper burial,” he said.
The military and police authorities have yet to make statements on the latest killings.
The military authorities have said that they have completely degraded Boko Haram but the group has continued to pack bloody punches on a regular basis.
Nigeria’s North-East has remained the hotbed of the insurgency, although other areas of the country, including Abuja and Lokoja have not been spared.
Meanwhile, the Plateau State Police Command on Monday confirmed that gunmen had killed the village head of Tarangol community, Mr Amos Marit.
Tarangol community is in the Bokkos Local Government Area.
The command’s spokesperson, ASP Terna Tyopev, said in Jos that Marit, 57, was shot in the back.
Tyopev said that the killing was reported by two men, Enoch Michael and Christopher Marit, both of Fokkos Village in Bokkos.
“Yesterday at about 8 p.m., one Enoch Michael and Christopher Marit reported at our Bokkos Division that gunmen broke into the premises of Mr Amos Marit, the village head of Tarangol and fired him.
“He was immediately rushed to Luna Hospital in the locality but gave up the ghost while receiving treatment.
“Our men rushed to the scene of the incident, but the assailants had vanished,” Tyopev said.
The spokesman said that the body of the deceased had been deposited at the morgue.
He said that no arrest had been made, assuring, however, that investigations were going on to find the people behind the killing.