Plateau State, once hailed as the bastion of peace and tourism, now a place of prevalent bloodletting and terror, defying the very essence of its name. Tragically, on Christmas Eve, over one hundred and ninety individuals fell victim to horrific murders in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladin Local Governments of Plateau State. Amid this disturbing development lies the critical questions: What is the government doing to stop the killing spree.
In this episode of the Mic on Podcast, Dachung Bagos, a former lawmaker who represented Plateau State challenges the narrative that the killings stem from farmers and herders clashes.
“The wrong narration that has been going on and which is bothering all of us (in Plateau) is that politicians or the government have been trying to look at this issue as farmers / herders clash, which is not so.” He said.
While he also underscores the long-standing capture of villages and ongoing activities in these areas by shedding light on the complexities underlying the violence, Hon. Bagos emphatically states that these ongoing killings are not religious, ethnic or political in nature, thereby debunking misconceptions and accentuating the need for a deeper understanding of the multifaceted crisis.
“This ongoing (killings in Plateau) is not religious. Absolutely not ethnic and neither is it political. There should be a forensic analysis of these terrorists killing people across the country by security experts, the government and even by journalists.”
On the other hand, Mr. Kabir Adamu, a security expert emphasised the multifaceted nature of the issue, pointing to political and ethnic tensions, as well as the proliferation of arms and light weapons. “I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory. Rather, our government has institutionalised a lack of accountability and we are accepting it and moving on.”
Mr. Adamu further questioned the portrayal of the assailants as jihadists due to their lack of educational or religious knowledge.
“I doubt (if the perpetrators are Jihadists) because they are not learned, they do not have an understanding of Islamic knowledge as it were.”