Gunmen abducted Plateau State lawmaker Denty Laven from his Jos home, as regional leaders decry escalating killings and mass displacements in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.
Gunmen have kidnapped Hon. Denty Laven, the Plateau State House of Assembly member representing Pankshin South Constituency, from his home in the Dong area of Jos North Local Government Area. Local sources confirmed the Tuesday incident but provided no immediate details on the abductors’ demands or the lawmaker’s whereabouts.
The abduction comes as violence intensifies across Plateau State. Earlier in September, Stanley Kavwam, Deputy Publicity Secretary of the Middle Belt Forum, warned that “in my local government – Mangu, we have buried over 500 people in the last two years.” He told News Central TV that attacks blamed on Fulani herdsmen had displaced 164 communities, now “taken over and renamed by the terrorists.”
Kavwam criticized what he described as the Nigerian military’s selective response, saying, “If it comes to South East where the youths are clamouring for the restoration of Biafra… you will see Nigerian Army and all other security agencies crushing them.” Authorities have yet to comment on Laven’s abduction.