Acts of Terror on the Plateau: Concerned Plateau Youths release press statement

Distinguished Gentlemen of the Press, local and international,

The long suffering Plateau people,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We bring you greetings from the traumatized men, women and children from Plateau State. Perhaps we should start this address with a troubling story.

Esther, a 13 year old is a native of Bangai village in Riyom LGA. Sometime in May 2015, Gunmen invaded the calm of her village, sending the young and old scampering for safety, killing defenseless children, including infants. In a bid to escape the marauders, Esther fell over a hard object and ruptured her bladder. Determined to live, she dragged herself away from the theatre of blood and tears. Somehow she found herself in one of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp. Esther is happy to be alive, but she is now unable to hold urine, she is unable to go to school.

Life has dealt her a terrible blow as a result of the continues attacks Esther’s story is a story that reflects the nightmare that has become real to the entire Plateau people: a threat to live and livelihood. Friends, Permit me, sirs, to give a summary of the nightmare that our lives have become in the past decade. The attacks on Plateau state started over 10 years ago. Things got to a climax on the 10th March 2010 with the Dogo Nahawa massacre, where over 500 men, women and children were slaughtered in a cowardly dawn attack, over 400 people were killed in Kadarko. From then on, we have not known peace. Our tormentors have moved from village to village, killing and burning our houses.

From May this year, the attacks have increased in frequency and intensity. An average of 10 people are killed every week in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bokkos and other places on the Plateau people displaced with about 300 houses razed to rubble. The month of June has also been a nightmare for the people of Barkin Ladi and Riyom. Over 20 villages have been attacked in well-coordinated attacks. In the first 10 days of July, we have witnessed quite a number of attacks already.

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a humanitarian crisis in the offing. At the present moment, there are over 50,000 internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) stationed in various camps. This number of IDPs would have been higher, but for the kindness of individuals and churches who took many families and children into their homes.

Additional reports confirmed that between January to date, over 276 persons have been killed while 350 persons escaped death with mortal injuries. At the last count, only this year, about 40 villages have been attacked many of them totally burn down and destroyed by the attackers. Some of these villages have been attacked more than once.

The killing of infants, children and women is a tragedy, a nightmare and it should leave a scar on society’s conscience. We have lived this nightmare for over 10 years. Our people have left their ancestral homes, they have abandoned their farms. Children have left school, and they are cramped in IDP camps, with no facilities, no food, no water. The present is bleak; the future holds no promise. This has become our sad reality.

We want to restate our confidence in the government, both state and national, to resolve this humanitarian crisis and begin to administer healing to our battered and bruised people. We appreciate the effort that the governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has made in initiating discussions to bring lasting peace, We are confident this effort will bear fruit. We also acknowledge the effort of the Special Task Force in curtailing and forestalling these senseless attacks. We are however worried that the attacks on our people have continued in spite of the heavy presence of the STF. We are convinced that the strategy they have used in containing this crisis needs to be reworked.

We also note with concern the half-hearted effort by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in providing primary relief to the Internally Displaced Persons. The IDPs live in squalor and want, and are only able to survive by the donations of kindhearted individuals, churches and corporate citizens. We understand NEMA’s handicap but this situation is urgently important

PRAYERS:

1. We call on the Federal Government to strengthen the operations and intelligence of the STF in Plateau state.

2. The Federal government should allow the existence of a Civilian STF Vigilante just as it is provided in some the North Eastern states.

3. We call on NEMA to urgently provide first-line relief to IDPs.

4. We call on Plateau State Government to prioritize its effort in ensuring lasting peace on the plateau.

5. Victims of these terrorist attacks should be resettled, rehabilitated and compensated in a similar fashion as planned for victims of terror attacks in the North East.

6. We urge the Federal Government to profile and classify these attacks as acts of terrorism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, our goal is to mourn and to draw attention to our plight on the Plateau. We therefore appeal strongly to the federal government, the international community and the United Nations to address this genocide and terrorism immediately.

Long live Plateau State, the Home of Peace and Tourism

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria