Grief hung heavily in the air as the Zike community in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State laid to rest 51 of its residents brutally murdered in a pre-dawn attack that has once again cast a dark shadow over the troubled region.

The victims, mostly women and children, were gunned down in the early hours of Monday when yet-to-be-identified assailants stormed the sleepy village, firing indiscriminately. The massacre is the latest in a string of violent assaults that have plagued Plateau State in recent times.

At the mass burial held in the community, emotions ran high as families, friends, and sympathizers wept uncontrollably. Traditional mourners draped in black wailed as the victims’ coffins were lowered into the earth — a harrowing scene that has become all too familiar in the region.

Speaking at the funeral, a visibly distraught community leader, Davidson Malison, described the attack as “disheartening” and lamented the scale of the devastation.

“I can tell you the situation is very disheartening,” Malison said. “We are still searching for more corpses. Something needs to be done to put an end to this.”

The Irigwe women leader, Mary Dikwa, echoed similar concerns, calling on the government to step up its responsibility in securing lives and property.

“They have been killing us in this our community,” Dikwa said in tears. “Several times they will come and attack us. This situation has gone out of hand.”

Monday’s carnage came barely two weeks after another deadly assault left over 50 people dead and several others severely injured, despite repeated reassurances by the government to restore peace to the North-Central state.

Reacting to the renewed wave of violence, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ordered security agencies to track down the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

“I have instructed security agencies to thoroughly investigate this crisis and identify those responsible for orchestrating these violent acts,” the President said in a statement released by his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga. “We cannot allow this devastation and the tit-for-tat attacks to continue. Enough is enough.”

As the Zike community mourns yet another loss, residents are left clinging to hope — that someday soon, peace will return to their land and they can finally bury their dead without fearing for the lives of the living.

At least forty people have been confirmed dead following a brutal attack by unidentified assailants on Zike community in Kimakpa, located within the Kwall district of Bassa Local Government Area in Plateau State.

According to local sources, the assault took place in the early hours of Monday, with the attackers storming the village and opening fire indiscriminately. Residents, startled by the sound of gunfire, fled in panic, but many were caught in the hail of bullets.

A community leader in Kwall, Wakili Tongwe, revealed that he and a group of vigilantes, along with some security personnel, were on patrol in a nearby community when the assault occurred.

“We were on routine patrol in a different area when the attackers struck. By the time we arrived, they had already done significant damage,” Tongwe said.

He added that while the joint team of vigilantes and security operatives engaged the assailants and eventually repelled them, the casualties were already high. Thirty-six people were confirmed dead at the scene, with four others succumbing to their injuries later in hospital.

Several other villagers sustained gunshot wounds and are currently receiving treatment in medical facilities nearby.

As of the time of filing this report, security agencies in Plateau State are yet to issue any official statement regarding the incident.

This latest massacre comes barely two weeks after a similar attack in the Bokkos Local Government Area of the state, where over fifty people lost their lives in coordinated assaults on several communities.

Tension has gripped residents of Odigbo town in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State following the shocking discovery of three headless corpses floating in a river along the Osogbo/Ore Road on Wednesday.

The gory sight, which has thrown the community into panic, was first reported by a resident identified as Sileola, who alleged that the victims may have been gruesomely murdered by suspected kidnappers and dumped in the river.

“No one in our community has been able to identify the bodies,” Sileola told reporters. “It’s terrifying because we don’t know who they are, and as of now, no one has been declared missing here. It’s like they were brought from somewhere else.”

Confirming the development,  the spokesperson of the Ondo State Police Command, SP Olusola Ayanlade, said the matter was reported to the Ore Division of the command, prompting an immediate response.

“The Divisional Police Officer led a team of detectives to the scene where the bodies were recovered and taken to the morgue at the General Hospital,” Ayanlade stated. “Investigations are currently ongoing.”

He revealed that while the victims remain unidentified, preliminary suspicion is that they may have been swept down the river from another location. No case of a missing person has been reported in the area so far.

According to Ayanlade, the Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Wilfred Afolabi, has already ordered community leaders to assist law enforcement by working to establish the identities of the deceased.

Meanwhile, the grim discovery has sparked renewed calls for heightened security patrols in and around the Ore axis, a notorious flashpoint for criminal activities.

Residents are urging the authorities to intensify surveillance efforts and unravel the mystery behind the chilling find to prevent a recurrence.