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Bagos Demands Justice for Binda Attack Victims, Donates Relief Materials
Former House of Representatives member, Hon. Dachung Musa Bagos, has urged the government and security agencies to bring to justice those responsible for the July 15, 2025, attack on Binda in Tahos Village, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Bagos made the call during a sympathy visit to the community on Saturday, where he commiserated with victims, inspected the level of destruction, and provided relief items through his foundation. He donated bundles of roofing sheets and wood to assist in rebuilding houses burnt during the attack, which claimed several lives, injured many, and destroyed homes, including a church.
“We are here to commiserate with the community and conduct a needs assessment for possible interventions. Today we brought bundles of zinc and wood to help in roofing some of the burnt houses. But beyond this, we must continue to demand justice,” Bagos said.
He expressed concern that two months after the incident, no suspects had been arrested or prosecuted, warning that impunity could fuel further violence.
“Lives were lost and blood was shed. Who has been arrested, who is in court, and who has been convicted? Until justice is served, these attacks will continue. Enough is enough; our leaders must act,” he stressed.
Reiterating his long-standing position, Bagos called for a nationwide ban on open grazing, which he described as a major driver of insecurity. According to him, outlawing the practice would help curb recurring farmer-herder clashes.
“It is simple: ban open grazing. Today people have been killed, farmlands destroyed, and yet we allow this system to persist. In the 21st century, we should not be trivializing insecurity with ethnicity or religion. This affects everyone,” he noted.
The former lawmaker also urged the Plateau State Government to implement recommendations from the recently submitted fact-finding committee on insecurity, describing such action as a potential lasting legacy for Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s administration.
During the visit, His Royal Highness Pastor Kim Nani Manja, the traditional ruler of Tahos, commended recent changes in Sector 6 security leadership, noting that it had already led to the arrest of hundreds of cattle involved in farm destruction. He called for sustained government commitment and accountability.
Also speaking, Rev. Davou Dabo of COCIN LCC Binda, whose home and car were burnt, recounted the trauma faced by survivors. He disclosed that seven members of his church were killed alongside nine relatives in the incident, which claimed a total of 27 lives within the area.
“I have not received any direct intervention apart from roofing materials provided through the state and local government. Our people are still displaced, children are out of school, and farms destroyed. We are pleading for more support,” he said.
The July 15 attack on Binda remains one of the deadliest in Riyom in recent months, leaving the community devastated and intensifying calls for stronger security measures, justice for victims, and sustainable peace efforts.
Everyone said AI would kill apps. Instead, new app launches are soaring.
According to a new analysis from market intelligence provider Appfigures, worldwide app releases in the first quarter of 2026 were up 60% year-over-year across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. That percentage was an even higher 80% when looking at the iOS App Store alone. In April 2026 so far, the total number of app releases is up 104% across both stores compared to the same time last year, and up 89% on iOS.
As Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Greg “Joz” Joswiak, quipped In a recent interview: rumors of the App Store’s death in the AI age “may have been greatly exaggerated.”
These findings come amid concerns that the rise of AI chatbots and agents would ultimately see users turning away from apps — a theory that’s already being floated by those in the industry, like Nothing CEO Carl Pei, who is focused on building a smartphone for the AI era. The New York Times also reported last year on the potential for new computing platforms to eclipse the smartphone, like smart glasses, ambient computing devices, or reimagined smartwatches with AI features.
OpenAI is even working on an AI hardware device with famed Apple designer Jony Ive.
But there’s another possibility, too: AI will make it easier for anyone to create apps, driving a rebirth of the App Store. The new app gold rush could be led by creators who have ideas but not the technical skills to design mobile software.
Appfigures’ data indicates that certain categories of apps are seeing more new releases than others.
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Mobile games still account for most of the new app releases worldwide as of Q1 2026, as they have in prior years. But “productivity” apps have moved into the top five this year. The “utilities” category has also moved up to the number two slot, and the “lifestyle” apps category moved up from the No. 5 slot last year to now No. 3. Finally, “health and fitness”-style applications rounded out the top five categories.
The working hypothesis here is that AI-powered tools, like Claude Code or Replit, could be behind the surge of new launches. It also seems possible that we’re hitting some sort of tipping point in terms of AI usability, where it’s easy enough for people to leverage these tools to build their own desired mobile apps more quickly — or even build their first apps ever.
The explosion of new apps for Apple to review could also be behind some of the tech giant’s recent missteps. This week, Apple pulled the rewards app Freecash from the App Store for rules violations, after letting the app climb the store’s Top Charts and sit in the top five for months. Apple was also caught off guard by a malicious cryptocurrency app, a clone of Ledger Live, that drained $9.5 million in crypto from victims’ accounts.
While high-profile problems like this can generate bad PR for the App Store, the company still does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of blocking and rejecting dangerous or spammy apps. Apple’s most recent analysis from 2024 said the company had removed or rejected more than 17,000 apps for bait-and-switch violations that year; rejected more than 320,000 app submissions that were found to be spam, copying other apps, or misleading; and took action to prevent more than 37,000 potentially fraudulent apps from reaching users on the App Store.
Still, Apple pundits like John Gruber have long argued that the App Store needs a “bunco squad” of sorts that watches for scammy or fraudulent apps that are gaining in popularity or high-grossing.
If AI-assisted vibe coding turns out to be behind the recent surge of app releases, that need will only grow as more new apps flood the marketplace, not all of which will be benign.
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