Dalung asks Buhari to declare state of emergency in Plateau, Zamfara, Benue

Solomon Dalung, minister of youth and sports development, has asked the federal government to declare state of emergency in states experiencing incessant killings.

Dalung said this is necessitated by the failure of the security agencies to end the attacks and bring the killers to book.

Plateau, Zamfara, Benue and Taraba are among states where many lives have been lost in 2018 alone.

Addressing state house corespondents in Abuja on Friday, Dalung blamed the killings on the “collapse” of local government administration in the country.

He said it has become imperative to for various parties including youth groups to work with the government in addressing the crisis.

“Collapse of local government administration has contributed immensely to the inability of the security personnel to arrest the problem,” the minister said.

“The Plateau crisis can be traced to many years of inaction by previous and current administrations despite the federal government’s efforts to address the problem.

“It is disheartening that Plateau state has been witnessing killings of innocent citizens in the last four to five days and this is very annoying and disturbing to the government and inhabitants of the state.

“It has become imperative for the federal government to declare state of emergency in Plateau and other troubled states across the country so as to put a stop to the killings.”

He added that he has alerted the federal executive council on the need to take “drastic and emergency measures” to tackle the crisis because “the local and state governments have failed in their responsibility of offering useful information to security agents despite the huge resources being spent on security.”

“Security personnel alone cannot achieve much in addressing the problem without the support and cooperation of the state and local governments as well as the local communities,” he said.

“There is the need for collaboration between all the three tiers of government, the local communities and Youth Councils in order to find a lasting solution to the crisis.”

Dalung, who is from Plateau, is having a running battle with Simon Lalong, the governor.