In January 2010, I wrote the following: “The fact simply is that the Hausa/Fulani and the indigenes of Plateau State have been at loggerheads since the failed attempt to subdue the people through the Uthman Dan Fodio jihad…And rather unfortunately, the Nigerian Army has been implicated in the Jos genocide, and one cannot say when precisely the people of Plateau State, the owners of Jos, will enjoy peace on their land.” I was not being facetious: I did my NYSC programme in Dokan Kasuwa, Qua’an-Pan LG of Plateau State and I knew what the attitude of the Nigerian State to the Plateau genocide was.
On Christmas eve last year, the terrorists who have kept Nigeria’s name on the Global Terrorism Index sacked the Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat, and Butura Kampani villages of Barkin Ladi, Mangu and Bokkos areas of Plateau State, burning houses and slaughtering residents. They killed148 persons in Bokkos, where they razed1,290 houses;19 in Mangu and 27 in Barkin Ladi. The government huffed and puffed but the killers, who had boasted that they would ensure that the natives had no hands with which to eat Christmas meat, were not done. They struck in other parts of the state.
On Wednesday this week, they defied the 24-hour curfew imposed on Mangu by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, unleashing mayhem on Kwahaslalek village and the neighbouring communities. At the end of the episode, 25 villagers lay in the pool of their own blood while properties worth millions sizzled in smoke. The Wednesday murders were a direct message to Governor Mutfwang that the killings perpetrated in Mangu on Tuesday was only a prologue.
Said a survivor: “The Fulani herders killed some of our boys who were returning from a mining site. Our people came out to confront them but soldiers came and escorted them and their cows to their settlement but within a short time, some IDPs taking refuge in Mangu were passing and they attacked them.” This has been the regular pattern for decades: the “herders” slaughter Plateau people, then the so-called security agencies quickly arrest the protesting youth in the attacked communities. They have never at any time protected the people from the genocidal maniacs. I throw an open challenge: let them tell us which year, in the last 15 years, the Plateau people were not slaughtered by the herders in orgies of mindless violence!
I cited the report I now quote in my piece, Plateau of blood, but I must reference it again. It is a report by the Daily Post on July 8, 2012: “The people witnessed yet another bloodbath after a senator, Gyang Dantong, and the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Mr. Gyang Fulani, were killed while attending the mass burial of over 50 victims who died during Saturday’s attack on villages in Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government areas of Plateau state. The lawmakers were killed after it was discovered that other 50 victims, mostly women and children, were burnt inside the house of a resident pastor where they ran to during the attack on the 14 villages by the Fulani gunmen.” Did you hear that? Lawmakers attending the funeral of their people cut down by terrorists were themselves cut down by the same terrorists! The intent has never been clearer: to wipe out the indigenous population and replace them with the nomadic Fulani.
There is no need to sugarcoat what is going on in Plateau State: it is a blatant, state-enabled attempt to wipe out the indigenous populace and seize their lands. Since I wrote on the Plateau crisis in 2010, the murderers, namely nomadic herdsmen, many of them itinerant criminals from distant lands, have not ceased slaughtering the Plateau people, brandishing weapons that call the sovereignty of the Nigerian State into question. Women young and old have been raped and butchered on their farmlands; innocent school children have been massacred by these blood-thirsty agents of Lucifer. I say this with all solemnity: if the Nigerian State persists in enabling the wanton slaughter of Plateau people, then God Almighty Himself who made them will intervene. For years, politicians have looked on as the herders put people’s children and wives to the sword before their eyes. What a criminal shirking of responsibility!
The Plateau people must stop the culture of elegies and act immediately. They must organize themselves into vigilance groups and neighbourhood watches, ensuring that at all times, at least a quarter of each village is on guard duty with dane guns and whatever weapons they can find. There will still be casualties, but it is better to fight than to cower before the killer herders. The Plateau House of Assembly should pass laws allowing the people to protect themselves. On his part, Governor Mutfwang should hold a strategic meeting with his colleagues in the North Central zone and roll out the zone’s version of Amotekun. Consulting with the South-West governors, these governors should pass the laws enabling a regional security outfit without delay. May they and their children be treated as they treat the people over whom they preside.
And here is where President Tinubu comes in. I am a Tinubu critic but I have noticed three positive signs from his Presidency so far. One, Tinubu has an air of humility around him and has carried himself with some grace. Two, Tinubu actually responds to criticism and three, he seems willing to fraternize with people regardless of their political leanings. That being the case, I have chosen to summon him to action on the Plateau genocide. Dear Sir, if you really want to help the Plateau people, then liaise with Senate President Akpabio, Speaker Abbas and the chairman of the state Houses of Assembly speakers and roll out a bill enabling State Police, with modern weapons and architecture, immediately. That will give the Plateau State government, and indeed all state governments, a real opportunity to protect the people. In addition, please direct the IGP to ensure strict enforcement of laws banning open grazing in all states. May The Lord strengthen you as you heed this counsel.
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