… says Plateau has reached elastic point of tolerance
From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Three days after the coordinated attack on some communities in Bokkos local government area of Plateau state, the senator representing Plateau Central, Diket Plang, has lamented that corpses of victims are still picked from the bushes.
Plang is representing five local government areas of Bokkos, Kanam, Kànke, Mangu and Pankshin.
Speaking to newsmen in Jos, Plang said Plateau people have reached the elastic point of tolerance and would no longer sit by while its citizens are being killed on a daily basis.
He said the whole issue is about land grabbing,, vowing that Plateau people will not cede an inch of their land to anybody.
He said, “The issue in Bokos and other parts of Plateau Central, particularly Mangu, is becoming unbearable. I think the elastic limit of tolerance has reached the end point.
“You can imagine these killers or terrorists coming day after the other for about two weeks, each time killing here, killing here, until they brought the last straw that broke the camels back to Hurti and Manguna, where over 50 people were killed In their homes.
“And even after that, as of my visit yesterday, they were still picking corpse in the bush. This is unacceptable. This is sad. And I assure you that the elastic limit of tolerance has been reached.
“I must commend the human and godly feeling of the people of Plateau State, because if it were somewhere else, I assure you, the retaliation or the jungle justice would have gone beyond the control of the security.
“While I thank them, I must also commend the limited quantity of security presence around. because the magnitude of what took place was beyond the security that are in place in Bokkos “
“We will join hands with our people to protect our people. We’ve had cases of these attacks, one too many. We are aware that people are trying to send us out of our ancestral land, and it will never work. It will not work.
“You happily accommodate people to stay with you in peace and foreigners are invited to come and chase us out of our ancestral homes to occupy our lands. We are aware of that. That’s why we will leave no stone unturned to stay together we protect our land, no matter what.
“We can’t go into election with our electorates killed. We can’t be legislating when people are no more. And therefore, they must first of all be human beings before election.”
He expressed dismay that the inability of security agencies to apprehend the culprits and bring them to book makes the whole issue frustrating.
“The inability of getting the criminals all the time makes us hopeless, makes us, reduces our trust in the system. And again, unfortunately in Bokkos, most of these villages have no access roads. We only have motorcycles going to these villages. And therefore criminality. would always strive where there’s difficulty for people to get in.
Diket appealed to telecommunication service providers to provide masts so that the people will have easier means it communication whenever they come under attack.
He said that the plan is also to chase people out of their farmlands and create food scarcity.
“If our people will not go to farm, I want to assure you, it will affect not just Nigeria, but even West Africa because our crops, our maize, our, our sweet potatoes, go beyond Nigeria.