Why terrorists are shifting base to Plateau — HURIWA

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked the people of Plateau State to hold their Governor, Mr. Simon Lanlong, responsible for the unprecedented situations of insecurity in their state because his administration failed to work with the State House of Assembly under the past leadership to stamp out the earliest manifestations of armed Fulani insurgency targeting Christians.

HURIWA spoke against the backdrops of ceaseless violent attacks by suspected armed Fulani terrorists, including the mass killings of Irigwe Christians and the high profile kidnappings of influential traditional rulers of the state extraction also by suspected armed Fulani militia.

The group faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for reportedly endorsing what he calls “peace treaty between aggressors from the Fulani ethnicity and Christians of Plateau State.

According to HURIWA, the “said appeasement of mass killers is the reason for the widespread State of insecurity in Nigeria attributed largely to the terrorist activities of suspected armed Fulani militia. You do not negotiate with mass killers but you bring them to justice or take justice to them.”

The group also attributed the heightened state of insecurity to the possible shift of base by Fulani terrorists hitherto based on the fridges of Plateau State in Kaduna who may have been motivated and encouraged to stage daring raids on Plateau Christian communities by the lethargic approach adopted by Governor Lalong who prefers negotiations and dialogues with the perceived aggressors than implement the security template served on him by the House of Assembly led by the Speaker that he, the Governor, instigated his illegal impeachment by just 8 out of the 24 House of Assembly members.

HURIWA recalled that the illegally impeached leadership of the Plateau State House of Assembly had prior to the illegal impeachment purportedly ‘funded’ by the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, that hierarchy of the state’s legislative House gave the Governor a two-week ultimatum on August 26th, 2021 to address the security challenges bedeviling the state.

The rights group recalled that Mr Philip Dasun, Chairman, House

Committee on Information, conveyed the position of the legislators when he briefed newsmen in Jos.

HURIWA said the government of Plateau State must put up workable security architecture to frustrate the attempts by Fulani terrorists to move their operational base from Kaduna forests to neighbouring Plateau State.

HURIWA recalled that armed men in the early hours of Sunday, abducted a traditional ruler at Gindiri, Mangu local government area of Plateau State.