Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
A cultural festival turned deadly on Saturday in Taraba State after soldiers sent to enforce a lockdown allegedly shot dead four residents and injured 16 others.<\/p>\n
The Taraba State Government, on April 21, in a broadcast by the state\u2019s deputy governor, Haruna Manu, announced a lockdown order in the state to prevent the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n
The violence occurred at Jen community in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of the state. The festival turned violent when the residents resisted an attempt by the soldiers to disperse them and prevent the festival from holding.<\/p>\n
Residents said the festival, called \u2018Minhu\u2019 hunting festival, is celebrated annually every first week of May. It is the major cultural festival of the Jen community and is recognised by the government as a major festival in the state.<\/p>\n
Three residents of the community who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES asked not to be named for fear of arrest during investigation.<\/p>\n
One resident said the district head of Jen, Sama\u2019ila Agwaru, had earlier announced the suspension of the festival based on the government\u2019s lockdown directive.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, the soldiers enforced the lockdown on the community market on Friday,\u201d the resident said. \u201cWhile trying to prevent the festival on Saturday, a group of youth confronted the soldiers setting ablaze used tyres.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soldiers fired gunshots into the air to scare the youth. However, the undeterred rampaging youth shot one of the soldiers with an arrow after which the soldiers opened fire on them,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
This newspaper learnt that four people died at the scene while 16 others sustained severe gunshot injuries. Some of the injured are said to be in critical condition.<\/p>\n
Two of those killed were identified by their nicknames, Iliya and Black, while the two others are yet to be identified because they came from neighbouring communities to celebrate the festival.<\/p>\n
The injured soldier is said to have been taken away by his colleagues.<\/p>\n
A resident said the community\u2019s market leader (Sarkin Kasuwa), Jibir Sarkin-Fawa, was critically injured by the aggrieved youth who accused him of colluding with the government to prevent the festival from taking place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa Press-Nigeria: A cultural festival turned deadly on Saturday in Taraba State after soldiers sent to enforce a lockdown allegedly shot dead four residents and injured 16 others. The Taraba State Government, on April 21, in a broadcast by the state\u2019s deputy governor, Haruna Manu, announced a lockdown order in the state to prevent the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":21445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[1453,1001],"class_list":["post-24664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-coronavirus-in-nigeria","tag-federal-government"],"yoast_head":"\n