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Rules out communal issues
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
A group, the Plateau Patriotic Front (PPF), has urged President Bola Tinubu to bring the full force of the law on those behind the killings on the Plateau, warning that they have an agenda beyond the state towards destabilising the country.
The Chairman of PPF, Mani Imman said this on Tuesday in reaction to the current killings in the Plateau.
Affirming that the killings were beyond communal issues, the group said that there were no serious communal issues in the state to have necessitated the killings in the state.
The group however, openly, called on any community in the state with an issue to open up and speak up.
The Chairman of PPF noted that the time has come for the world to know that the decades-long tactic of the attackers has been to invade communities in their numbers which natives are asleep and unleash mayhem, stealing foodstuffs, setting food barns and homes ablaze.
According to Imman: “The reduction of the very serious crimes and human rights abuses in Plateau State to a mere ‘communal issues’ is indicative that the indigenous people of Plateau State have been forgotten and condemned to a live of servitude in their ancestral lands.
“The troubling situation where communities have been sacked, the indigenous people chased out and their property forcefully converted by strange, heavily armed people should interest a comprehensive investigation by the Federal government but in the case that such is interpreted to mean, communal issues, portends a great danger to not just Plateau State but Nigeria.
“I solicit that rather than shift responsibility, the federal government should pay attention to what is happening in Plateau and nip it in the bud before the issues escalate to other parts of the nation.
“Like Governor Caleb Mutfwang said, these attacks are not random incidents. They are premeditated, coordinated, and driven by a clear and sinister agenda.”
He urged the Presidency and indeed Nigerians not to overlook the issue because as the Governor said, “While the State has grappled with various forms of criminality, such as kidnappings and cattle rustling, the violence ravaging many communities cannot be truthfully described as mere farmer-herder clashes.
“That narrative is not only misleading and dangerous, but it also disrespects the memory of those brutally murdered in cold blood.
“What we are witnessing is a calculated campaign of ethnic cleansing, an act that bears all the hallmarks of genocide. To suggest otherwise is to deny a grim and painful reality”, he said.
