Forum wants military withdrawn from streets

Chairman of Plateau State Civil Society Organisations Forum, Rev.Chris Emmanuel Damcher, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to withdraw the military from the streets, saying Nigeria is not at war.

Damcher argued that the military should focus on ending the activities of the bandits who are terrorising the citizens. He spoke on Saturday at the NUJ Secretariat in Jos while speaking with journalists.

“it is needless to have soldiers who claim to be providing security but only show up after every attack has been successfully executed just to help in evacuating dead bodies,” he said.

He urged the state government to embark on massive rehabilitation of rural roads to allow for easier access to communities under attack.

The forum chairman added that since the call for state policing is still in the pipeline, the state government should strengthen the local security groups to enable them to defend themselves and break the monopoly of only a particular set of people terrorising innocent citizens.

He disagreed with the call in some quarters for a state of emergency in Plateau State.

“We consider such calls as malicious and baseless as the entire country suffers the unfortunate challenge of insecurity,” he said.

He reasoned that the body language of the federal, state, and local governments is not articulated at tackling the security challenges head-on, as their responses to the incessant attacks are always reactive and never proactive.

“Arrests are being made each time there is an attack and the perpetrators have never been prosecuted to deter their actions,” he said.

“Committees after committees are being set up by the Government with nothing to show for it. It is evidently clear that the security architecture in Nigeria is faulty and calls for a review.”

There was an attack again on Saturday night in Zogu village near Hukke in Miango of Bassa local government in Plateau State, where a father and his two children were killed by armed bandits.

Those killed in the attack are Weyi Gabeh, a father who is 56 years old; Zhu Weyi, a 25-year-old son; and his sibling Henry Weyi, a 16-year-old.

National Publicity Secretary of the Irigwe Development Association (IDA), Sam Jugo, disclosed this in a statement.
According to him, the latest incident increased the death toll to nine in a week.

Jugo said that IDA expressed displeasure at the deteriorating situation in Irigwe land and called on the security agencies to do whatever was required to halt the barbarism on their land and get justice.

“The way criminal elements invade our motherland and kill with impunity seems to suggest a more sinister motive than a mere reprisal of alleged wrongs,” he stated.

He called the Plateau State Government and security to do the needful by stopping the killings of innocent people in Irigwe land.