*ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY RT. HON. SIMON BAKO LALONG DURING THE CONDOLENCE VISIT OF HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI GCFR TO PLATEAU STATE ON TUESDAY, 26TH JUNE, 2018 AT THE BANQUET HALL, NEW GOVERNMENT HOUSE, LITTLE RAYFIELD, JOS*
PROTOCOL
(A Minute silence for the souls of the departed)
Mr. President, I welcome you to Jos on your commiseration visit to the people of Plateau State over the unfortunate attacks on helpless citizens of our State in several villages in the Northern Senatorial District of Razat, Ruku, Nyarr, Kura and Gana-Ropp, villages in Gashish District and other villages in Bassa, Bokkos and Mangu Local Government Areas of the State which preceded the current attacks earlier in the year. This current attack, Your Excellency Mr. President, is very disturbing and alarming because it has left behind in its ugly trail the painful loss of over 200 people, besides the humanitarian challenge confronting thousands of displaced persons whose houses and crops have been burnt and completely destroyed.
Your visit is no doubt comforting, coming less than 24 hours after the visit of Mr. Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo GCON. This visit gives us the confidence to open up the grief in our hearts today, given the punctuation of the peace which we have worked so hard to achieve in the almost three years of our assumption of office. The gory pictures of the killing of innocent citizens, women and children continuous to torment our hearts and its sends the serious message that something drastic needs to be done comprehensively, to nip once and for all the ugly menace of attacks that has come to be associated with suspected Militia Herdsmen. These reoccurring attacks have regrettably open up space for all manners of criminality by criminal elements and conflict merchants, who engage daily in cattle rustling, theft, banditry, gun running and other forms of crimes amongst our citizens.
Mr. President, your Government has made it clear and you have eloquently stated that you will continue to protect and preserve the sanctity of life. Agents of destabilization are however hell bent on making nonsense of the success you have achieved in dealing with internal security threats to our corporate existence as a Nation. Our State is a beneficiary of the several measures put in place; on your instruction, the Nigeria Police has established a new Mobile Police Squadron in the Southern Zone of the State, and the Nigeria Air Force has also established a Rescue Search and Combat Command at Kerang in the Central Senatorial District of Plateau State all in bid to activate crises response time of the Security.
While we are looking forward to the security gains that will emanate from this established Security Bases, we have again been confronted with renewed attacks which have left us with increased man-made humanitarian crises as a result of the condemnable and reprehensible conducts of the haters of our peace and humanity.
Mr. President, your able deputy has conveyed some measures of hope to us, with the pronouncement that a Ten Billion Naira (N10bn) Special Intervention Fund has been set aside as palliative for farmers in flash points of recurring attacks and violent inter-ethnic conflicts that have been ravaged on account of same.
We cannot fail to acknowledge that as an immediate measure, you have directed a military deployment of Artillery Wares, Air Patrol Combat Helicopters, Intelligence Surveillance and Recognizance Air Craft as well as the deployment of a Special Police Intervention Force to be supervised by the DIG Operations. This quick response is deeply appreciated and would be most commendable if as an Operational Response Measure, it brings to an end these attacks and produces the perpetrators for prosecution.
We are concerned as a State that sophisticated weapons used in these attacks, from the evidences on ground and the narrations of victims are not those conventional to our environment for self defense reflective of a terrorist invasion. It therefore demands a justified response like that which was undertaken to address the Boko Haram Insurgency.
Mr. President, further to the measures already put in place to halt these attacks, I feel obliged to request that you direct security Agencies to immediately commence arms mop up in these areas of conflicts, we subscribe to a house to house and community to community search for illegal weapons that have been stock piled in Plateau State. The current directive of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to all Police Formations to mop up illegal arms must have the activity time-line for the measurement of compliance. This your Excellency, should be done ahead of any resettlement or reintegration plans into communities that have been forcefully evicted and taken over by these Armed herdsmen.
Mr. President, given the number of villages that have been completely ravaged, I wish to re-echo the earlier requests we made as a State for an Emergency Special Intervention Fund to help us reconstruct our ravaged communities. We had argued seriously for the inclusion of Plateau in the North-East Reconstruction fund, but this did not find the favour of the Legislature. Now that you have seen the enormity of the peace building responsibility in our hand, we wish to plead with you to give Plateau State a special consideration in this regards.
A further issue of concern which has exacerbated the situation at hand is the spade of hate speeches that have characterized the narrations surrounding the violent attacks. Some of these statements credited to certain groups and persons are suggestive of a pre-meditated action that is well coordinated. No justification can be given for the spate of attacks we have witnessed neither can there be any justification for the community insulation of crime and ownership of criminals.
We strongly condemn a situation where there is community insulation of crime and the community ownership of criminals. I have stated in my several Press Releases and State Address in the wake of these attacks, that any group or group of persons who set us to inflame and aggravate the current situation will face the full wrath of the law. The blocking of roads and killings of innocent commuters will not be tolerated and security operatives have taken drastic measures to ensure they apprehend any youth involved in this dastardly act.
What is also totally condemnable in these attacks on communities Mr. President, is the burning of places of worship to give it a religious coloration. We are determined not to allow Conflict Merchants to sustain these conflicts through the introduction of religious sentiments into it. Already political opportunists are seeking to draw capital out of it and regrettably, even while the deceased are yet to be committed to mother earth and the grieves of the victims still fresh.
Mr. President, a lot no doubt rest on your shoulder and we can only pray for the wisdom and courage to address all the issues that are begging for your attention in the Country.
As a Rescue Administration of the All Progressives Congress Government which you lead, we wish to assure you that we stand with you, shoulder to shoulder in your efforts to solve the myriad of challenges confronting us as a Nation, in your quest to bequeath to posterity a stable and virile nation.
Once again, I thank you for identifying with our grief as a State and I pledge our total support for your administration as we work together towards the promise land of sustainable peace in Nigeria.
Thank you for your kind attention and God bless Nigeria.
Rt. Hon. Dr. Simon Bako Lalong
Executive Governor
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