Plateau state governor
has warned residents of Jos to remain indoors as it has given
an order to security personnel to shoot at sight any
individual or group seen on the streets.
This is in addition to
24-hour curfew imposed in four troubled spots within the
metropolis following the assessment of security situation by
Governor Jonah Jang yesterday morning.
This happened just as
the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state
alleged the arrest of over 1,000 mercenaries from Bauchi in
Jos, while the government said another 500 people with
assorted weapons are now in police custody.
Trouble started on
Friday following the outcome of last Thursday’s local
government election which the opposition alleged was being
rigged in Jos North local government area in favour of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
No fewer than 50 people
have been feared dead while property worth billions of naira
destroyed so far.
Tension continued to
mount in virtually all parts of the metropolis confirming
further fear of rising death toll as a result of
ineffectiveness of the 12 hour curfew earlier imposed.
The property so far lost
is estimated at billions of Naira even as the government and
security agencies could not readily quantify the losses both
in lives and property.
It was observed in parts
of the metropolis that youths took over the security checks
around their vicinities in the absence of police and military
patrols due to shortage of manpower as confirmed by Bala
Kassim, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO).
Gunshots and heavy smoke
were observed from some distances in parts of the metropolis
while several vehicles displayed for sale along Gada Biu were
set ablaze by the rampaging warlords.
As at the time of this
report, the governor has assured the people that "Government
is on top of the situation".
Series of security
meetings were ongoing while Mr. James Mannok, director of
press affairs, said areas like Nassarawa, Congo Russia, Unijos,
Bauchi road and Rikkos are to observe the 24 hour curfew.
The chairman of CAN in
the state, Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, who alleged at a press
conference that 1,000 mercenaries from Bauchi were arrested in
Jos, insisted that the crisis was religious not political.
Meanwhile, the Action
Congress (AC) and presidential candidate of African Democratic
Congress (ADC) in the April 14, 2007 elections, Prof. Pat
Utomi, have in separate statements, condemned the Plateau
mayhem, calling for the cancellation of the council poll.
In a statement issued in
Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, AC also condemned the government’s gross
insensitivity in going ahead to release the results of the
elections, especially that of the Jos North that precipitated
the crisis, even as the smoke was yet to clear from the ruins
of the violence.
"This action of the
state government is incredibly provocative, and we condemn it
in unequivocal terms. It shows that the action that triggered
the violence was pre-meditated by the state government.
"The strategy of the PDP
in precipitating the violence is simple: Let us rig the
elections, the people will protest, we will mowed them down
and arrest as many as we like through the help of the security
forces and the results of the rigged elections will still
stand,’’ it said.
AC also slammed the
hypocrisy of those who are now very quick to condemn the
violence, which could have been avoided if the same people had
been courageous enough to join us in warning against actions
that could cause the kind of violence that rocked Jos on
Friday.
"After the PDP-run state
government realised that the AC was winning the first council
elections held in March, it quickly cancelled the poll. We
warned than that such action was capable of causing a breach
of the peace, but no one listened.
"All those who are now
shedding crocodile tears and acting as chief mourners
conveniently kept quiet then, because it was not politically
expedient for them to speak out against the injustice,
inequity and intolerance perpetrated by the state government.
Little did they realise that when the chips are down, it might
not even be the AC and its supporters that would be at the
receiving end of the PDP-instigated violence - for that is
what rigging amounts to,’’ the party said.
It also criticised the
Yar’Adua administration for lacking the foresight to forestall
the unfortunate violence that claimed the lives of innocent
people, including students.
"We have read that
President Yar’Adua is sad about the violence. We feel he
should rather be sad at his inability to act pro-actively to
prevent the crisis. After all, he has the benefit of security
reports from the security agencies. Didn’t they warn him of
the fire the PDP was playing with by going ahead to rig the
council polls in the state? Didn’t they tell him that state
governor Jonah Jang did not even allow the opposition to
campaign in Shendam local government among others?’’ the party
queried.
AC said the deployment
of troops and the imposition of curfew were mere palliatives
that can only stop the violence for a moment, saying the
lasting solution is for the government to cancel the elections
and organise a fresh one under an atmosphere that will foster
a free and fair elections.
In his reaction, Utomi
said:"It is with great shock that I have learnt of yet another
tragic turn into violent in response to perception of what may
or not may be appropriate outcomes from political matters with
this new wave of arson and murder in Plateau State."
"Whatever at all may be
the reasons, the taking of human lives is unacceptable and
condemnable just as is the deliberate destruction of
property."
"As we have said again
and again, our nation cannot make progress until the dignity
of the human person and the inestimable value of every soul is
placed above any material consideration or power
consideration."
"Part of the crisis of
development of our country is this failure of culture in which
the dignity of man is inalienable and uncontestable."
"I am calling on all
authorities at all levels to visit with a maximum show of
disagreement for such conduct, all who may be implicated in
any shape or form in plotting and executing the loss of the
lives of Nigerians."
"If routinely, we make
nothing of the value of human life over petty ethnic and
political squabbles in the desire for power which we use for
personal aggrandizement, we cannot stay consistent with the
vision of a country that will deploy every resource available
to it to protect a Nigerian life wherever on the planet.
"In the same vein, we
can not in good conscience talk about the poverty devastating
our land and how to alleviate it, when for any small issue at
every whim we destroy what took so much to build. It means
people always have to begin again and again; we would never be
able to escape poverty in that vicious cycle."
"I urge the security
agencies and political leadership of the country to be
particularly sensitive to intelligence reports and
speculations through the year, especially captured in Robert
Kaplan’s treatise and book; The Coming Anarchy, which actually
saw Jos as a flashpoint of the descent, of even the global
arena, into anarchy."
"I encourage all
authorities concerned to pay particular attention to creating
institutional mechanisms to ensuring that conflict resolution
is built into the political fiber of Plateau State," he added.
and in addition,
agencies like INEC should show greater maturity and
practicality when operating places like Plateau State."
