A group Equity International on Tuesday called on the Federal government to intensify action to halt the unabated killings and provide humanitarian support to communities that have come under attacks by gunmen in Mangu and Bokkos local government council of Plateau state.
Our correspondent reports that gunmen had on the 24th of December 2023 attacked over 20 communities in Bokkos local government council of Plateau state killing over 200 persons.
Similarly, gunmen also attacked some communities in Mangu local government council of the state last week killing several persons and destroying properties.
Equity International said ” We are calling on Federal Government and security agencies to immediately reclaim and secure all abandoned farmlands, and abandoned homes so that all the farmers who left their ancestral lands can feel safe to return to their communities and their farmlands.”
” We are also calling on the National Emergency Management Agency to intensify humanitarian support to all the affected communities.
Ambassador Chris Iyama, who spoke on behalf of Equity International lamented that at least 230 innocent people within just a month were killed in the state.
He added that” What is most painful about these unfortunate killings is that people were preparing to celebrate Christmas and in the dead of the night, they were slaughtered.
“The enemies of humanity slaughter women, children and few weeks old newborn babies. ”
” What is more worrisome is that these attacks went on unabated for hours without restraint from security agencies or anyone else.As an organisation, we condemn this unprovoked attack on humanity, regardless of the reasons behind them.
” There is no justification for the killing of innocent people at night in their sleep”.
“We wish to call on government at all levels to do the needful in ensuring that the perpetrators are arrested and made to pay in accordance with the law.
“He also said that ” We are aware that the Plateau State Governor does not command troops to make arrests, hence we are calling on the National Assembly to expedite action and pass the law to enable for the creation of State Police so that Governors can take swift actions considering that they are the first respondents in the event of any security problems.”
In his words ” We wish to also call for immediate initiation of modalities to compensate communities whose property and farmlands were destroyed, thereby creating huge implication for food security and scarcity in the coming days. ”
” This is because the communities attacked are one of the largest farming communities in Plateau State and Nigeria at large.”
” We are particularly concerned about these attacks because they seem to be targeting our Christian communities and Churches, this to us is an attempt to systematically annihilate our brethren in Plateau State. ”
According to the group ” We fear that this is nothing but pure act of terrorism and genocide against the plateau people and the nation at large.”
” We call on security agencies to live up to their responsibilities in protecting innocent and helpless citizens.”
” We are deeply concerned that these attacks attended, inspite of the visit of the federal government led by the vice president earlier in the month and security security chiefs to the affected local government and communities, we have not recorded significant progress with security in the affected areas.”
According to reports, most of the communities are not accessible and these are the claims of the military and other security agencies.
The claims that most of the communities affected are not accessible laughable and the same time heart breaking because we wonder how election materials get to those places during election and anytime the politicians are seeking for their votes. Our security agencies have no other business but to secure lives and properties.
We are calling on the federal government and security agencies to intensify efforts in securing the lives of our brothers and sisters in rural communities in the state ,they further added.
