The Plateau Tragedy: Enough Is Enough

For the umpteenth time, the nation has been thrown into another round of mourning following the dastardly killing of more than 100 villagers in Plateau State by members of the Islamic fundamentalist sect, Boko Haram, who invaded nine villages between Saturday and Sunday.

The invaders, it was learnt, wore Army camouflage uniforms and unleashed the most heinous attack on villagers, shooting and burning their homes.

Among the dead were two lawmakers, Senator Dantong Gyang, Chairman, Senate Committee on Health and the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani.

The manner of death of the lawmakers was particularly painful. They had gone to attend a mass funeral for more than twenty men, women and children gruesomely killed in Barakin Ladi Local Government Area on Saturday when heavily armed men in military uniforms descended on them and others. In the ensuing melee, the lawmakers slumped and died before they could be rushed to the hospital.

As usual, President Goodluck Jonathan has offered his condolences to the families of the victims and directed security agents to fish out the perpetrators to face the full wrath of the law.

Apart from the president, both the Senate President, David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, have condemned the killings and called for a halt to bloodletting on the Plateau.

In the first place, we find it difficult to believe that such a heinous killing of a large number of people can take place within the purview of security agents in a local government placed under emergency rule by the Federal Government.

We consider the outpouring of grief by these political leaders, especially Mr. President, as a mockery of a serious situation requiring urgent solution. The outpourings of these government officials can best be described as shedding of crocodile tears in the face of a serious national calamity.

It is not the first time that the sectarian strife in Plateau will claim lives. In fact, it has been going on for years and nothing concrete has been done to stop the bloodshed. Various fact-finding missions have been set up on the violence in Plateau between the indigenes, the Berom, and the Fulani settlers, but nothing has been done on their recommendations.

Why is it that the various governments have found it difficult to implement the reports of the panels set up on the Plateau crisis? It is our opinion that the non implementation of the various reports on the violence in Plateau has created the impression that government lacks the political will to resolve the problem facing the state. Indirectly, government inaction has led those fuelling the crisis to believe that they can get away with murder.

The impunity with which the perpetrators of the killings of Saturday and Sunday carried out the attacks on peaceful residents showed that they have confidence that they can never be held accountable for their action, and that as always, government will set up a panel of inquiry into the murders and that is all we will hear until another dastardly killings take place.

This is why we say enough is enough. President Jonathan must move swiftly to get to the bottom of the violence in Plateau, identify the culprits and bring them to book. The killings must stop. It is not enough for the president and others in position of authority to continue to lament after every gruesome killing of innocent civilians in Plateau, concrete steps must be taken to stop the mayhem.

The sectarian killings in Jos which some have labelled ethnic cleansing must be halted now.

President Jonathan must demonstrate the political will to stop the pogrom in Plateau.