Plateau assembly to residents: Defend yourselves against killers

Plateau house of assembly has asked residents to stand up and defend themselves against killers in the state.

Plateau has recently come under a series of attacks by gunmen, who kill residents and ravage communities.

The assembly gave Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, two weeks to address the security crisis ravaging the state.

Philip Dasun, chairman, house of committee on information, disclosed the resolution of the assembly during a press conference held in Jos on Friday.

According to Dasun, the lawmakers made the resolution during their plenary session.

“On behalf of the Plateau State House of Assembly, I wish to sympathise with the government and people of Plateau State on the barbaric and dastardly killings that have been taking place in different communities of Bassa, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Jos North, Jos South, Mangu, Riyom, University of Jos community and recently that of Yelwa Zangam,” he said.

“The House condemns the killings in totality. These killings are unacceptable and condemnable. We commiserate with the families of all those who lost their loved ones during the attacks.

“We strongly call on Plateau people to practically stand up and defend themselves and their communities, as the conventional security design is no longer guaranteeing our safety as a people.

“We commend the youths on the Plateau for sustained coordinated and organised campaigns against the killings and as well the courage to make it go viral by sending strong messages to the world using the dead bodies from the mayhem on the social media and the streets of Jos; the display of the corpses in the House is a sign that they recognised the authority of the House of Assembly as an institution that can speak for the people. We greatly appreciate that action.

“As an assembly with people at heart, we call on Plateau State citizens to have confidence in us with renewed commitment as we have given two weeks to the governor Simon Lalong to take action on the resolutions the House has forwarded on security matters and how to restore peace.

“We call on the governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, to come up with a statement defending us as a people and to bring back renewed commitment to the cause of Plateau.

“We are still expecting with high hopes, the President to also come up with a statement about the killings in Yelwa Zangam just as he did in the killings of travellers along Rukuba road and to also indicate a sign of justice or we will see him as being reflexive about the conflict in Plateau.”