Yelwa Zangam: 5 Years On, Bridge Still Broken, Promises Unkept
Our Correspondent
On the night of August 24, 2021, attackers struck Yelwa Zangam, a farming community in Jos North LGA of Plateau State. By morning, 37 people were dead. Seventeen of them were burnt beyond recognition in the home of the village head. But the killing did not start with gunshots. It started hours earlier, with planks.
Residents woke up that fateful day to find the wooden planks on their only bridge torn out and dumped into the river. The bolts holding the iron frame had been loosened. The message was clear: no one was getting in, and no one was getting out. That bridge, community members say, is why help never came in time.
Five years later, the iron is rusting and pulling apart. And the police outpost promised by the government to prevent a repeat has not been built.
The Night the Bridge Became a Weapon
Yelwa Zangam sits off Bauchi Road, and its single bridge connects it to the rest of Jos North. On August 24, 2021, suspected terrorists dismantled it.
“While residents were still in shock over the damage to the bridge, the community was confronted with a deadly night attack,” a community account recalled.
Security operatives responding to distress calls could not cross. By the time they found alternative routes, the attackers had left. Four days later, the then Governor Simon Lalong visited precisely on August 29, 2021. He met grieving families and made three public promises: repair the bridge immediately, build a police outpost in the community, and deliver relief to affected households. He also vowed that perpetrators would be arrested. The relief came. Security agencies were deployed for a period. But the bridge and the outpost did not.
Five Years Later: A Bridge on the Brink
Our reporter visited Yelwa Zangam in August 2026. The bridge is still standing on its iron frame, but barely. The wooden planks are yet to be replaced. Gaps in the iron structure have widened. The bolts Lalong’s team said would be “fixed swiftly” are still loose. Motorcycles, wheelbarrows, and pedestrians cross carefully, one at a time.
“We have no option but to use the bridge the way it is, although it is risky,” a commercial motorcyclist who plies the route daily told our reporter.
Community leader Bagudu Amos said the government has not returned since the 2021 visit.
“The repair of the damaged bridge and construction of a local police outpost, which were among the community’s major demands, are yet to be fulfilled,” Amos said.
“We have already provided land for the police outpost.” the community leader, Bagudu Amos, said the bridge is not just a local problem.
He added that a functional bridge would also open an alternative route for motorists travelling from Bauchi State to Kaduna through Zaria Road, connecting Bauchi Road to the NEPA area in Jos North.
The Promise Gap
Checks revealed that the Lalong administration budgeted for emergency interventions in attacked communities. Relief materials were indeed mobilized by the state, federal government, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, and residents confirmed receiving some.
But on infrastructure and security, little moved. The police outpost never took off despite land allocation. Security deployment was temporary. And the bridge, which both the community and the government identified as a critical access point during emergencies, was left to decay.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who assumed office in 2023, inherited the unfulfilled promises. Community leaders say they have renewed appeals to his administration.
Why It Matters
Yelwa Zangam is not an isolated case. Plateau’s Middle Belt communities have repeatedly reported attacks where access roads and bridges were targeted first to delay security response.
Security experts have warned that destroying access routes is a tactic to buy time for attackers. Yet five years after it happened in Yelwa Zangam, the same vulnerability remains.
For residents, the cost is daily. Traders lose income. And fear persists that if there is another attack, help will again be too late.
We Are Still Waiting
Bagudu Amos put it simply: “We are appealing to Governor Mutfwang to come to our aid. Repair the bridge. Build the police post. Our people are tired of promises.”
Five years after 37 people were killed and a bridge was sabotaged to ensure it, Yelwa Zangam is still crossing that same broken bridge every day, waiting for the government to keep its word.
For the families of the 17 burnt beyond recognition, and for the 20 others buried in 2021, the wait has become part of the grief.
Yelwa Zangam supplies a significant quantity of vegetables to Farin Gada Market in Jos. Farmers lose produce when motorcycles cannot cross safely during rains.
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