Insecurity: Criminals operating with impunity, hence nobody brought to book, Gov Lalong tells Reps

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State at the weekend frowned at the high level of impunity and life-threatening activities being perpetuated by kidnappers and bandits across the State without anyone being brought to book by the present administration.

Governor Lalong expressed the concern while addressing high-powered delegation from the House of Representatives, led by Hon. Abubakar Fulata, chairman, Ad-hoc Committee investigating the wanton killings in Wase Local Government Area and Plateau State in general.

The Governor who was represented by his Deputy, Professor Sonni Gwanle Tyoden expressed regrets over the spate of security challenges ravaging the State, however, observed that most efforts made by Governor Simon Lalong’s administration to combat instances of bandit attacks and other communal crises across the State, lamented that “the best we hear are condemnations.

“But now the National Assembly has taken it on itself, to initiate this intervention by sending you here. For us it is a step in the right direction and I think it shows not only the extent that you people are getting frustrated but the determination of the government to see that it handles this thing.

“It is our hope that at the end of your investigation, we shall be availed a copy of your report. Because it is one thing to write the report, it’s another thing to act the report. But my challenge to the National Assembly and to the Federal Government is that the report that will be coming will spur some actions, concrete actions that we will be seeing which will restore the trust the people have in the government and re-establish peace in the communities.

“You’ve mentioned some of the places you visited, of course you can’t visit all the places but the story is practically the same. I want to assure you that the State Government has been doing its own bit.

“The Commissioner for Justice is here and he’s fully aware of legislations, laws that we have passed to see that peace is maintained and perpetuators of these acts are brought to book.

“But the unfortunate thing is that there seems to be some impunity that inform their activities because hardly do you hear or anybody being jailed, being brought to book and I think these are issues we should take very seriously. And you as members of the National Assembly are in the forefront of seeing that whatever legislations exist, whatever laws exist, are properly implemented so that this impunity is brought to an end.

“We are moving into an election very soon, and you see there’s a nexus between this insecurity and the possibility of the successful election. If we don’t have peace, it doesn’t make sense going to have election.

“What are you electing people for when there’s no peace? So I think we need to do the needful right now; get peace in place so that we can look at election.

“Definitely the situation calls for seriousness like we see the National Assembly doing now and like I said I hope this initiative will not just be allowed to end in a report, we should see the practical activity. The Federal Government should walk the talk by way of implementing whatever you recommend,” the Governor urged.

Speaking earlier, Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee investigating the wantom killings in Wase Local Government Area and other parts of Plateau State, Hon. Abubakar Fulata explained that the delegation arrived the state capital since Wednesday preparatory for the fact-finding exercise.

Hon. Fulata who was accompanied by Hon. Dachung Bagos and Hon. Johnson Oghunma expressed grave concern over the plight of the innocent Citizens who suffered huge losses due to the activities of the bandits and kidnappers.

He said: “We have been here since Wednesday, at the instance of the House of Representatives via a motion moved by also one of your sons, the second in command in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase on the security challenges in Plateau State.

“We’ve had series of motions concerning insecurity in Plateau State in the past eight years, but there has never been a very high-powered delegation like this one to come, visit the state, interface with the affected communities like this one.

“So since Thursday, we’ve been to Kuru, we’ve interacted with the people there and they took us through their nasty experience spanning nearly 10 years, people were being hacked, killed virtually on weekly basis.

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“We’ve also visited Bashar, where we met various communities ranging from Kompini, Yuli, Yalo, Gechi, they took us through horrible experiences in those communities, where it has reached a point where they have been stopped from cultivating their lands by bandits.

“Kidnapping for ransom has become part of the permanent lifestyle of those communities, it is. Not only that, the frightening thing is that, people are kidnapped, ransoms ranging from 2 to 10 million are paid on every head, in the end the victims are never released they get killed.

“Local Chiefs cannot travel without the full compliment of either the Police or the Army.

“We went also to Wase where we met Heads of communities and members Pinau and Gimbi. They also keep us through their terrible experiences.

“I know that the State Government has been doing its very best for several years. The purpose of government at all levels is the security of lives and property of the citizens. I think we’ve reached a point where we are losing the confidence of ruling the people at local level.

“If we cannot secure their lives and property, I think we have a very very serious challenge.

“And the most dangerous thing for us as a government is that a substantial number of communities are deserting the communities.

“They are deserting the communities relocating to the neighbouring States. So it’s really compounding our challenges and problems. So we’ve come to brief you on the findings of our interactions with the people.

“We would go back, we would invite the security agencies, the Army, the Police, Air Force, the DSS also. We will invite them to closed door session before we write our report and submit at plenary for approval and onward transmission to the President. But the situation is very desperate and very serious challenge to us,” he noted.