• Calls for increased community vigilance and surveillance
• Our patience as a people has been overstretched beyond its elastic limits – Nde Parradang

Former Nigeria’s Comptroller General of Immigration and Senatorial Candidate of the PDP in the 2019 General Election in Plateau Central Zone, Nde David Shikfu Parradang OFR, mni has condemned in strong terms the kidnap of a Traditional Ruler, Pankwal Bogghom, His Royal Highness Alhaji Shehu Sulaiman and the unabated killings in the State.

This he made known in a Press Text as shown below:

PRESS STATEMENT FROM DAVID SHIKFU PARRADANG
21st April, 2020.

I am shocked and sad to hear news of the abduction of the PANKWAL BOGGHOM, His Royal Highness Alhaji Shehu Sulaiman, which filtered in at the wee hours of Monday 20th April, 2020 and in quick succession, the abduction of the wife and child of the REKNA of BASHAR was also announced.

We call for the immediate release of those abducted and pray for their health and well-being as they deal with this unprovoked act of terror.

Once again, this breach of our security has brought a deep sense of grief and heaviness of hearts upon us on the Plateau. Our pains keep increasing as the worsening security situation in our country as a whole and, particularly, Plateau State seems to continue down this dangerous and dark path.

This brazen attack has further cast another thick shadow of doubt and distrust in our security system. The series of crimes, armed attacks, senseless killings, banditry and kidnappings that keep recurring unabatedly in recent times and concentrated within our state without a single arrest has left a lot to be desired from our security agents.
Our patience as a people has been overstretched beyond its elastic limits.

Criminals and merchants of crimes have dared us too much and have taken enough pounds of flesh from us. They have taken their evil acts too far; and at a greatly significant cost to us. They have pushed us to the wall and we cannot go any further. We are now one step away from the edge of our limits. However, we are not giving up; it is time to act and act fast. Today it is Kanam; who knows where these agents of evil may strike next?

Looking at the way and manner that our security is constantly compromised, citizens must take the issue of their security personal. If no one seems to care about us, we must care about ourselves by taking very serious and deliberate steps to protect our communities and ancestral lands from any further encroachment by those who do not mean well for our state.

There is a serious and urgent need for community vigilance and surveillance at this time more than ever. If one has not fully appreciated the cliché, “security is everybody’s business,” the time to do that is NOW. We must operate within every legal means to protect our lives, properties and God-given inheritance.

The government and security agencies must rise to the occasion and redeem their battered image. The need to restore trust in the hearts of citizens under the present circumstances cannot be overstressed. The empty rhetoric of “going after criminals” rather than the more intelligent strategy of going before the criminals is an approach that has proven to only reinforce failure time after time.

Since we are long passed the stone ages, the most effective strategy that will work at this time is for the government and security agencies to beef up intelligence gathering and a put in place more practical and proactive measures that will crush the criminals before they make their move.

We must win this war intelligently, not by thumbnail reactions. My prayers are with you as you work round the clock to keep us safe.

May God continue to heal our land, our country and the world in general. Stay at home. Stay safe. Stay secured.

Signed:

David Shikfu Parradang
OFR, mni, CGI (rtd).

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Nde David Parradang mni Saddened by Abduction of Pankwal Bogghom and Killings in Plateau State