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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
National Assembly member, representing Central senatorial zone of Plateau State, Senator Diket Plang, has called for the establishment of permanent military formations in flashpoints of crises in the state to curb incessant attacks and killings of innocent citizens by criminal elements.
Plang also asked the Ministry of Humanitarians to provide building materials and other palliatives to enable displaced residents return to their homes.
The senator, who spoke to newsmen in his Jos country home, said that permanent solutions, instead of short term measures must be put in place to ensure that the perennial crises do not occur.
According to him, such military formations should be established at the entry and exit points of these communities to prevent bandits from having easy movement into these communities to carry out their nefarious activities.
He said in various motions of the senate on the crises on Plateau, senators were of the opinion that a united and concerted efforts must be put in place to put a permanent end to the crises, stressing that senators were also of the view the military needed more appropriations to enable them accomplish these tasks.
He said, “If we’re on the same page, there’s nothing we cannot achieve. We resolved that instead of having temporal palliative to issues of security, it is good for us to attain a permanent solution to security. Instead of when it happens, you’ll call the military to come then flush them out only for them to go back, we need permanent military stations at those flash points.
“That is why I said we have two points. We have the point of entry of criminality from Barkin Ladi, Bokkos; we have another point of entering and getting out of criminal act between Mangu Gindiri and Bauchi. If both places we were able to establish permanent security outfits at those places when the criminals come, ability to come in and ability to escape will be a problem, and therefore will reduce criminality”.
Plang, who is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity and also the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character, and Intergovernmental Affairs. said that the reasons white papers of all the panels of inquiry on previous crises in the state were not implemented was because those reports were not given a nationalistic outlook, but rather a primordial interpretation.
“We have to be more nationalistic in our approach to solving national issues.
For instance, the senator said that if a governor from a particular tribe sets up a panel, the implementation of such a report would be interpreted to imply that such a governor is playing an ethnic card, stressing that a nationalistic and holistic approach must be adopted in solving the crises on the Plateau, instead of looking at them from an ethnic view.
“Your observation is very critical. So, Nigerians normally set a commission of inquiry into issues when it comes to implementation it becomes very difficult. I want to think that we have to be more nationalistic in resolving the plateau crisis. I’m saying so because at the end of the day, most of the crisis on the plateau ends up either being a religious coloration or ethnic coloration. And sometimes when a commission is established, you will discover that there are some distrust about the commission.
“I would want Nigerians to look at the plateau as a miniature Nigeria. And therefore, the input of all Nigerians on the issue of plateau will help us to go a very long way. That’s why I spoke at the National Assembly to my colleagues in the north that each one of us will need to say something on the issue of Plateau, if all of us are on the same page and you want to implement a decision made, it may be easier to have that decision implemented.
If you wake up and former Governor Jang Jang sets a committee, number one people see Berom as a Berom committee, when you want to execute that resolution. People have an idea that it is favoring a particular side.
“Nigerians are very hopeful. You could hear the North Central governors talking about coming together on the issue of Plateau, when it happened, and it becomes a Nigerian issue. It makes us have a sense of belonging.”
The senator, while condoling with all the families affected by the crises in Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu and prayed for the repose of the souls of the dead, commended the prompt intervention of the military and the visit of the Vice President Kashim Shetimma, the service chiefs and ministers of defence and humanitarian affairs.
