JOS — A wave of bitter protests has hit the Plateau State Government House as local youths accuse the military of extorting them over “missing cows” while failing to protect their communities from deadly terrorist raids.
The outrage follows a series of attacks during the Easter week that left at least six people dead in the Jos South and Barkin Ladi areas. Survivors and youth leaders claim that while the Special Task Force (STF), Operation Safe Haven, is lightning-fast to demand compensation for livestock, they are “conveniently absent” when gunmen arrive to slaughter villagers.
The “Security Meeting” Trap
The tension reached a breaking point following an incident in Jos South where community leaders were reportedly summoned to what they thought was a security coordination meeting. Instead, the youths allege they were detained and coerced into paying for a missing cow belonging to Fulani herders—a theft they insist they had no knowledge of.
“They summoned us to a meeting, detained us, and forced us to pay for a cow we knew nothing about,” a youth leader from the Nyamgo Gyel community stated during a protest on Monday, April 6, 2026. “But where were these same soldiers when the terrorists came to attack us? Who is going to pay for the lives of our brothers and sisters lying in the mortuary right now?”
A Week of Unchecked Bloodshed
The youths’ anger is fueled by a grim tally of recent failures. In Nyamgo Gyel, gunmen killed three people and injured several others in an overnight raid that lasted for over an hour without any military intervention. This followed a midnight attack on Pwomol Village in Barkin Ladi on April 5, where two youths keeping watch were gunned down and houses were set ablaze.
Local leaders, including the President of the Berom Youth Moulders-Association (BYM), Solomon Dalyop Mwantiri, have accused security agencies of ignoring clear early warnings. “Intelligence was shared on social media days before these attacks, yet no proactive steps were taken,” Mwantiri noted. “The military seems more interested in recovering rustled cattle than in preventing the ongoing slaughter of our people.”
The Protest at Government House
Hundreds of youths from the Plateau Youth Coalition (PYC) stormed the Government House in Jos on Tuesday morning, demanding a total overhaul of the security architecture. The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as “Cow Justice is not Human Justice” and “Protect Us or Let Us Protect Ourselves.”
The recurring theme of the protest was the perceived “double standard” in military engagement. Residents pointed out that the STF is remarkably efficient at tracking down stolen livestock and enforcing financial penalties on farming communities, yet they claim a “lack of logistics” whenever a distress call is made regarding an active invasion.
Silence from the Task Force
As of Tuesday afternoon, April 7, 2026, the Special Task Force has not issued a formal rebuttal to the extortion allegations. While the state government has appealed for calm and promised to investigate the claims, the trust between the rural populace and the military has reached an all-time low.
For the youths of Plateau, the message is simple: until the military treats the life of a Nigerian citizen with at least the same urgency as a missing cow, the “Renewed Hope” for peace in the Middle Belt remains a far-off dream.
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