The Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Plateau State Chapter, Comrade Eugene Manji, has said that the conventional police personnel have been overwhelmed by the attacks and killings by armed bandits.

Manji said that as a result, it appeared that the whole country was at war, hence the presence of the soldiers.
The NLC chairman stated this yesterday at a press briefing in their office in Jos, adding that normally soldiers are meant for war situations, adding, however, that it appeared that the whole country was at war.

According to him, “The soldiers are there to complement the efforts of the police. But what is happening now is that the police have been overwhelmed by the present situation. It is a lack of manpower that you see soldiers coming into all these functions that would have ordinarily been handled by the police.

“Ordinarily, we are not supposed to see soldiers outside like that, involving themselves in civil functions meant to be handled by the police. Soldiers are supposed to be in the barracks and not to involve themselves in civil functions.”

However, he called on the government for a complete overhaul of the security architecture in the country.
“How long can we continue to spill the blood of innocent people? Are some people in Nigeria more superhuman than others? The level of organization among the gunmen suggests a visible failure on the part of our security agencies and a complete annihilation and genocide being perpetrated against the Plateau people,” he stressed.

Manji, who was backed by the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the state, Comrade Kenneth Shammah, said that the vigilantes in the country should be permitted to carry protective arms to complement the efforts of other security agencies.