April 12, (THEWILL) – The Plateau State Civil Society Organisations Forum has demanded the withdrawal of soldiers, including the Special Military Task Force operating in Plateau, noting that their presence has created a scary atmosphere of civil tensions rather than helping to restore peace in areas where there have been repeated disturbances and killings.
The Plateau CSOs Forum regretted that over two decades of the Military parading the streets of Jos in the name of peacekeeping, nothing tangible has been achieved other than sustaining the impression of tension and sooner outbursts of hostilities. Accordingly, the Forum is emphatic that soldiers be withdrawn from the security space in Plateau so that people can coexist and manage their own affairs, pointing out that if the Military had indeed been successful, this bloody experience of breakdown of peace and bloodshed should have been a thing of the past.
In a reaction to “the gruesome murder of over 50 persons, and the destruction of properties worth millions of Naira in five communities of Bokkos LGA of Plateau State”, The Forum regrets that “the body language of the Federal, State, and Local governments is not articulated and geared towards tackling insecurity”, saying that the government has at best been reactive, “leaving a lot of questions to be answered”.
According to the Forum’s Chairman, Reverend Chris Damcher, “Arrests are being made each time there is an attack, and the perpetrators who are of the Fulani extraction have never been prosecuted to deter their actions”, as he commends the Plateau State government for quick response to the needs of the IDPs, and condemned the further threats coming from the Fulani community.
The Forum also noted that “in the days when there were no soldiers on our streets and communities, the country was more at peace than the present deployment of a heavy security presence with worsening insecurity”, concluding that the “influx and spread of the Fulani in Plateau, particularly, Bokkos, Mangu, Barkin Ladi, Bassa and Riyom has endangered the lives of the citizens as the strangers remain a threat to peace.”
Thus, the Plateau CSOs Forum “condemns the Bokkos recent killings in their entirety as a setback to all the peacebuilding efforts by the Government and partners in the State.”
The Forum, therefore, maintains that “there is the urgent need for pro-activeness on the part of security agencies to stop the killings and destruction in Plateau communities.”
