PRESS RELEASE BY CONCERNED MWAGHAVUL POLITICAL ELDERS FORUM

On July, 17th, 2018 Chief S.D. Lot in a Press Conference on behalf of a Coalition of Plateau Patriots, delivered an outrageous attack on the fabric of the unity, longevity, and peaceful co-existence among the ethnic nationalities that make up Plateau State. His attempt at inciting violence and civil war among indigenous ethnic groups on the Plateau is repugnant to sound reasoning and an insult on the graves of our ancestors who labored day and night to bequeath to us the land and territory known today as Plateau State.

As responsible elders of Mwaghavul extraction, we find it apt to dissociate ourselves from our brother Chief S.D. Lot and his curiously dangerous machinations aimed at destroying the precious bonds of brotherhood that bind us together as the people of Plateau State. In doing so however, we wish to hereby commiserate with the people of Barkin-Ladi, Riyom, Jos South, Bassa, and Mangu Local Government Areas over the heinous attacks on innocent villages that resulted in the gruesome massacre of hundreds of our people and the destruction of farmlands and properties of inestimable value. As a people who have also suffered these unprovoked attacks in Mangu Local Government Area, we are hurt beyond measure at the reduction of our proud and productive people to internally displaced persons (IDP) spread across many camps and residents of relatives.

We understand that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties, but what happens when a government abdicates that responsibility? It abandons its citizens at the mercy of the murderous Fulani herdsmen who have been prosecuting a genocidal campaign against Plateau State and the Middle-belt region. Therefore, we condemn in the strongest terms the unabated killings in Plateau State and the lackadaisical approach of the Federal Government, Plateau State Government, and Operation Safe Haven in dealing with the terrorists behind such heinous crimes against humanity.

We also understand that anarchy becomes the order of the day wherever injustice reigns. While we condemn the attacks on innocent travelers on highways that followed the killings, we also realise that government at all levels created that chaotic atmosphere by acts of commission and omission when it failed to take charge and prevent the killings in the villages which triggered reprisal attacks on highways, by civilians who took matters into their own hands because of the failure of government, as has been the case in Nigeria’s recent history when innocent people were massacred because certain people felt that their religion was insulted abroad or a beauty pageant was to be hosted in the country.

Instead of assessing the situation dispassionately with a view to pointing government in the right direction of sensitivity and value for human life, our brother Chief S.D. Lot chose the inglorious route of mischief and sycophancy. This we saw when he was quick to speak out only after the convoy of Governor Simon Lalong was pelted with stones on the highway after visiting an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Anguldi Jos South Local Government Area on Saturday July 14th, 2018, three (3) weeks after inhabitants lost their families, homes, farmlands, and their means of livelihood to terrorists on an expansionist quest for land, water, and mineral resources. His widely condemned Press Release failed to absolve the Governor of insensitivity to the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons in Plateau State, and their overall welfare and wellbeing. For that small mindedness, we wish to advise Chief S.D. Lot as brothers all of Mwaghavul extraction, to concentrate on securing his appointment as the Board Chairman of College of Education Gindiri by Governor Simon Lalong, as such catastrophic media engagements can no longer guarantee him more favours or political firewalls, protection, or shields.

Importantly, we have noticed the absenteeism of Chief S.D. Lot in the affairs of our people in Mangu Local Government Area. As someone who claims to be an elder and a patriot, he should have been seen participating in cultural activities of his tribe as that is the only way he can validate and own the title he ascribes to himself. But as far as we can remember, he is not a visible figure in Mwaghavul land, and therefore cannot in whatever guise presume to speak for Mwaghavul people or the people of Plateau State for that matter.

As Franz Fanon spoke of every generation of mankind finding its mission for fulfillment or otherwise, we are faced with the reality that such generations also have their sellouts. For us on the Plateau, we are grateful that they are revealing themselves without any effort on our part to expose them. As Secretary to the Government of Plateau State in the nineties, Chief S.D. Lot was among those who sold assets belonging to the State thereby dispossessing us of certain legacy establishments. Barc Farms was sold and Jos International Breweries (JIB) is dead because of the actions of people like him against the corporate interest of our State and people.

To put the records straight, the protest at Government House Little Rayfield Jos, was a protest of Plateau people, not a Berom affair. The stoning of Governor Simon Lalong’s convoy at Anguldi took place at a cosmopolitan part of town, therefore it is difficult for people of conscience to put it squarely on the Berom nation as Chief S.D. Lot and associates would like everyone to believe. Berom people are our brothers just like any other tribe on the Plateau, and an attack on them should be an attack on all of us. That is how our forefathers were able to survive their enemies to make us who we are today, and that is something the S.D. Lots of this world would never comprehend.

By alleging that the Government House protest organized by Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Northern Zone, was an attack on the seat of power, and a reaction to the failure to foist an ethnic agenda in Plateau State during the 2015 general elections, thus indirectly linking the former Governor of Plateau State Senator Jonah David Jang to his outburst, S.D. Lot by all means revealed the deep hatred he harbors against the Senator. He was the State party Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party at some point while Senator Jang was Governor, but was replaced eventually for reasons we would not want to go into for now, but it appears Chief Lot hasn’t forgotten that incident. Using the unfortunate security situation we have before us to blackmail the former Governor only exposes him as a man completely consumed by a vicious kind of unforgiving spirit, and to indict the entire Berom nation because of it seals his place in a dungeon far removed from redemption. We note quite joyously, that there is no satisfaction for him after all he attempted to achieve with his Press Release because he has been rejected by genuine patriots and majority of our people who have not sold their consciences for a plate of porridge.

For someone who leads a faceless organization being the only signatory to what is now a misadventure, it is pure waste of time trying to identify the so called patriots who are with Chief S.D. Lot on that futile attempt at sycophancy. This is because of the unpopular perspective he holds and the strange solutions he presented, which was against the unifying spirit of the average Plateau man. We wonder when his other companions would reveal themselves if at all they exist.

Our forefathers who were largely uneducated had systems that dealt with hoodlums and criminality. Our generation of bright men and women must also find and deal with its hoodlums and criminals. The rise of terror in Nigeria by Fulani herdsmen have been blamed on Gadhafi, unknown gunmen, hoodlums, and politicians. Blaming the Plateau situation on politicians of Berom origin without any real proof or evidence and inciting other ethnic nationalities in Plateau State against the Berom nation for the criminal activities of unknown hoodlums without proper investigations, arrests, and conviction, is unfortunate, and it only worsens the problem.

It is our desire in conclusion, that the people of Plateau State would remain united irrespective of tribe, religion, or political affiliations. This is because the only weapon we have against those who want to wipe us out from the face of the earth is our unity. When we are truly united, we will be formidable on all fronts, all for one and one for all. We can only get there when we denounce the S.D. Lots among us as agents of division and enemies of our progress and survival as a people targeted for extermination.

MIKE DACHOM
Secretary

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