By Tunde Abatan
The big question on the lips of all concerned is ..who will put a stop to the boiling caldron Plateau state, a hitherto very peaceful state -once haven of tourists,both local and foreign, have been subjected to in the last twenty years when the monster of ethno religious crises reared its ugly head.
Lalong
It’s assumed a new dimension in 2001 when christian/Muslim clashes around Jos,the state capital left 913 people dead.
Several other incidents have followed,yet no concrete effort was made by successive governments at stopping the spiraling violence.
It is on record that the Plateau theatre of violence was also enabled by the Jihadist insurgence in the North East part of Nigeria which encouraged the state to become a flashpoint for ethnic strife which pitted Christians and Muslim youths against each other.
But after several years of unendying violence with the state actors supporting the Fulani settlers,the turning point came August 16,when a group of Irigwe,a dominant ethnic group led by its youths determined to excert their pound of flesh. This was in obvious retaliatory action against state backed Fulani youths who rampaged with no state caution over the years killing and maiming the indigenous communities.
They mobilized and attack a convoy of 90 moslems travelling in the outskirts of Jos, the capital and at the end of the day left about 22 dead.
As expected the federal government led by instructions from President Muhammadu Buhari,order the police chief Alkali Baba to fish out the ‘criminals’.
This this is the anti climax of struggles between mainly Fulani normadic herders and indigenous Christian farmers over control of resources like water and land.
Police and military wasted no time in ‘identifying’ the Irigwe christian youths as culpable as the convoy attacked was said to be coming from a Moslem festival up North.
Indeed, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association,an association in which President Buhari is Patron, wasted no time in pointing accusing fingers at the local Irigwe youths.
“Irigwe youths militia attacked and used cutlasses,matchetes,
knives and stone to kill them, Malam Nura Abdullahi, a local MACBAN local representatives declared adding”,we have prepared up to 25 dead bodies for burial”.
“It is very unfortunate that we have this ugly incident,at which innocent travellers,are intercepted,attacked as a result of which 25 people are now confirmed killed”declared Danladi Atu,a state government official.
State governor Simon Lalong also condemn the attack while the police through its spokesman, Makut Macham said six person’s have been arrested and ‘security beefed up around the area”.
Arrests were made,local populace traumatized as a result of directives this time around to identify culprits as against the past and many indigenous local clamped into detention.
As if this was not enough, Tuesday August 24 ,barely one week after the previous attack when travellers were killed along Rukuba road, was another bloody day when 35 locals were killed along Gada-Biyu-Dukuba road in Jos North local government area.
This is in spite of drafting of military and police personnel along the route a week earlier.
Ironically,the location of this latest attack is not far from the University of His which housed students and lecturers from all parts of Nigeria.
However,some state governors from the South like Enugu and Oyo are wiser as they’ve evacuated their student indigenes from the school before the latest Fulani herders reprisals.
Plateau Police spokesman ASP Gabriel Ubah confirmed the incident adding,”we are aware of the incident,I will brief later”.
With the killing field which Plateau has turned into,it has joined Benue another predominantly Christian state where Fulani herders backed by terrorists masquerading as bandits have killed hundreds in the past five years and made farming by indigents a difficult task.
It has out it’s state governor, Samuel Ortom, in perpetual conflict with the Presidency who he accused of turning a blind eye to atrocities of Fulani herders visiting violence on the state as a result of ban on open grazing by the state government through its state assembly law.
For now,incidents in Plateau has compounded the ethno religious crisis in the Northern part of Nigeria as North East reeking under the activities of Islamic insurgents led by Boko Haram,ISWA and the bandits cum terrorists roaming freely in North West states of Zamfara, Jigawa, Katsina and principally Kaduna the political capital of the North.
The question now is with inability of a sitting President Buhari,who is a retired general unable to give a good fight to ethno religious conflict which has paralysed social economic life of a region now regarded by World Bank as the poverty capital of the world, who will save the North and indeed Nigeria?
