How Gunmen Disguised as NDLEA Operatives Killed Jos Chief at Pepper Soup Joint

JOS — Yusuf Sarki had only stepped out for pepper soup. The elderly chief of his community in Angwan Rukuba, Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, had gone out on Palm Sunday evening to a local bar called Stomdass along the main road to relax. He never came back.

Sarki, according to residents, was peaceful, genuinely loved his people and consistently made efforts to hold the community together. He was the man residents went to when something needed to be resolved or when neighbours were quarrelling. His death, those close to him say, left a hole in Angwan Rukuba that no appointment or replacement can fill.

At about 7:30 p.m. on March 29, 2026, gunmen stormed Angwan Rukuba, firing indiscriminately into the community. Witnesses said the attackers arrived during a power outage, some dressed in military uniforms. In a revelation that shocked many, Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang later disclosed that the attackers disguised themselves as operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to gain access to the community before opening fire.

Emmanuel Daniel, Sarki’s nephew and a youth leader in the community, told THE WHISTLER that he had returned from a church conference that same evening. “When I came back from a conference we had from Friday to Sunday, I was tired. So, on getting home, I changed and went into my bathroom to take a bath, and I realised I was not having soup. I went out to get soup, just then, I heard some gunshots,” he told THE WHISTLER. “On my way to get the soup, I saw people running from the main road to the street,” he said.

He and a group of youths scampered to safety as the gunmen advanced. What unsettled Emmanuel most, he said, was not the shooting itself. It was the manner it was done. “They were walking so comfortably, and they were shooting anyhow. If you are blocking them or they meet you on the way, they will just shoot you,” he said.

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The community’s only nearby security post, the Angwa Nkuba Police Outpost, was deserted. When Emmanuel and the other youths rushed there, they found it abandoned. “We didn’t even see any of them inside the station. I believe they had run for their lives too,” he said. Troops of Sector 1, Operation Enduring Peace, were eventually mobilised following a distress call. Security personnel, including the Nigerian Army, arrived at around 8:45 p.m. to restore order and secure the affected community.

Yusuf Sarki and dozens others had been killed or injured before their arrival. “Some of them (residents) were dead. Some of them were injured. Those who were injured, we tried to rush them to the hospital,” Daniel said. It was then he realised his uncle was among those killed. “We recorded 33 deaths as a result of the attack,” Daniel said. “This was only on Palm Sunday.”

Governor Caleb Mutfwang, in a statewide broadcast on Tuesday, confirmed that 28 persons were killed in the attack. He described the incident as a “senseless attack” on law-abiding citizens. “Twenty-eight innocent lives were lost,” the governor said, adding that several others sustained injuries. The governor also revealed that a heavily pregnant woman was among those killed, describing the scale of brutality as deeply disturbing. “When I saw the corpses, I could barely hold myself,” the governor stated.

The loss, Daniel said, is immeasurable not just to Sarki’s family, his two wives and seven children, but to the entire community that relied on him.

In the weeks preceding the attack, threats had circulated on social media following an incident in the neighbouring Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, where three men from the north were killed under unclear circumstances while travelling to a village market. “The guys that were killed were indigenes of Jos north. They were on their way to a village market when they were attacked,” Daniel further explained. He believes the attack on his community was a retaliation for the killing of the three men in Jos North.

“I don’t see where someone will offend you and then you go and retaliate on another person. Instead of going to where you were offended, you come back to our home,” he lamented. “We have been living in peace. Any time they come to our area, they do their market, they sell, and they even sell water for people. Things have been going so smoothly and so nicely.”

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The attackers exploited a familiar security pattern to deceive residents, Governor Mutfwang explained in a subsequent interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today. “Obviously, the attackers have studied the psychology of the people who are used to seeing operatives of the NDLEA who come to raid neighbouring communities in search of drug addicts and what have you,” Mutfwang said. “So, they came in that manner, hooded, and were shooting in the manner NDLEA officers used to shoot. So people took it for granted that it was an NDLEA incursion… and they didn’t resist it initially. But when they realised it, a lot of damage had been done. And before they could wake up to begin to pursue these attackers, they had made an escape. It’s quite unfortunate,” he said.

