RE: my worries(wrote this two months ago) A seething swamp of untamable angst points to the dangerously frayed social fabric in Plateau State. Massacre of innocent indigenes from one local government area to the other is becoming the order of the day. Just last week on this platform residents expressed hope of a return to peace but it appears that these blood sucking demons had no patience to allow the words drop from their mouths before striking yet another blow on the state. Like gangrene this crisis is spreading from the capital city to the local government areas with the latest killings of 11 villagers in parts of Langtang North and Wase Local government councils with dangerous consequences even for the whole nation. It is easy to stand aloof and imagine that Plateau‘s problem is Plateau’s let them handle it. Still a careful observer and a well travelled Nigerian know that the heterogeneity and agricultural contributions of Plateau State is too important to be toyed with. “If this continues we shall all at some point feel the heat of the after effect of the Plateau cancer” laments Ademola Adewole a resident of Lekki area of Lagos state who did his national youth service in the state in the year 2000. But questions must be asked of the security arrangement in Plateau State. What security outfit stays in an area for over 10 years yet it is always caught drowsing during attacks on the very people it is employed to protect? They are never just around it is either they have just been withdrawn is the story or they were overpowered by the superior gun power of the enemy leading to scampering for their dear lives,” Badung Mancha a Mechanic wonders. A stout looking middle age man Badung is piqued more by the colossal waste of security vote lavished on the STF, the Police and other security operatives in the State. “I know the rank and file in STF takes home daily N3000, you can imagine the take home for officers and this is aside their salaries and other sources of income as you will correctly suspect. Tell me is this not strong enough reason for the STF to do any thing in their power to perpetuate their stay on the streets of Plateau rather than return to the barracks? This is a conspiracy and it is on the altar of the lives of innocent Plateau citizens that it is being sacrificed”. To underscore Badung’s suspicion take as a case in point the attack on the once peaceful and isolated unit of the Jos North Local Council Area called Maza Ward. Maza is a valley with no road linking it to the main town and according to the eye witness who spoke with our correspondent “we were attacked on Friday night by unidentified gunmen they killed two harmless indigenes of Maza, first they entered the village and started shooting sporadically into the air as part of their strategy to scar the villagers out of their houses into the open where they could easily finish them off unfortunately two of our sons were fell by their bullets. The eye witness with anger written on his face and still fuming over the loss of his kinsmen demanded an explanation from the soldiers. Such anger and questions suggest the people are wary of the presence of the STF around their villages which seem to give rise to the continuous faltering struggle for peace in the area. This recent killings underpins this assumption. “A week earlier the soldiers who had been in Maza all the while where withdrawn, then suddenly there was an attack on the community by unidentified gunmen. Remember Maza has no access road and is in a valley so how did they manage their way into the village if they do not have a good knowledge of the area”? The eye witness probes. Tales like this are only one in a long list of orgies of killings that have continued unrepressed in the State that once prided herself as the home of “peace and tourism” thus giving rise to cynics wondering if this should not be changed to a home of “tension and massacre”? The Special Task Force (STF) through its spokesman however is selling a different version of the story. According to him it was not an attack rather it was a case of ritual ceremony being carried out by hunters, so when the people heard gunshots especially during these times of insecurity they started running helter-skelter. I am not aware that people were killed in the process”. Capt. Mustapha said. Question time-how could the villagers in Maza not know of their own traditional rituals and the rites that go with it? Why would hunters who know too well the slippery nature of the state of insecurity in the area shot in the dead of night? Where is STF’s intelligence gathering prowess or is it a half baked job the love doing that they were able to confirm that the unrest was a ritual ceremony of hunters but could not know if any one was killed in the process? Nigerians may seem lethargic in reacting unlike their Maghreb brothers to issues likes this, but surely not foolish not to see cracks in a fable. Let’s call a gun a gun and not a hunting implement. So far many villages in Langtang North, Langtang South, Wase and Kanam have been rummage through and pillaged. Zango, Karkashi, Mavo and Kurmi Gajere are near desolate lands now. These villages have been home to farmers of Rice, Maize, Beans Mango and other food items with a large band of herds, flocks, chickens and even dogs. “My family and I are taking refuge in Yakot destrict of Pilgani in Langtang North local government area, my goats and farm produce have been destroyed and some looted in kurmi in wase local government area where we used to live, feeding is now a problem for my family and it is a makeshif shelter that is housing us. The condition is pityable and regretable”. Narrates Miri Mamven a farmer”. Situations like this in the past have brought about repraisal attacks on innocent citizens especially those passing through the affected area thankfully the government in the State was able to reduce this inherent mindless reprisal killings of passersby by swiftly dialoguing with the traditional rulers of these Local Government areas. Were it not for this wisdom we would be going back to the days of indiscriminate killings of innocent citizens travelling through the affected areas. Kumdul Lamle a youth in Langtang North said the Ponzhi Taroh HRH Domkat Bali was able to “appeal to the youths not to engage in killing passersby as such senseless killings is not good”. This would indeed appear as the gains of the meeting the Commissioner for Information and Communication Mr. Yiljap Abraham the former General Manager of Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTV) had with the traditional rulers, security chiefs and authorities of Kanam, Wase Langtang North and Langtang South. According to Abraham who hails from Shendam Local Government Area one of the most commercially developed town in the State, he said “we had a frank and comprehensive discussion which focus on analyzing the factors that led to the violence in these areas as well as the tension they had been witnessing”. How much longer can talks like this hold together an area that appears only to be hanging loosely on a tiny thread remains a puzzle in the minds of Nigerians. “It has been 12 agonizing years and still counting since peace ceased to exist in this rocky and cold unit of Nigeria called Plateau State if left entirely on its own this inferno will gradually but surely consume us all. We are calling on the Federal Government and the international community to more than ever before pay serious attention to what is brewing in Plateau State lest it becomes a pogrom. We are tired of hired mercenaries, herdsmen and marauding raiders in army uniforms killing us like fowls on our own soil”. Lohnan Nkem a Primary School Teacher in Langtang South cries out. So, the next time you have irish potatoes for breakfast whether you live in Lekki, Victoria island, Maitama or Wuse know it came from the blood-letting soil of Plateau State-Jos North, Jos South, Riyom, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Mangu, probably for lunch you had Pounded Yam or Amala possibility the yam that was use in preparing it came from Langtang South, Mikang, Shendam, Qua’anpan and parts of Wase Local Government Councils. If you have listened to some Nigerian songs you will recalled this line “you are as beautiful as tomato Jos” or “my tomato Jos”. Just pause and think what will happen to the cultivation of this food crops and vegetables and there eventual prices in the market should Plateau State continue in this mindless evil game of bloodbath? It is obvious we are all stakeholders in this matter as you would have come to understand no matter where you reside in Nigeria one way or the other. If you do not cry loud enough now to save the situation there is no knowing when it might be your turn. Another disturbing shot to this debilitating and helpless situation is the angle raised by the Center for Advocacy of Justice and Rights a Jos based non-governmental organization through its Programme Manager Mr. Adeniran Joseph to journalists “there will be hunger in the State, increase in poverty high rate of crime and a high rate of the Human Immune Deficiency Virus HIV syndrome also the democratic structure of the State and the dividends of democracy may once more be lost”. As you read this piece you may as well hold still in expectation of yet another gory tale out of plateau state so do not change the channel as they will tell you in the electronic media.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:35:20 +0000
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