Also yesterday, governors of the six North Central states, lamented the attacks and recent killings in Plateau State by gunmen, and asked the federal government to put a final stop to it.
Chairman of the North Central Governors Forum and governor of Nassarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, who spoke when he led his colleagues on a condolence visit to the governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, at Government House in Jos, described the killings as unacceptable.
Sule noted that the attacks had persisted for too long, insisting that the federal government must get to the roots of the problem and find a lasting solution.
The Nasarawa governor, who was by his colleagues in Niger and Benue states, said: “We are here to share with you whatever situation you find yourself. I was here on a similar sad note, together with our delegation from Nasarawa State when it happened during the period of your predecessor.
“During the period, we asked specifically for the religious leaders to be the ones in majority, because we wanted to talk directly with our religious leaders, to talk to them about the need to continue to preach peace to our people.
“When we were coming, we talked about peace that we have always enjoyed on the Plateau, the love that has always been there, the period that some of us would walk from Dilimi, Rex, Kwararafa, the New Era and back to Kasua Dareng. Those loving periods that all the people in Plateau used to enjoy. What has happened?
“Your Excellency, we came all the way to ask you to take the courage to find out the root cause of this matter because we can’t continue to live like this.”
Sule, who called on the Federal Government to get to the root of the lingering killings with a view to finding a lasting solution, said further: “We have seen a similar situation in Rwanda because I won’t call what is happening in Plateau farmers-herders crisis, it is not.
“We have seen what happened in Rwanda and luckily, all the four of us governors were there and we listened to the President of Rwanda when he told us the courage he took to invite everybody involved and look at the causes.
“We cannot allow a few people, for selfish reasons, come in and destroy all of us. This is not about Fulani, it is about criminals. And we are asking the federal government to assist us and deal with the problem.”
Responding, Governor Mutfwang thanked the governors for their concern over the situation in Plateau, noting that the people of the region were meant for unity and progress and not division.
He said none of the six states in the North Central had been spared by bandits, stressing that the region must unite and pull their resources together if banditry must be defeated in the component states.
He said the road between Wamba and Panyam had been a safe haven for terrorists because of its dilapidated condition and called on the federal government to intervene on the road as well as that leading from Abuja to Jos.
