AS a way to stem the spate of killings in Plateau State, President Goodluck Jonathan has directed the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, to move into the state and take full charge of the security situation.
He has charged the Defence chief to use all means necessary to put an immediate end to the rising cases of killings in parts of the state, while also directing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, to bring forward for review all pending reports of committees on the Plateau crisis.
The decisions followed a meeting of the National Security Council presided over by the president at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.
A presidency statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, in Abuja, said the directive was in line with the determination of the president to ensure the full security of life and property in the country.
According to the statement, “in keeping with his avowed resolve to ensure the full security of life and property across the country, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, on Monday, in Abuja, directed the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin, to take full charge of the security situation in Plateau State immediately and take all necessary actions to stop the recent spate of killings in the state.
“Following a meeting of the National Security Council, President Jonathan also directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, to bring up all pending reports by recent committees set up by the Federal Government on Plateau [State] for immediate review and implementation.”
The statement also confirmed that Jonathan would be meeting with Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, today (Tuesday) over the worsening security situation in the state.
It also said that the president had further directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to take prompt action to address the plight of internally displaced persons in the state.
Jonathan renewed his call on parties involved in the crises in Plateau State to embrace tolerance, dialogue and compromise to ensure the success of ongoing efforts to achieve a lasting resolution of their differences.
Meanwhile, following the recent attacks on some villagers by a sect in Jos Plateau State, in which several people died, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on President Jonathan to allow every Nigerian to carry arms for self-protection.
The national president of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, made the call through a statement, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune on Monday.
He said “we urge the president, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to stop the orgy of ethnic cleansing or accede to recent calls for all Nigerians to carry arms.”
Stating that the killing of innocent villagers could not assuage electoral disadvantages, Oritsejafor added that if the president could no longer guarantee the safety of life and property of Nigerians, in accordance with the oath he took, then the National Assembly should immediately enact a law that would make every Nigerian to carry arms for their own protection.
“As a nation, we cannot continue like this. There has to be a genuine demonstration of commitment to the collective development of the country, through honesty of purpose. The current orgy of violent ethnic crises has continued unabated for several days, just a few days after the president had identified the people behind the growing spate of terrorism in the country,” the statement said.
Worried by the new dimension the crises had assumed in recent times, which had led to the killing of over 52 persons, including pregnant women and children within 10 days, the CAN president called on President Jonathan to reassure Nigerians that he had the capacity to guarantee their safety in any part of the nation, by urgently halting what he called the madness taking place in parts of Plateau State.
Reacting to reports of Sunday evening explosions in Jos and the continued serial killings in parts of Plateau State allegedly by Fulani herdsmen, Oritsajefor wondered what nation on earth would accommodate as much as eight violent attacks in neighbourhood villages near Jos without taking decisive measures to stop what he described as “madness in Plateau State for the past one month.”
He said “scores of Nigerians have been dispatched to their untimely grave by a bunch of rascals and it appears the Federal Government has no answer to the growing menace of terrorism in the country, even after President Jonathan told the entire world that his government has identified the sponsors of the mindless merchants of death.”
He urged the Jonathan-led administration to implement all the white papers of past panels of enquiry in the crises in Plateau State, adding that “Nigerians desire peace in every part of the country, but peace can only be built on justice. Until we see the need to tell ourselves some truth, it will be difficult for the nation to actualise the dream of becoming one of the 20 most developed economies in the world in 2020.”
Oritsejafor said gradually, the country was deliberately moving towards the fulfilment of a recent American prophecy that the country, as it was currently constituted, might cease to exist after 2015.