JOS — A coalition of youth ethnic nationalities on the Plateau has raised alarm over what it describes as “the unbearable burden of relentless terror”, revealing that approximately 50 persons have been killed in communities across Bokkos, Barkin-Ladi, Riyom, Bassa and Jos South local government areas within the space of just three weeks.
The group, which expressed its grievances while addressing journalists on Wednesday at the NUJ Secretariat in Jos, unequivocally stated that the Nigerian security architecture has been compromised, warning that the tragedy in Plateau is no longer an isolated security concern but “a protracted humanitarian catastrophe and a profound moral challenge to our collective conscience.”
Barr. Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, Northern zone coalition chairman of Indigenous Youth Nationalities and national president of the Berom Youth Moulders’ Association (BYM), painted a grim picture of life in the affected communities.
“Our ancestral lands have been violently invaded; our villages reduced to desolation; our farms abandoned; our economic life strangulated; and thousands of our people condemned to lives of displacement, fear and uncertainty,” Mwantiri stated.
“Generations that ought to be building prosperity have, instead, buried loved ones, fled from their ancestral homes and struggled merely to survive elsewhere.”
The youth leader expressed dismay that despite numerous interventions by successive governments and security agencies, the killings have persisted with “frightening regularity”, creating the disturbing impression of an adversary that continuously mutates its methods, adapts its tactics and exploits every available opportunity.
“This is the hydra-headed challenge that has continued to test the resolve of both government and the Nigerian people,” he added.
Mwantiri urged the Plateau State Government to consolidate and build upon the measurable gains already recorded in Barkin-Ladi through closer institutional collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies.
He called for the expansion of the intelligence-led security architecture that has yielded encouraging results in Barkin-Ladi to other vulnerable local government areas, including Riyom, Bokkos, Mangu, Bassa, Jos South, Kanam and Qua’apan, among others.
“We are convinced that a coordinated expansion of such proactive security deployments, driven by intelligence, inter-agency synergy and sustained operational presence, will significantly strengthen the protection of lives and property, restore public confidence, and gradually deny criminal elements the operational space they have exploited for far too long,” Mwantiri said.
In a direct message to security agencies, he assured: “We wish to unequivocally assure the DSS and all other patriotic security agencies that the overwhelming majority of law-abiding citizens who genuinely yearn for peace recognise and appreciate every lawful sacrifice being made to halt the bloodshed and restore normalcy to our communities.”
