GOVERNOR Caleb Mutfwang has slammed the Federal Government’s “lack of political will” to flush out marauding terrorists on the Plateau, stating that insurgents have been occupying schools in the state’s Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area for five years without being dislodged.
Mutfwang, who appeared on today Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, stated the Plateau issue has worsened because no arrests have been made by security officers.
A distraught Mutfwang termed as “unprovoked” Christmas Eve simultaneous attacks on over 15 communities in the state’s Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas. So far, over 115 people have been killed in the latest attacks, with dozens more injured and hundreds of homes set on fire.
“We must stop this carnage,” the governor said matter-of-factly, adding that security agents “cannot continue with this reactionary strategy but be proactive”.
“As I am talking to you today, in Barkin-Ladi Local Government, schools have been occupied by these terrorists for some years now. Not less than 64 communities have been displaced and the lands have been taken over by these marauding terrorists,” he added.
The governor further noted that he would approach President Bola Tinubu and request that he gives clear instructions to security agents to protect the people on the Plateau against their land-grabbing attackers.
He said, “I will be talking to Mr President on this. We need to summon the political will to give instructions to security agencies to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and even the internal integrity of our land boundaries.”
Mutfwang stated that the Plateau’s ongoing attacks were not unrelated to land issues, adding that non-aboriginal residents can obtain land on the Plateau but not by violence.
“There are ways of acquiring lands, not through violence and we must be able to resort to constitutionalism in dealing with these issues.
“People who want land on the Plateau are free to approach the communities, negotiate and settle in those communities. I don’t think people will refuse but where they resort to violence to take over those lands, you will be sure that this is a time bomb because it will reach a time when people react, and we are going to have a large-scale conflict. I pray we don’t get to that point.”
Mutfwang further bemoaned that part of the problem on the Plateau stemmed from the fact that no arrests or prosecutions had been made in connection with the heinous attacks throughout the years.
“Part of the problem we have is that so far, there have been no arrests, no prosecution, and as far as we do not confront this issue headline, some people feel their attackers are being protected.”
He said, “Under the last regime, the feeling of the people in Plateau State, particularly the victims of these terrorist attacks, is that, it looks as if the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them because little or nothing was done to repel these attacks.
“I can tell you, that these schools that are being occupied didn’t start now; some of those schools have been occupied for the last three to five years. Children in those schools have had to relocate, and primary healthcare centres have been abandoned.”
