Following recent attacks on Plateau communities where over 100 persons were killed, the President of the Evangelical Church of Winning All (ECWA), Reverend Dr Stephen Baba Panya, has condemned the dastardly act, saying the only way to rekindle the hope of Nigerians and build public confidence in the government is to bring all the criminal elements to book.
Reverend Panya said the attacks once again call for strategic intelligence, synergy, sincerity of purpose, commitment, and the political will to address insecurity on the Plateau in particular and the country at large.
The ECWA President, in a signed statement, urged the government and security agencies to track, arrest, and prosecute the perpetrators and sponsors of the heinous crime against humanity, adding that the message must be unambiguous: no one is above the law.
He appealed to relevant government agencies and NGOs to provide relief materials to the affected communities, and I also called for adequate deployment of security forces to forestall any further attacks.
“If not for reasons of genocide and ethnic cleansing, what could be the reason for such unprovoked, premeditated, simultaneous, and well-coordinated attacks on Christmas Eve against communities that are predominantly Christian? This speaks volumes about the evil intentions of the attackers and their sponsors. It is very clear that some people have vowed never to allow peace to reign on the Plateau,” he said.
Reverend Panya commended the Plateau State Governor for his swift response to the attacks and for doing all he could within his power to mobilize security agents as fast as he could to stem further carnage, adding that the attacks have again raised a number of questions.
“How possible is it for such massive and well-coordinated attacks to take place across two local government areas without any iota of intelligence? Why did security agencies fail to respond swiftly despite several distress calls? Why the choice of Christmas Eve for the attacks despite assurances from security agencies to provide adequate security during the Yuletide?
‘Why have these militias been allowed to continue doing their havoc despite the fact that their enclaves, from where they launch these heinous attacks, like Mahanga and other such enclaves, are common knowledge to the general populace and especially the security agencies?” Reverend Panya asked.
According to him, these are questions that can diminish public confidence in the government’s ability to decisively address insecurity on the Plateau and other parts of the country, adding that the questions must be sincerely answered if the tragedy is to be prevented in the future.
Reverend Panya therefore called on the Federal Government and security agencies to put a stop to the unwarranted menace and others against the Church in Nigeria and other innocent Nigerians that have been held captive in their own motherland.
He enjoined the government to do all within its power to resettle hundreds of thousands of Nigerians practically sacked from their ancestral homes by these criminal militias and other groups.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNEÂ
and then