The invasion of five communities and the killings of over seventy persons by unknown gunmen in Gashish and Ropp Districts of Barkin Ladi and Bokkos local government areas of Plateau State on Christmas eve have raised national and global concerns about the security of persons in the North Central region of Nigeria and murders that have gone for too long on the Plateau.
According to a statement personally signed by Hon. Kingsley Chinda, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, these murders, which have become the cyclical outcomes of inter-communal violence in Plateau State, show how grievances between communities can be turned into organised violence by unidentified groups and persons who use violent methods to address perceived differences.
When Jos was turned into an infernal theatre in 2001 in which one thousand people lost their lives, many thought that the violent expressions of differences had reached the zenith; but, unfortunately, more attacks followed in Jos, Wase, Langtang North, Langtang South, Shendam, Mikang, Qua’an Pan, Barkin Ladi, and Riyom, resulting in many deaths and the destruction of properties.
The plausible reasons of the internecine struggle of indigenes and settlers for natural resources and the inter-ethnic rivalry which ensued between ethnic groups as advanced by observers appear no longer tenable, in view of the rapidity of attacks, sophistication of invasions of communities, and the anonymity of the perpetrators of the attacks. There is something about this anonymity which makes the murders of the Plateau sinister. What is more sinister is that warning of impending attacks were unheeded by security agencies; and the lack of will of political and military powers in identifying the perpetrators and addressing the challenges posed by the violence in Plateau State. If the accounts of witnesses are to be believed, it thus stands to reason that there appears to be collusion of political and military powers in the bloodletting. That
no terrorist groups or bandits, which prominent state personages have claimed are responsible for the murders, have been apprehended and brought to account, indicates that there is more to see than meets the eyes, even when the patterns of attacks, level of organisation of attacks, modes of killings and the stealth in which the murderers appear and disappear, point to capacities that are not spontaneously acquired.
It is easy to dismiss the attacks as sheer criminality. The growing fragmentation of the terrorists movements, the building of strategic ties by the fragmented splinters of the terrorists movement breaking out, in apparent expansion beyond the north into the Christian-dominated north central region, and bandits relocating from Zamfara State, clearly suggests that criminality isn’t what’s at play. A Salafi-jihadist agenda is what these terrorists appear to pursue in a region that has historically resisted jihadist insurgents.
The point here is that the urgent matter of the expansion of insurgency should not get lost in the history of violence on the Plateau because communities being continuously sacked are continually occupied by the marauding terrorists.
The murders on the Plateau have gone on for too long. Now is the time for the military forces to put their acts together and for the State Security Service to place a handle on our national intelligence. It is a crying shame that bandits, terrorists and criminals enter our communities and wreak violence without a single person arrested. The nation-state is colluding in the murders on the Plateau.
We extend our condolences to the Government and People of Plateau State over the murders.
