Map of Plateau State
By CHRISTIANA LOT, Jos –
The Plateau State Civil Society Organizations Forum (PLACSOF) has called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately withdraw military personnel from communities and streets across Plateau State, saying the continued presence of soldiers has failed to prevent killings and instead worsened insecurity.
Addressing journalists at the NUJ Centre in Jos on Saturday, the chairman of the forum, Rev Chris Emmanuel Damcher, described the spate of attacks in Bokkos and other local government areas as a genocide being carried out by Fulani marauders under the guise of grazing and settlement.
“Enough of the bloodshed and bloodletting in Plateau State,” Rev Damcher declared. He said over 50 people were recently killed in five communities of Bokkos LGA, with properties worth millions of naira destroyed, yet no decisive action has been taken by the government.
According to him, the targeted attacks have persisted for nearly two decades in Bokkos, Mangu, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, and Riyom, and are largely driven by the desire to control the region’s rich agricultural land, mineral deposits, and water resources.
He said the Plateau CSO Forum was disappointed in the Federal and State Governments’ “reactive” approach to security challenges, adding that the response of security agencies often comes only after attacks have occurred.
“The perpetrators who are of the Fulani extraction have never been prosecuted to deter future attacks,” the CSOs noted. “Committees after committees are set up with nothing to show for it. Government still can’t find a solution despite huge investments in security.”
They condemned what they described as a “strategic act of terrorism” by the attackers, and urged the federal government to officially designate them as terrorists. They also encouraged Plateau communities to organize and defend their ancestral lands.
“We call on the Plateau State Government to revisit the report of the Task Force for the return of IDPs to their ancestral lands and enforce the recommendations,” the forum stated, while also demanding the rehabilitation of rural roads for easier access to vulnerable areas.
Rev Damcher said the heavy military presence in Plateau had not helped the situation and called for their immediate withdrawal. “It is needless to have soldiers who claim to be providing security but only show up after every attack has been successfully executed just to help in evacuating dead bodies,” he said.
PLACSOF also rejected recent suggestions in some quarters for a declaration of a state of emergency in Plateau State. “We consider such calls as malicious and baseless, as the entire country suffers the unfortunate challenge of insecurity,” they said.
The forum expressed solidarity with affected communities in Bokkos and prayed for their safe return as the rainy season begins.
