http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=164901Seven days into the latest round of sectarian crisis in Jos, capital of Plateau State and its environs, at least 150 bodies have been recovered from Kuru Karama, a village near Jos, the village head, Umar Baza, said yesterday, taking the unofficial death toll past 400.
This came as Plateau State Government yesterday alleged that the plan by the Federal Government to transfer suspects arrested in connection with the killings in the state to Abuja, in a similar way 26 mercenaries arrested in connection with the 2008 crisis were transferred to Abuja, smacked of a cover-up.
Speaking about the bodies recovered from wells, Baza told French news agency, AFP, by telephone: "So far we have picked 150 bodies. But 60 more people are still missing.
"We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps, and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for." He said, "We believe there are more bodies in the wells."
About seven bodies are said to have been recovered from wells.
The Head of the Muslim volunteer team for the victims' burial, Mohammed Shittu, said further searches would be carried out.
"Now we have 150 bodies in all, taken as from Thursday," he told AFP.
"From the account of survivors, some people fleeing attacks were ambushed and killed in the bush. That is why we are going there to search for more bodies,” he said.
Global rights watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), yesterday urged Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to order "an immediate criminal investigation into credible reports of a massacre of at least 150 residents of a town in central Nigeria."
An official who visited Kuru Karama to arrange for the burial of bodies told HRW that 121 corpses had been recovered, including those of 22 children. Dozens of them were "stuffed down wells or in sewage pits," HRW said in a statement.
The state government has given no official death toll for the violence, which broke out last Sunday and spread to nearby towns and villages.