APPARENTLY, uneasy has been the calm in Plateau State since suspected Fulani herders launched a carnage on communities in Mangu Local Government Area of the state recently, cutting down hundreds of souls in cold blood. The terrorists launched attacks on several communities, including Fungzai and Kubwat, burning houses, destroying farmlands and killing more than 100 people. According to Solomon Maren, a member of the House of Representatives from Mangu/Bokkos Federal Constituency, 17 communities were affected in the pogrom. This was just as leaders of the affected communities accused the Federal Government and the security agencies of lacking the capacity and political will to defend minority groups in the state, lamenting the refusal of the immediate past governor of the state, Simon Lalong, to show up and sympathise with them. The killing left over 130 people dead and more than 20,000 displaced even as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) commendably called for restraint and spoke out forcefully against reprisals.
And the people are still licking their wounds. For instance, on Sunday, the President of the Baptist Conference in Plateau State, Rev. Keoleh Saleh,said 50 members of the church, including a pastor, were killed in recent attacks in Mangu and Barkin Ladi Local Councils of the state. Speaking in Jos, the state capital, Saleh added that over 500 members were also displaced. He said: “This unfortunate carnage affected the Baptist Church seriously. In Kantoma, where we have a big church, we lost over 31 members, including a moderator. Twenty-three women were made widows on account of the attack. We lost nine members in Jwak Maitumbi, and a member in Kombili. Most of our members displaced in over 10 local churches are taking refuge in different places. We have located four centres in Jos metropolis where a family is hosting between 10 and 20 people, and we have over 200 displaced persons in Jos. We have 50 in Barkin Ladi, over 200 in Salama Baptist Church in Mangu and 78 others that include 44 little children at Bwarak, Pankshin.”
In the same vein, the Kaduna State chapter of CAN lamented that with hours to the exit of former President Muhammadu Buhari from office, 15 worshippers abducted in the state were still in captivity. Rev. John Joseph Hayab, the state CAN chairman, said: “CAN is worried. CAN is disturbed. I can say CAN is in a mood of mourning, instead of us to be thinking of what would happen in the next 24 hours. Sincerely, as an association, we are worried about our people.” This, to say the least, unfortunate. It is almost as if there is no government in place, yet somebody is/was being paid to protect the longsuffering people of Plateau State.
Although there is a new government in place whose attitude to the killings in Plateau and many other places across the country is yet to be made clear, there are valid grounds for believing that the Federal Government as an institution is not interested in stemming the flow of innocent blood in Plateau State. Since the onset of the present Republic in 1999, but particularly in recent years, Plateau State has literally been a human abattoir, with government after government trying unsuccessfully to bring the situation under control, or in some cases doing nothing at all. Indeed, the situation is so bad that Nigerians do not even see killings by nomadic herders as news anymore. They merely wink at such news and move on. Benue, Plateau and Southern Kaduna have become theatres of blood in recent years without the government doing anything to arrest the carnage. The message is clear: the killers can do as they please.
It has been killings galore on the plateau with villages and towns witnessing massive and unceasing attacks from bandits, widely believed to be outlaw herdsmen, resulting in heavy fatalities. We have written for so long on these killings as to become a tad boring and monotonous, but human life is involved and we do not have any other choice but to continue speaking out until the government bestirs itself and acts decisively. The government ought not to leave the people at the mercy of criminal herdsmen who derive joy from the wanton killing of defenceless citizens. We expect it to offer the right kind of security architecture in terms of state or community policing that would ensure that criminals do not have the liberty to kill people for fun. The government should stop these killings; it has condoned the excesses of the terrorists for far too long.
Those presiding over the affairs of government ought to feel ashamed that scores of people continue to be routinely killed under their watch. We do not think Nigerians deserve to have these unceasing spillage of blood in peace time because of the irresponsibility of the government and its security forces. The government has to be called upon by all humans of goodwill to stop the bloodshed forthwith.
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