Jonathan Nwokpor
Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has warned that Nigeria would end up in a position similar to war-torn Somalia if quick action is not taken to stop the ongoing violence that is taking lives in the state.
The governor, worried about the ongoing cycle of violence, urged important leaders to work together to address the underlying issues and offer workable answers.
Governor Mutfwang issued the warning during a conversation with former House Speaker Yakubu Dogara. On Saturday in Jos, Dogara led a group of current and former House members on a condolence visit to express grief over the recent massacre that claimed over 200 lives in the local government areas of Bokkos and Barkin Ladi.
According to him: “It is unfortunate that this cycle has continued for years. We are praying that as a nation we will get it right so that we toe the path of justice and don’t allow people to slip into self-help, because once we allow the people to go into self-help, we will become another Somalia.
“I think I can, with all boldness, say that I see a desire for a shift with the current president. I see a desire to change the narratives, rewrite the story and get things right. I have interacted with him a couple of times, and I think he carries a burden to end this violence.
“What we need is a mass of critical leaders to rally round him to be able to expand his scope so that he understands the root and immediate causes of these problems and to proffer solutions.”
Mutfwang said further: “There is an economy that has been built around this insecurity. We need to know who the financiers are and who paid for the hundreds of AK-47 rifles. Where did they get them from?”
The governor reaffirmed his dedication to working with the federal government to put a stop to the attacks that have been occurring in Plateau for decades.
He thanked the former Speaker for consistently standing with Plateau State and urged him to continue advocating for the rights of the people rather than keeping quiet.
Dogara had, earlier in his speech, counseled President Bola Tinubu to act decisively in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief and to avoid the precedent of past leaders who only offered their condolences in the wake of killings.
He emphasized that inaction encouraged more violence and urged Tinubu to employ all resources at his disposal to find and prosecute violent offenders across the country.
His words: “The perpetrators of this violence are not just crazy but are very dangerous, and the truth is that they won’t just stop until we stop them. We must stop them. Who has the responsibility to stop them? It is the Commander-in-Chief, but previously, they reduced themselves to mourners-in-chief instead.
“It means using whatever coercive security apparatus we have as a nation to locate these perpetrators and their sponsors wherever they are littered in the ungoverned spaces that we have in Nigeria, whether in Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto or in southern Kaduna or the south; we must locate them, and after locating them, the Commander-in-Chief must take justice to them or bring them to justice.”
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