By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Thousands of people displaced in the recent attacks and sacking of several hamlets in Jebbu Miango, Irigwe Chiefdom of Bassa local government area of Plateau State have appealed for help to enable them feed, clothe and shelter especially as the rains are falling.

Women and girls need sanitary wares while medical interventions are also needed to prevent outbreak of diseases.

The sanitary conditions of the people camped in available spaces in the Miango and Kwall districts of the Chiefdom require immediate intervention.

When Vanguard visited the communities at the weekend, the entire Jebbu Miango and other adjourning communities were ghosts of themselves as there were no human nor domestic animals around except the few security agents.

Few youths were also seen rummaging through their burnt property, picking some valuables like cooking pots, mattresses and other things they could salvage.

However, Gideon and Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation which visited to give them some relief materials,also urged “all people of goodwill,” to render assistance to the displaced persons.

Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam who led other officials of the Foundation to visit the people lamented the situation, saying, “What happened in Irigwe land moved our hearts. Although we do peace work in this local government area, sometimes it is difficult to bring people to talk and then when it is an hour of need and you cannot provide the kind of help that people want.

“We reflected through that and said we should bring some support. There are many people that are displaced from their homes, they have no place to sleep, no food to eat, we thought we should find support to make them have food to eat while we try to work with all the necessary security agencies to bring the situation under normalcy.

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We brought rice, beans, maize, people gave through our Foundation, all the money didn’t come from our coffers. We call on other well-meaning Nigerians, we don’t need to wait for people outside to come and help us. We need to also give.

“When we give support, we give to all sides, I want to call on even Muslims to give so that we can support all of these people who have been rendered homeless. Our good act of mercy should not be defined by religion, I give this challenge to all Christians and Muslims to help.

“As of Thursday evening, we have 29,804 Irigwes that have been rendered homeless. That is almost 30,000, there are about 55 people injured and 70 people that have been killed.”

Para-Mallam who noted “Government could have done more to stop this violence” however appealed to the people to forgive those who have hurt them and give no thought for revenge, stressing, “peace building does not support injustice but I plead with you not to take laws into your hands, don’t go for revenge. God is not a fool.”

The Brra Nggwe Rigwe, (Paramount Chief of Irigwe) Rev. Ronku Aka rtd lamented his people are being “hunted everywhere like rats” but assured there will be no reprisal because, “we have no power to fight anyone but we believe God will avenge us and we will rise again as a people.”

Meanwhile, Bassa local government Chairman, Chindo Girga who also visited the people said, “as a local government, this affects us, we are doing our best to help the displaced persons with food items. We did all we could to stop this attack but we could not, this happened at the time we did not expect.”