My worst fear is gradually becoming a reality, by politicizing security, the government spanning 18 yrs have successfully succeeded in creating monsters.
From 2001 when the first blood was shed, the issue of insecurity has been passed from Dariye to Jang & now to Lalong & tomorrow may be to someone else.
As a measure to checkmate the security challenges in the state, several commissions of inquiries has been constituted who made far reaching recommendations which never gets to see the light of day.
Several publications have been written prominent amongst them is the one by PIDAN which has also been allowed to gather dust in the archives of the government.
Of recent, plateau has been thrown into mourning by the activities of killer herdsmen who destroy lives, farmlands & properties of natives. It's even more worrisome that the mere presence of security agents which ordinarily should drive fear into the hearts of anyone trying to cause disharmony has not helped the situation as the attacks on innocent villagers has continued unabated. This has left locals rightly questioning the sincerity of security agents & officers deployed to protect such places.
The utterances made by government & the leadership of the umbrella body of the Fulanis are such that easily raise suspicion as to the sincerity of government in curbing the menace from the roots. With each attack, MIYETTI Allah has on several occasion made indicting statements that seem to justify such cowardly attacks while the government always seems to look the otherway unlike the treatment given to clerics of other faiths who are usually rounded up by men of the DSS everytime they raise their voices against the manner the government is handling the situation.
With the recent killings of over 200 person's which lasted for two days in three local governments & over eight villages, one is tempted to pick up arms to defend himself.
Most worrisome is the behavior of youths around Kuru, maraban jamaa, zawan, Du to Doi who mounted road blocks killing & destroying cars of even indigens who do not speak the same local dialect, tribes like the Ngas of pankshin & the taroks of langtang & goemai of shendam amongst others were casualties at the roadblocks .
It's on record that over 15 indigens of plateau were gruesomely murdered while a number of non indigens like the igbos & siyawa tribe of Bauchi were amongst the victims. People were killed for being members of a political party like the case of the APC chairman of Bogoro in Bauchi state. It is alleged that an ambulance belonging to Bauchi university teaching hospital conveying a sick patient was vandalized & hospital staff attached to the ambulance with the patient were killed by the youths on the same road.
Survivors or escapee stories leaves a bitter taste to the mouth & an unpleasant imagination to the heart which is only compared to a scene in a horror movie. The pattern or sequence of attacks leaves one wondering if the killers at the roadblocks actually value the unity of plateau people or even acknowledge that as plateau people, we all have a common enemy who are the killer herdsmen, not commuters while the state owned media & other media houses has maintained a conspiracy of silence on the killings.
It's worthy of note that Benue, Taraba, Zamfara & Adamawa has in recent times also suffered similar attacks but it has never been recorded that a Tiv man mounts road blocks & kills an idoma man because of an attack by herdsmen or a jukun from Taraba killing and vandalizing a kutep man car as a reaction to killings by herdsmen in Mambilla, rather, these tribes have risen together, joined forces & stood as brothers to resist any & all attacks on their people.
The purpose of this piece is to call the attention of plateau elders to the implications of allowing such unfortunate incidents to persist & also to caution perpetrators of such acts to desist from it.
if left unchecked, these pattern of attacks are capable of sparking religious, ethnic & political crises in the state thereby truncating the relative peace we have enjoyed over the years.
I also want to believe that plateau are one people regardless of our religion, ethnic & political affiliation. We can't afford to be fighting on two fronts, while killer Fulani herdsmen are killing our people on one hand, we are killing each other on the other hand.
May God arise & let the enemies of Plateau be scattered.
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