The governor described the attack as premeditated and professionally executed, noting that the assailants displayed advanced weapon-handling skills. “The initial assessment by the professional indicates that the attackers knew their onions in terms of marksmanship. The shots were not ordinary shots. They were well-trained shots,” he said. Mutfwang noted that both residents and security operatives were “blindsided” due to the relative peace the state had enjoyed over the past 10 months.

Meanwhile, the Angwan Rukuba horrors did not end on Palm Sunday. In response to the attack, the Plateau State Government imposed a 48-hour curfew on Jos North Local Government Area, effective from midnight on Sunday, March 29, to April 1, 2026. Daniel, however, said that lifting the curfew barely two days after exposed neighbouring communities to further attacks. Unknown gunmen, suspected to be bandits, attacked the Gari Ya Waye area of Angwan Rukuba on the same Palm Sunday night and killed scores of people.

“Our people were so naive on this. Immediately they lifted the curfew, and some of them came out to go on with their normal activities because they didn’t see it as a crisis,” he said. He said the attackers had positioned themselves along routes that residents in the mostly Christian-dominated area ply to the market or their workplaces. “They blocked a road and stopped a car at Bauti Junction and asked, ‘Is there any Christian in the car?’ And one man was the only Christian in the car. That was how they brought this man out. They butchered him,” Daniel said. The victim, who was travelling from Kogi to the state, survived the attack.

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Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang, during a condolence visit to Angwan Rukuba, pledged justice for the victims. He announced that the state government would bear the full cost of medical treatment for the injured and provide necessary support, including dignified burials, for the families of the deceased. The governor also ruled out any mass burial for the victims.

On efforts to apprehend the perpetrators, Mutfwang disclosed that no arrests have been made in connection with the attack. However, he assured that security agencies were working with credible intelligence. “At the moment, no arrests have been made in regard to this particular attack. But I’d like to assure Plateau people and Nigerians that we have some actionable intelligence that the security agencies are following up,” he stated. He declined to provide further details, citing ongoing investigations. “We have some very useful leads that we hope will be able to lead us to who these attackers are. I don’t want to make a premature statement as to their identities,” he added.

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday paid a condolence visit to Plateau State, where he met bereaved families, traditional rulers, and government officials, and directed security agencies to arrest those responsible. The visit drew some criticism over logistical arrangements, with the Presidency explaining that flight restrictions and a bilateral security meeting with the President of Chad had prevented Tinubu from driving into Jos township. Instead, victims and community representatives were transported to a hall near the Yakubu Gowon Airport to meet the President.

At the meeting, Tinubu addressed a grieving mother, Mrs Rhoda, whose video clutching the bloodied corpse of her son had gone viral and become the defining image of the attack. “I know the pain. I see in the video how you buried your loved ones and the pain and agony in your heart. But it’s only God who can give you joy and hope. No amount of money can pay all of you back,” he said. The President announced the deployment of 5,000 AI-enabled cameras across Plateau State to strengthen surveillance, aid intelligence gathering, and support the identification and arrest of perpetrators.

The Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, assured Nigerians that the attack does not represent a breakdown of national security but rather a criminal act being decisively addressed by authorities. “There will be no safe haven for criminal elements anywhere in Nigeria,” Idris said. He also confirmed that Nigeria’s security collaboration with the United States was ongoing, noting that American security personnel were working closely with Nigerian intelligence agencies to strengthen efforts at tracking criminal elements.

The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) has attributed these attacks to criminality, weak governance, and long-standing communal tensions. ACLED’s Africa Senior Analyst Dr Ladd Serwat noted that violence in Plateau State surged by 71 per cent in 2025 compared to the previous year, driven by increasing violence involving bandit groups and armed Fulani pastoralists. “Civilians in Plateau state face increasing violence,” Serwat said.

The attack sparked outrage across the country, with many Nigerians calling for urgent action to address the growing security challenges in the state. For the family of Chief Yusuf Sarki and the residents of Angwan Rukuba, the wait for justice continues as security agencies work to track down those responsible for the Palm Sunday massacre.

How Gunmen Disguised as NDLEA Operatives Killed Jos Chief at Pepper Soup Joint